They still use floppy disks to control trains. Replacing them will be expensive

The San Francisco Metropolitan Transportation Agency (SFMTA) uses a train control system that is decades out of date. This is best evidenced by the fact that floppy disks are still used there today. This is a remnant of the system installed in 1998. At that time, it was the most modern solution in the entire United States, and thanks to it, trains are controlled automatically. Almost three decades later, it looks very different. – Technology has made many milestones, we are in the middle of the AI ​​revolution, and in San Francisco they still use floppy disks –

San Francisco still uses floppy disks. Replacing them will cost money

SFMTA employees must use diskettes every day. “It’s like you lose your memory at night and every morning someone has to tell you, ‘Hey, you’re this and that person, this is your goal and this is what you need to do today,'” says Mariana Maguire of SFMTA’s train control department.

The system was designed to last 20-25 years, so in theory its time has passed. But giving up is not that easy. Especially since floppy disks are still working. But SFMTA realizes that the risk of disk data degradation increases every year, which could lead to a disaster at some point. But SFMTA Director Jeffrey Tumlin says implementing the new system will take a decade and cost tens of billions of dollars. That’s because San Francisco wants to have one system that will manage all the city’s trains, both above-ground and underground. Its integration will therefore be divided into several multi-year stages. SFMTA is currently looking for a contractor for the project.

Floppy disks are not a thing of the past yet. In the age of AI, they are still used

Today, when we store everything in the cloud, hardly anyone remembers pendrives, let alone floppy disks. But there are places where they are still used, or were used recently. and the floppy disk contained key data used for flight planning, including: information about airports, flight paths and approach paths. A 3.5-inch floppy disk has a capacity of only 1.44 megabytes, so as many as eight such media are needed to upload data. Floppy disks, however, are still quite widely used in aviation.

Until recently, floppy disks were also used in nuclear silos. In some industries, the transition away from floppy disks has been quite a slow process. In Poland, in 2008, controversy was caused by the decision of the president of ZUS, who announced a tender for the supply of 130,000. 3.5-inch floppy disks with a capacity of 1.44MB. The institution’s spokesman then explained to journalists that it was cheaper to buy 130,000 diskettes than to replace 10,000. computers. It was also cheaper to use floppy disks than to have employees burn everything on CDs. And the old ZUS computers did not have recorders anyway – so they would have to be modernized at additional cost.