Subway information network is overbudget, almost done and already obsolete

[The Straight Story]

Subway information network is overbudget, almost done and already obsolete

The MTA hasn't finished a new subway communications network - and it's already out of date.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority started the $370 million fiberoptic, information-carrying network in 2000 and expects to finish it this year.

But technological advances and hundreds of budget-busting, time-consuming changes have pushed the project $76 million overbudget.

"Due to technology evolution and other factors, many components in this network are at or nearing their end of life," an MTA document from October says.

In the document, a request for information, the agency asked technology companies for advice on designing a "next-generation" communications network and fixing shortcomings with the existing one, which is up and running in much of the subway system.

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/03/02/2011-03-02_subway_information_network_is_overbudget_almost_done_and_already_obsolete.html