PSD's aren’t going to happen, There will be major pushback from the unions with not having direct access to the tracks for signal upgrades/track maintenance. Then there's freight rail which shares trackage with the proposed IBX and there is no way that they'll go with it.
I'm not sure if extrapolating from PSD retrofit costs will be that accurate, even though you removed the many parts that won't apply to the IBX. Have you compared to the JFK Airtrain costs (in NYC, but older), or REM (in North America and very recent)? Or any other recent airport people mover with PSDs in the US?
I believe the extrapolation is accurate on an order of magnitude basis. Indeed, the estimates for the MTA that I found were identified as order of magnitude. As yet, I have not received the actual bid costs for the pilot program.
The material costs in the estimates probably are pretty accurate. Some items I question, particularly the $1,000,000 product warranty for each station. And there is the usual bloat in the markups.
On the other hand, the data I used was in 2018 dollars and there has been significant inflation since then.
I think it'd be very helpful to look at REM PSD costs. The PSD retrofit costs as you said are older, while REM's first phase just finished and the next phases are under construction. And the REM costs are actual finalized costs, not costs from a preliminary study, so there can be great variability in that. I'm also gonna try to see if Transit Costs Project has any info about new-build PSD costs.
Unfortunately I don’t this NYC is getting PSDs any time soon. The base order of magnitude is more of less correct but that would not be the real cost. Supplementary construction costs add a lot on top: platform reconstruction, storage rooms, to scale off site training facility, etc. As pointed out the a-typical requirements is what drove up the price. Standard PSDs are available “off the shelf”, the MTA instead opted for a complete bespoke system at a HUGE cost. I discuss it in more depth here:
PSD's aren’t going to happen, There will be major pushback from the unions with not having direct access to the tracks for signal upgrades/track maintenance. Then there's freight rail which shares trackage with the proposed IBX and there is no way that they'll go with it.
I'm not sure if extrapolating from PSD retrofit costs will be that accurate, even though you removed the many parts that won't apply to the IBX. Have you compared to the JFK Airtrain costs (in NYC, but older), or REM (in North America and very recent)? Or any other recent airport people mover with PSDs in the US?
I believe the extrapolation is accurate on an order of magnitude basis. Indeed, the estimates for the MTA that I found were identified as order of magnitude. As yet, I have not received the actual bid costs for the pilot program.
The material costs in the estimates probably are pretty accurate. Some items I question, particularly the $1,000,000 product warranty for each station. And there is the usual bloat in the markups.
On the other hand, the data I used was in 2018 dollars and there has been significant inflation since then.
I think it'd be very helpful to look at REM PSD costs. The PSD retrofit costs as you said are older, while REM's first phase just finished and the next phases are under construction. And the REM costs are actual finalized costs, not costs from a preliminary study, so there can be great variability in that. I'm also gonna try to see if Transit Costs Project has any info about new-build PSD costs.
Unfortunately I don’t this NYC is getting PSDs any time soon. The base order of magnitude is more of less correct but that would not be the real cost. Supplementary construction costs add a lot on top: platform reconstruction, storage rooms, to scale off site training facility, etc. As pointed out the a-typical requirements is what drove up the price. Standard PSDs are available “off the shelf”, the MTA instead opted for a complete bespoke system at a HUGE cost. I discuss it in more depth here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/aaronshavel/p/what-happened-to-nycs-platform-screen?r=2lhx1h&utm_medium=ios
Thanks, Aaron,
Your linked article provides good insights into the MTA PSD program.
In my opinion, the MTA should be complimented on its relatively quick implementation of partial platform barriers, with existing staff and funding.
Judging from MTA reports and marks on platforms, more partial barriers are coming.
Agreed. It’s imperfect but any action is better than no action.