Gone blank on G
MTA pulls camera demo off train over China ties
The MTA on Thursday abruptly halted a program to test new security cameras on subway cars — a day after the Daily News raised questions about the ties the company providing the technology has to a Chinese firm that specializes in facial recognition technology.
Transit managers last week sent a memo to subway crews alerting them of new video cameras installed on a four-car G line train. The new tech is part of a years-long effort by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to improve security and put more eyes underground.
The test program installed four cameras in each of the cars, as well a system that operated the train’s digital signage and intercoms, the memo states.
The cameras began monitoring passengers on the G line train last Thursday — and MTA officials planned to keep them there for a year to see how they worked.
But the vendor contracted to provide the system’s technology — Suzhou Huaqi Intelligent Technology — raised major security flags that prompted officials to suddenly pull the camera-filled train from service on Thursday.
The company in the first quarter of 2019 was acquired by Bii Railway Transportation Technology, a Chinese company that has ties to the country’s government and listed facial recognition technology among its specialties in its 2019 annual report.
MTA officials said they signed a deal with Suzhou Huaqi to test the cameras in January 2019, before the company’s acquisition was finalized. The agreement to test the technology for a year came at no cost to the agency and did not require approval from its board, officials said.
MTA spokesman Ken Lovett said transit honchos were not aware of the test cameras until The News began asking questions about Bii Railway on Wednesday.
“This short-term test and evaluation was designed to determine whether the equipment would meet New York City Transit requirements to qualify as a potential approved system for future subway car procurements,” said Lovett.
“Once leadership became aware of the test program, and questions were raised about control of this particular company, we ended the evaluation.”
It’s unclear whether the cameras ran on software that employed facial recognition technology. MTA chairman Patrick Foye said “no facial recognition” was used in any subway security cameras during a news conference Wednesday.
A federal government source could not immediately tell The News whether Suzhou Huaqi or Bii Railway were subject to active inquiries by national security authorities.
But the source noted “the MTA’s plans to potentially move forward with this pilot initiative stand a very good chance of sounding alarm bells with the National Security Agency.”
MTA officials have over the last two years expanded the number of security cameras installed in subway stations and platforms — and plan to have nearly the whole system monitored by the end of the year.
The agency has no timeline to put cameras on every subway train — but transit officials said they’ve required all future subway cars the agency purchases to come equipped with CCTV.
The cameras in stations and platforms do not run on the same technology as the ones yanked from the G train, officials said.
It’s not the first time in recent years the MTA has run afoul with the feds over its relationships with Chinese companies.
Congress and former President Donald Trump in 2019 passed a measure in a defense spending bill that prohibits transit agencies from receiving federal subsidies for rail car purchases from China Railway Rolling Stock Corp., a company owned by the Chinese government.
The company was a winner of the MTA’s “Genius Transit Challenge” contest launched by Gov. Cuomo in 2017, and was awarded $330,000 for a proposal to design a lightweight, wifi-equipped subway car for the New York, and promised to invest $50 million of its own money in the project.
The ban on Chinese rail car purchases does not go into effect until 2022 — and the Chicago Transit Authority this week began testing a new series of subway cars purchased from the company.