Static over new subway signal plans

MTA officials are taking their sweet time implementing a major aspect of Gov. Cuomo’s plan to shake up the agency.

An overlooked piece of legislation tucked into the state budget that passed in April requires the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to form a “major construction review unit” tasked with exploring a controversial form of subway signal technology.

In a July press release, the agency said the members of the group would be announced by Aug. 15. More than three months later, transit officials have failed to provide the public with an update.

The unit will give advice on the MTA’s biggest construction projects, and “shall also review any plans involving signal system upgrades, including, but not limited to the use of communications-based train control and ultrawideband technology for use within New York City,” the law states.

Cuomo has for months questioned the MTA’s decision to use communications-based train control, or CBTC, as the preferred technology to upgrade the subway’s outdated train signaling system, which transit brass have used as a scapegoat for poor service.

In April, the governor told a room of Manhattan bigwigs at an Association for a Better New York lunch that MTA vendors were installing CBTC technology that was “designed in the ’80s.”

He said ultrawideband, another form of signaling technology that is not certified for safe use by federal regulators, was a better option.

Since then, NYC Transit President Andy Byford has repeatedly stated that ultrawideband systems are “complimentary to CBTC.” His team has moved to test the controversial technology on the L line.

Despite Byford’s assertions, Cuomo has said he is still not sold on the current plan to upgrade subway signals.

“I believe there may very well be a better way to do signals,” the governor said at a news conference in September. “I don’t know if it’s ultrawideband. I don’t know if it’s Google automobile tech.”

The new construction review unit will help settle the score.