MegaCities - New York

It’s true. New York never sleeps. From its 24/7 subway system to its world-class financial and health institutions, downtime is simply not part of the program. Siemens is helping it stay that way.

Some cities, principally those in Europe, grow at a graceful pace, their skylines barely acknowledging the passing of centuries. Others, such as those of the Far East, shoot upwards and outwards at a breathtaking pace. New York City is somewhere in between. With its five boroughs and regional population of 16.6 million people, America’s biggest city represents as much as a tenth of the entire U.S. economy. But even though the city looks and feels like urban culture on steroids, its population has not increased in 50 years. Determined to reverse that trend, while helping the city to run smarter and provide more quality of life, Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding Daniel L. Doctoroff and the Bloomberg Administration have linked with the business community to develop a vision—partly based on the will to win the city’s bid for the 2012 Olympic Games, partly far-sighted economics—of a city invigorated by 21st Century infrastructures.

Among the companies that are helping the city of New York fulfill that vision, few are contributing more than Siemens. Siemens serves all of the top ten New York area hospitals, provides infrastructures for such landmarks as the New York and American Stock Exchanges, and the New York Board of Trade, provides key technologies for the city’s top media, retail, construction, utility, bank-ing, insurance, investment, and communications companies, and is working closely with city and regional authorities on a spectrum of projects ranging from futuristic security options such as smart cameras for bridges, tunnels, trains and airports, to a highly automated public address and customer information system for the entire New York City subway system.

Taking the City’s Pulse. Siemens has made a particularly strong contribution to the city’s health sector. According to Patrick White, Zone Vice President for the Northeast for Siemens Medical Solutions, fully 85 % of patient revenues in the entire metropolitan area—one of the largest single medical markets in the world—are processed by Siemens systems. Siemens data management systems in some of the city’s emergency rooms provide early warning information against outbreaks of disease and potential bio attacks by monitoring and comparing information on a daily basis. "The system is intelligent and is being coordinated with the New York City Department of Health in response to the terrorist attacks of 2001," says White.

Siemens technologies such as its popular syngo diagnostic imaging platform and Soarian workflow automation tool are significantly helping to improve operational efficiencies in healthcare institutions like New York University Medical Center and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and will further streamline their care delivery processes by automatically coordinating everything from billing to delivery of clinical and dietary services. And the company’s strength in IT is proving invaluable for its health care customers as medical and information technologies gradually morph into hybrid knowledge-based systems that glean information from millions of digital exams.

Future on Track. They say that no one can see the future. But if you could look through the block-long windowless brick walls of the new Rail Control Center (RCC) in midtown Manhattan, you would catch a glimpse of tomorrow. Deep inside a space cavernous enough to accommodate two full-length 600 foot subway trains, Siemens engineers are installing rail control and management systems that will soon catapult New York City’s one-hundred-year-old subway infrastructure into the forefront of transportation technology. Scheduled to enter service in early 2005, the Center—along with a range of infrastructural improvements now being coordinated by Siemens for New York City Transit (NYCT) on many of the city’s subway lines—will significantly improve system reliability while helping to cut costs and eliminate the possibility of human error.

High above the RCC’s control desks, where dispatchers will monitor the movements of the 540 trains that provide over 7,500 scheduled runs each day, huge computer panels up to eight feet in height and 150 feet in length will display the location and speed of every train in real time. "When the RCC is up and running," says Richard Class, Siemens Transportation Systems’ Director of Marketing and Business Development, "it will be the most advanced system of its kind in the U.S." Plans call for all ten of New York City’s numbered lines to be “online” by early 2005, with the 16 lettered lines to be added by 2008.

The RCC will provide a quantum leap in terms of system transparency compared with the current NYCT Control Center. "Dispatchers will have displays similar to those used by air traffic controllers. Each train in the dispatcher’s area of operations will constantly identify itself on screen, show which track it is on, and display its status with regard to its schedule," says Control Center General Superintendent Joseph Wukovits. The result, he adds, will be an unprecedented overview and level of operational control, leading to improved security and efficiency—as well as the ability to schedule more trains and thus improve service for the system’s 5.7 million daily passengers.

Behind these capabilities are three state-of-the-art technologies: Communication-Based Train Control (CBTC), a radio-based, dynamic signaling system based on the real- time location of trains; Automatic Train Supervision (ATS), a sensor and software-based technology that allows train location and speed to be tracked in real time and constantly compared with each train’s schedule; and a fiber optic communications network that will allow CBTC to interact with ATS, while at the same time providing an advanced Public Address Customer Information System (PACIS) that will automatically generate announcements and displays tailored to each individual station.

These services will run on two identical computer systems now being installed by Siemens, one of which will be on continuous "hot standby" to support the first system in case of failure. Says Joerg Nuttelmann, Siemens Transportation Systems’ ATS project manager, "The computers will control the signaling system, timetable, reporting, and archiving functions, all of which will run in real time. And ATS’ software platform will even provide an automatic service that can instantly redirect trains if system problems occur." Adds Class, "Worldwide, the RCC will be among the top two or three facilities of its kind in terms of the size of the system it manages, functionality and integration."

Taken together, the networks of systems Siemens is installing in the city’s subways, hospitals and elsewhere will add up to much more than "just" better, more efficient services for millions of people. They are setting the stage for a different kind of city—one that’s aware, upgradeable, transparent, safer, cheaper, more responsive, smarter, and ultimately ready for whatever tomorrow will bring—24/7.

Arthur F. Pease