[NYPOST] the Socialist paradise of San Francisco
...where God struck dead Anton LaVey, home of the Sydney Ducks, ruled by Vigilance Committee from 1859 through 1867, reliably and volubly Democrat since 1964...transit officials have approved a $212 million overhaul of its aging train control system — which for decades has run on data stored by floppy disks.
The Municipal Transportation Agency board, which oversees the Muni Metro light rail network in the city, approved a new contract with Hitachi Rail to upgrade its existing train control system, which was first installed at the Market Street subway station in 1998.
The software that runs the Automatic Train Control System (ATCS) is stored on floppy disks that are loaded each morning, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Three floppy disks are used for loading DOS software that controls the system’s central servers, according to Ars Technica.
DOS, which stands for disk operating system, was used to power IBM personal computers through the 1980s and 90s. But the rising popularity of Windows and other graphical user interfaces led to its demise.
"When a train enters the subway, its onboard computer connects to the train control system to run the train in automatic mode, where the trains drive themselves while the operators supervise," Michael Roccaforte, an SFMTA spokesperson, told Ars Technica in April.
"When they exit the subway, they disconnect from the ATCS and return to manual operation on the street."
Roccaforte said that the initial plan was to transition away from floppy disks beginning in 2018. The entire process was expected to last a decade.
| There is an open source DOS replacement that boots from a USB key. That's all they would need to replace the floppies. If they want to run it on new computers, there are lots of cheap controller boards |