Engineers from Sii watch over the safety of millions of passengers of the New York City subway

A team of 7 engineers from Sii Katowice is pursuing the LIRR project for Bombardier, a Canadian transportation concern. Sii specialists are responsible for the DMS system, which role is to improve the effectiveness of the diagnostics of malfunctions and safety of the New York City railways. – The initiative is a result of the new legislation introduced in the USA as a consequence of a big number of accidents in high velocity trains – says Malwina Bartków, Project Coordinator at Sii Katowice.

The goal of the LIRR project is to gather diagnostic information from different devices in the railway infrastructure. Its completion would not be possible without the DMS (Diagnostic Maintenance System), equipped with modules reporting and alarming about incidents in railway traffic as well as those processing information from diagnostic systems. Sii experts are currently working on this particular system.

When human life is at stake

– One of our tasks is checking if a train failure has been processed and recorded in the system, at the same time setting off an adequate alarm. If the DMS doesn’t work properly, tracing a failure on the railway line can be impeded, which can lead to an accident. When human life is at stake, we have to make sure that the system works properly in every situation, even one that the client would not be able to foresee – says Dawid Wielgos, Junior Test Engineer from the LIRR team.

The project is carried out for two railways in New York – Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) and Metro-North Railroad. LIRR is the busiest suburban railway in North America, stretching from Manhattan up to the eastern borders of Suffolk county on Long Island. It is also one of the few commuting systems in the world operating 24/7 all year long. The Metro-North Railroad subway is a railroad established in 1834 and operating uninterruptedly since that time. It is the second oldest rail road in America, still functioning under its original name and statute.

Metro commuters can sleep peacefully at night

In January 2018, in Pittsburgh, the first integration tests of all the parts of the broader PTC project (including the DMS pursued by Sii) were launched. The project involves controlling the logistics of trains and ensuring the safety of transportation. Two members of the team, Adam Curyło, Software Engineer, and Robert Goleniec, Service Delivery Manager, were invited for four weeks to the USA to demonstrate the system to the client and to exchange knowledge with other teams. After their return, two other engineers – Agnieszka Korowacka, Junior Software Engineer and Tomek Nowicki, Software Engineer – went to Pittsburgh to continue the tests.

– Our engineers didn’t spend their free time in the four walls of their hotel rooms. During the business trip, they visited New York, Toronto, Washington and Los Angeles. They have seen the Niagara falls on the Canadian side, watched an NBA game in Cleveland and supported a hockey team from Pittsburgh – adds Malwina Bartków.

For the Sii branch in Katowice this is an exceptional project. – Gaining the client’s trust gave us the opportunity to showing the potential, knowledge and energy of our employees. The passengers of the subway and trains in New York City can sleep peacefully at night because we are watching over their safety – says Artur Sobczak, Test Engineer from the LIRR team.

The article prepared by: Zuzanna Siondalska