Thanks to help from Japan, San Francisco is finally saying goodbye to floppy disks in their subway system.
San Francisco’s subway system, called Muni Metro, still uses a 5.25-inch floppy disk-based system to run the subway. Employees had to physically load the software each morning via the floppy disks. That system was introduced in 1998 and was given a usage expectation of 20 to 25 years. In other words, in desperate need of replacement.
The organization behind the subway has signed a $212 million deal with Japan’s Hitachi Rail. That deal should modernize the entire subway system and do away with floppy disks. The outdated system was prone to malfunctions, so the subway was regularly delayed. Spare parts were plucked from eBay.
Japanese upgrade on the way
Hitachi Rail is introducing the brand new train control system CBTC. That promises much faster data transfer, better and modern tracking of trains, and hopefully a lot fewer delays. London and Vancouver are also using that technology. The transition may take a few years, however, as Kill Floppy is only a small part of the entire modernization project.
Perhaps our own SNCB could also use such a modernization project someday. The 4G quality on our trains still leaves much to be desired at times. Not to mention the delays …
Floppy disks sound like a Stone Age technology, but they are even more widespread worldwide than you might think. Organizations that still use floppy disks are slowly coming to the conclusion that the technology needs to be updated.
Moreover, physical storage devices have a limited shelf life, so continuing to use floppy disks for too long can have dramatic consequences. In addition to the San Francisco metro area, the Japanese government and the German Navy recently decided to do away with floppy disks for good.