Executive Summary
The Metro-North commuter
railroad, a public agency controlling all train traffic for New York City,
needed a system to allow their train controllers to track the position and
on-time status of every train moving on their system. Using Microsoft SQL
Server and Borland Delphi, Micro Database Specialists was able to provide a
system that runs 24/7/365. Metro-North can now get information at a glance
showing the status of all trains on their system, allowing them to give optimum
service to over 230,000 daily commuters.
The Challenge
New
York City was anticipating the grand reopening of Grand Central Station after a
four year restoration project. Behind the scenes, the Metro-North commuter
railroad wanted to have their new train tracking and control system up in time
to join the celebration. The train control system project had recently
been turned over to Railware,
Inc., but the tracking part was lagging. The previous contractor was
not able to complete the tracking system, and Metro-North needed to work with a
firm who could deliver what they promised, and what Metro-North required.
Our Solution
Micro Database Specialists, Inc. began working with
Metro-North by reviewing the project requirements, cataloging the available
computing resources, and meeting with Metro-North people at all levels of the
organization to ensure that everyone's most vital priorities were met.
After the previous contractor's failure, it was important that everyone involved
had input into what the system had to do to be successful.
After gathering
requirements, our team swung into action. Since Metro-North liked the
previous
system's user interface, it was kept in the new design. Everything else was
built from scratch, to ensure that the system met Metro-North's demanding
standards for availability. The system, now named 'TrainSheet' was built
at our offices in California, and we made monthly trips to New York City to
review progress, demonstrate the program, and review priorities for the
project's next phase.
As we progressed, Metro-North was pleased with our work,
and expanded the project to have TrainSheet control access to the train control
system, allowing users to take train control from other users directly from
different workstations. Micro Database Specialists coordinated this
feature with Railware, Inc. to provide a seamless solution that met
Metro-North's standards. The new feature allowed train controllers to take
a seat at any PC they wanted to, and control any district they desired. A
small point, but one that made the users very happy.
As the deadline
approached, rigorous testing was done both by MDSI, and Metro-North. The
system met and exceeded expectations, so, more functionality was added.
More reporting options, and more ways for controllers to view train movement and
communicate important issues at shift change were added. Again, more
testing was done to ensure that Metro-North's demanding standards of
reliability, timeliness, and accuracy were met.
Results
The TrainSheet project was completed on
time, allowing Metro-North to fully join in the Grand
Central Station celebrations. Thanks to Trainsheet, Metro-North can
now generate reports on train movement, and on-time status, allowing them to
make short and long-term adjustments to resource allocations to best serve New
York City. The train control staff have uninterrupted control of train
movement, handing control from one person to another, accompanied with all the
information that the person taking control needs to be sure they know everything
they need to to do their job. The original failed TrainSheet project was
in development for over 2 years, but the Micro Database Specialists team
completed the job in 9 months.
About The Metro-North Commuter Railroad
The Metro-North Commuter Railroad services
the people of New York City and New Jersey, a total population of over 16
million. They are the number one urban area service provider for
trains. Their trains make over 62 million trips a year, covering over 1.8
billion passenger miles. More information is available at http://www.mta.nyc.ny.us/mnr/
