RTD Buying Unproved $30-million Radio System

The RTD, recently criticized for the shortcomings of some of its expensive high-tech projects, now is buying a $30-million, ultramodern radio communications system that has been beset by technical problems and years of delay in another city.

The radio system that Southern California Rapid Transit District managers want--and that the RTD board approved Feb. 25--is supposed to put the agency at the forefront of bus communications technology, improve service and safety and save money.

However, the San Antonio, Tex., radio system that the RTD’s will be modeled after is almost three years behind schedule due to design and operational problems, officials there said.

And at least part of what the RTD board has tentatively authorized--a sophisticated central system to continuously count passengers on every bus--is “unproven” and too risky an investment in a time of tight money, according to officials at the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, who must sign for RTD’s major purchases.

So far, the commission has approved some but not all of the communications system, although the RTD continues to push for approval of the whole package.

RTD officials are seeking the system even though they concede the agency’s need to upgrade its aging bus fleet to meet the demands of carrying 1.3 million passengers a day. Transportation Commission officials say the radio system funds could be redirected to buy more than 100 new buses if the RTD wished. “The commission would look favorably on that because our first priority is new buses,” said Jim Sims, the commission’s director of fiscal analysis.

However, RTD officials defend the proposed new communications system, which has been delayed several years because funds were not available. The existing 10-year-old, two-way bus radio network is described as overloaded and obsolete. And the new system can be expanded to serve a fleet of RTD trolleys scheduled to begin operating in 1990, officials say.

If it works, the new system will enable RTD dispatchers to view maps on their computers that will pinpoint the location of any bus--or plot the movement of all the buses on any route. The speed buses are traveling, as well as who is behind the wheel, also will be monitored as buses pass hundreds of monitoring stations scattered across the county.

RTD officials say the information provided by the new system will help assure that buses stay properly spaced and on schedule. Driver and passenger security will be improved because police responses could be made faster in an emergency.

“It gives us a much better oversight and control of our on-street operation,” said Ed Walsh, who manages RTD communications systems.

Walsh estimated that at least $5 million will be saved each year by more efficient deployment of the bus fleet. Simms, of the commission, agreed that the basic RTD bus radio system needs to be upgraded and that the automatic bus location system will be useful. But the RTD’s savings estimate “hasn’t been demonstrated,” he said.

The RTD has been criticized in the past, by commission officials and others, for buying state-of-the-art systems that have not produced all the savings and benefits that were expected. In recent years, the RTD has invested more than $35 million in a massive computerized management information system, but commission analysts are skeptical that promised savings in clerical and management staff have been realized. Also, recent investigations of unaccounted-for bus parts were traced to flaws in the management system, which, among other things, tracks the district’s $20-million-plus inventory.

In the last several months, record numbers of riders have been left standing at bus stops because coaches were sidelined due to breakdowns in the RTD’s warehouse, the first in the transit industry to be automated. That huge downtown facility uses computer-controlled robots to store, retrieve and deliver bus parts to mechanics.

As for the new radio system, the performance of the San Antonio model leaves room for concern. Originally to be completed in mid-1985, San Antonio’s system, though now in operation, still has not passed final review by that city’s transit agency.

“I guess it’s never gone smooth from the beginning,” said Robert Thompson, president of the San Antonio bus drivers union. “It’s been one problem after another.”

Lynne Wilkerson, assistant to the general manager of the San Antonio transit district, said: “There were problems and delays caused by technical problems. . . . We still have a few bugs. We think they are going to be resolved.”

Wilkerson defended the radio system, explaining that “it’s still the first system of its kind in the country. . . . It took longer to design and implement the system than originally predicted.”

Among the problems, Wilkerson said, were interference with radio signals outside the buses and interference among different electrical and computer systems inside the buses.

San Antonio officials still do not depend on the information that the new radio system provides, Wilkerson said. “The primary issue left (is that) we want to make sure that the vehicle locater system is working as accurately as it should be,” she said.

RTD officials and spokesmen for General Railway Signal, the New York firm that won the radio system contract, say they see no such problems developing in Los Angeles, even though the bus system is more than four times larger than San Antonio’s.

“There’s no question about whether it works or not,” Walsh said. “It works fine. . . . We are not (buying) anything exotic or esoteric.”

Walsh said the San Antonio system is “very impressive” and despite the delays “was operational in a reasonable time frame.”

Bob Glines, manager of mass transit sales for General Railway Signal, said: “There were changes. There were problems . . . but (the RTD) has the benefit of encompassing a lot of the improvements that were made” in San Antonio.

“Experience is a pretty good teacher,” he said.

Reaching even beyond the San Antonio experience, however, RTD officials want an optional feature that would report the number of passengers on each bus, as well as how many riders get on and off at each stop. Computers would determine that, officials say, by monitoring the sequence in which people step on sensors in mats at each door.

The RTD board authorized funds to begin equipping buses with the passenger-counting equipment, and Walsh wants to get started with a pilot project.

But the county Transportation Commission is strongly resisting. “We don’t believe with money tight we should be investing in new, unproven technology,” Sims said. “We ought to stick to the basics.”

Asked if a similar passenger-counting system is used anywhere in the United States, Walsh said: “I don’t know whether anybody is (using it) or not. . . . You’ve got to make it work somewhere.”