Drakontas Wireless Emergency Messaging Demo'd In Philly Subway

As natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina have proven, communications during emergency situations are not exactly ideal.

 

And let's not forget when my sister-in-law was riding the MTA New York City Transit 1 train from South Ferry to midtown Manhattan and heard a loud boom. The date was September 11, 2001…

 

Drakontas, which makes emergency communications solutions, has now devised a prototype wireless emergency messaging solution for transit passengers in tunnels that was successfully tested in a Philadelphia subway train June 29, reports Railway Track & Structures (RT&S).

 

RT&S reported that the demonstration which took place aboard a PATCO subway train at 8th and Market Station in Center City Philadelphia in the span of 30 minutes "showcased the messaging platform capability inside a passenger train."

 

The demo product is a combination of 802.11 (Wi-Fi) and other available wireless network technologies and Drakontas's DragonForce situation awareness software. Drakontas received a research grant from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), a U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) agency in 2009 to develop it.

 

PATCO owns and operates a well-used rapid transit line that connects southern New Jersey with downtown Philadelphia; it traverses the Benjamin Franklin Bridge over the Delaware River that it shares with I-676 and U.S. 30 then dives underground in the Pennsylvania city's center. Over the past year, Drakontas has been working with PATCO to survey wireless communications techniques appropriate for subway tunnels, with the objective of improving emergency communications with passengers on trains in these environments.

 

The project team, led by Dr. Alan Kaplan, Drakontas' chief technology officer, has been exploring says the firm specific challenges of providing emergency messages to transit system passengers over wireless networks, in an effort to provide those passengers with better information during emergencies.

 

"The FTA has found that passengers on trains or subways may choose to evacuate the train if they do not get information in a timely fashion," explained Kaplan. [The agency] has found that passengers on trains that are experiencing delays or unplanned stoppages between stations become confused and frustrated due to the lack of communication with the train operator or control station. The FTA has asked us to prototype an emergency messaging system that can operate in subterranean environments and over wireless networks, with the goal of improving information flow to passengers. We are excited to demonstrate this new tool that will provide improved safety for transit riders."

 

"Drakontas has built its reputation by partnering with law enforcement and public safety agencies on the development, trial and evaluation of communications tools," added James Sim, Drakontas' president and chief operating officer. "We leveraged those experiences for this pilot project with PATCO in order to develop a wireless messaging system for emergencies in subway tunnels. We are grateful to the FTA for supporting this effort and to PATCO for lending its expertise and resources to help us develop a new method of emergency communications in the name of enhanced transit safety. We look forward to building upon the successes of Phase I and continuing our work with PATCO in the future."

 

"Being able to quickly and effectively communicate with our customers during times of an emergency is of great importance to us," said PATCO president John J. Matheussen. "It is an ongoing priority for us at PATCO to do all we can to enhance rider safety and this cutting edge technology will assist us in that regard."