Goodbye, floppies - San Francisco pays Hitachi $212 million to remove 5.25-inch disks from its light rail service
San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) was the first agency in the US to adopt the floppy-based automatic train control system in 1998.
The San Francisco Muni Metro's Automatic Train Control System (ATCS), one of the few remaining major systems still using floppy disks, is dropping the archaic technology as part of a massive upgrade. The SF transportation agency's board has agreed to a $212 million deal with Hitachi Rail to overhaul the service and remove the 5.25-inch floppy disks it's been using since 1998.
San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) was the first agency in the US to adopt the floppy-based automatic train control system in 1998. It was supposed to be in place for 20 to 25 years. It entered its 26th year of service in 2024.
In April, SFMTA director Jeffrey Tumlin said the increasing risk of the disks suffering data degradation meant that at some point there will be "a catastrophic failure."
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