page_title: Signaling of the New York City Subway
hierarchical_section_title: Signaling of the New York City Subway
caption_attribution_description: English: A signal for arriving (eastbound) trains on Track 1, on the northern (westbound) platform of the Flushing – Main Street IRT subway station in Downtown Flushing, Queens.
context_page_description: Most trains on the New York City Subway are manually operated. The system currently uses Automatic Block Signaling, with fixed wayside signals and automatic train stops. Many portions of the signaling system were installed between the 1930s and 1960s. Because of the age of the subway system, many replacement parts are unavailable from signaling suppliers and must be custom built for the New York City Transit Authority, which operates the subway. Additionally, some subway lines have reached their train capacity limits and cannot operate extra trains in the current system.
  There are two different schemes of signaling in the system. The most used scheme is used on all B Division lines, originally built to the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation and Independent Subway System's wider specifications, and on most of the A Division lines, built to the narrower specifications of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company. An older system was used on all of the A Division, but with the conversion of the IRT Dyre Avenue Line signals to the B Division scheme in September 2017, this system is no longer in use.
context_section_description: Most trains on the New York City Subway are manually operated. The system currently uses Automatic Block Signaling, with fixed wayside signals and automatic train stops. Many portions of the signaling system were installed between the 1930s and 1960s. Because of the age of the subway system, many replacement parts are unavailable from signaling suppliers and must be custom built for the New York City Transit Authority, which operates the subway. Additionally, some subway lines have reached their train capacity limits and cannot operate extra trains in the current system.
  There are two different schemes of signaling in the system. The most used scheme is used on all B Division lines, originally built to the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT) and Independent Subway System (IND)'s wider specifications, and on most of the A Division lines, built to the narrower specifications of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT). An older system was used on all of the A Division, but with the conversion of the IRT Dyre Avenue Line signals to the B Division scheme in September 2017, this system is no longer in use.
  As part of the modernization of the New York City Subway, the MTA plans to upgrade much of the system with communications-based train control (CBTC) technology, which will control the speed, and starting and stopping, of subway trains. The CBTC system is mostly automated and uses a moving block system—which reduces headways between trains, increases train frequencies and capacities, and relays the trains' positions to a control room—rather than a fixed block system. The implementation of CBTC requires new rolling stock to be built for the subway routes using the technology, as only newer trains use CBTC.
caption: A signal in the Flushing–Main Street station
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