Autopilot causes L trains to bypass platforms By Heather Haddon Running the L line on autopilot at night is causing trains to shoot past platforms, forcing straphangers to miss their stops, motormen and union officials said. Because of the software fluke, drivers have to travel to the next station to let passengers off, according to the officials. One Brooklyn mailroom worker, who didn’t want to be identified, said he was late for work repeatedly for several weeks after the L train missed his stop in Bushwick. “It’s not perfected yet. It’s not working. And it’s definitely not cost-effective,” Keith Harrington, union vice chairman for train operators, said of the $326 million system. Charles Seaton, a NYC Transit spokesman, said the glitch causing the trains to bypass stations by only a few feet is being addressed and does not impair passenger safety. It was unclear when the snafu would be fixed. The system “maintains speeds within safe limits and ensures that train doors are opened safely,” Seaton said. In February, NYC Transit started running L trains on autopilot from 12:30 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. The hours were recently extended to 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., union officials said, and the MTA hopes to begin expanding it to some Queens lines over the next five years. When trains are running on autopilot, computers cue the acceleration and breaking while transit officials monitor the traffic flow offsite. Drivers, who are always manning the train from the front, can switch into manual when problems arise. MTA officials say the system allows them to run trains faster by monitoring cars in real time and bypassing the subway’s antiquated signal system. But motormen say the computers tend to underestimate how sharply to apply the brakes, causing the trains to shoot past the stations by as much as two cars. Because they can’t go in reverse, the trains have to advance to the next station. “I don’t like it at all,” said straphanger Andrew DeJesus, 30, an ironworker from Brooklyn. “If someone gets hurt, what’s going to happen?” Last month, the MTA’s independent engineers found that shortfalls in the autopilot software caused an “uncomfortable jerk” at station stops on the L train. The system also threw on the emergency brakes by error when the trains drove too fast, according to a report by the engineer firms. A NYC Transit spokesman said those problems would also be fixed. Antastasia Ecomindes contributed this story. Tags:l trainmtanew york cityPosted by Heather Haddon on June 9, 2009 6:56 PM