September 12, 2007
Shakedown 1979
Ah, 1979…"I Will Survive" topped the charts and Bette Midler gave us "the Rose" (love, it is a river, you know). ESPN came into existence, the kids were into "Captain Caveman," and Muni got a new command center. Some things may have changed and gone away, but some things stay the same. Like Muni’s command center-- it hasn't been updated since those carefree days of Studio 54 and New Wave.
To fix the problem, Muni's honchos are putting hat in hand and asking $120 million to update the thing. Estimates say it'll cost upwards of between $100 million and $300 million to do the job but $120 million was their first and best guesstimate.
Officials say the outdated system can partially explain all those Muni meltdowns we all know so well. Among other things, it takes too long to track data, communications between driver and the command center are unreliable (we wonder if that means they use CB radio and they have to say things like "10-4 Good buddy" while relaying information), and information inside mission control has to be passed around by hand. To make matters worse, the command bunker hasn't really been remodeled so it's cramped and falling apart. Also-- shag carpeting.
Muni has made a presentation to the San Francisco County Transportation Authority and will present then will talk to Muni's board of directors next week.
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Aha! Here's the first candidate for targeting of funding from my new Carbon Offsets company!
Brilliant!
The weirdest part of the article is how they say that they don't have the technology to communicate with bus drivers. Hey, why don't they just call the drivers on their cellphones? Or maybe they tried, but got busy signals.
Isn't talking on the phone while driving going to become illegal in CA in 2008? Oh shit...I guess it doesn't apply to muni drivers
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/d11/vc23123.htm
"(f) This section does not apply to a person driving a schoolbus or transit vehicle that is subject to Section 23125."
$120 Million? Are they f*&king kidding me!?
Let's think about those numbers. Let's say they replace every single computer with a brand spanking new fairly nice $1500 computer, and a super nice flat screen $500 monitor. Then they spend $1000 on a brand new desk. Then another $1000 on setup and administration for the new desk and computer. That's $4000. Give them a MEASLY $1 million and you can buy 250 of these new computer/monitor/desk/admin combos.
Okay, so now we're at 1 million spent. Where is the other $119 Million being asked for going to go?
Oh, they have to update the software to run on the new systems! Okay, cool. Let's hire a team of 10 software engineers, and a manager and we'll pay them each about $90,000 per year to write up to date software. Well, that's another Million dollars a year.
Okay, so now we've spent $2 million dollars. Hmmm... that leaves $118 Million!
WTF could Muni POSSIBLY spend $118 Million dollars on?
Okay okay, let's say the building needs a new HVAC, let's say that's going to be an INSANE $2 million dollars to purchase and install. Alright... $116 Million to go...
Give me a fucking break. Even if Muni employed those Software Engineers for the next 20 years writing whatever the company wanted, and upgraded computers every 3-4 years you'd still have $90 million to spend 20 years from now.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1215/is_5_206/ai_n13794507
If the decisions and the spending on real needs hadn't been deferred, we would not be in this mess. If we didn't spend money on needless nonsense and overpaid bureaucrats, and instead on hiring people who want to go to work every day and on real things that matter, then yeah, we wouldn't be using computers and tech from the freakin' 80s.
Oh well. Some overpaid politcal hacks needed jobs and some unions needed to boost membership, I guess. Meanwhile I'll just wait for the N to one day make the trip to Ocean Beach without stopping at 19th..
http://www.njudahchronicles.com/2007/09/the_computer_museum_known_as_t.html
Okay... but still. Why on earth does MUNI think it needs $120 million to upgrade a few computers?
guest: probably because it has to integrate with the useless, perpetually broken Alcatel Train Control System.
Like jwb said, the problem is with ATCS. Any contractor who wants to modernize this system is sitting on yet another potential city pork feeding frenzy. ATCS still runs on OS/2, which is probably fine, except IBM no longer supports OS/2. I guess we'll have to port the software now to run with 'modern' Windows-based computers and integrate it with a support database, call logger, Translink, etc?
Muni also wants a new and modern building, this adds even more to the cost. Also consider that they need more than just computers, but radios, huge wall displays, and custom software that is best built off site. $120m is a big figure, but considering all the rules, regulations, and delays in a project of this scope, that is probably a low-ball figure.
Does this mean that one publicly-visible video screen in Embarcadero station showing the location of underground trains will no longer look like PONG? Because that's a little nostalgia trip for me...
$120M is a lot. But central control desperately needs to be replaced. I wonder if they couldn't just put it in some offices in 1 South Van Ness or a while - arrange the cubes just so, put in some new computers, and add a proper radio system (or just give every operator Nextel) so they can actualy communicate with everyone.
Guys, the a-holes who run Muni need to pad everything by at least 4 times so that their contractor friends can get super rich on the contracts, and maybe kick some of that back down the pipeline to those who authorize the contract in the first place.
Yeah, you know, in most places in the world a building that is 20 years old is still considered new. It's too bad Muni has to put up with a building that isn't shiney anymore. It's almost as bad for Muni as it is for us transit riders that have to put up with their sh!tty service, their poorly maintained trains, and their rude employees.