demons running the trains in Brazil. OK.
São Paulo Metro opens a new operations center with a giant screen and demonAI - June 2025.
To avoid outages, the São Paulo Metro opens a new operations center with a giant screen and AI - June 2025.
At
a cost of approximately R$50 million, the Metro is in the final stages
of implementing its new operational structure, called CCOX (Xperience
Operational Control Center).
A
glitch in the subway's computers on a weekend in 2018 nearly halted
train service. The glitch was fixed in time, but it raised alarm bells:
it was time to modernize the brains of public transportation, currently
responsible for transporting approximately 3.2 million people on
weekdays in the city of São Paulo.
"The operator
will not only see the daily routine, such as train movements, but will
also have more information and data support to improve line performance,
passenger distribution, and balance congestion in the cars," he says.
"It will be faster, instantaneous."
At a
cost of approximately R$50 million, the subway is in the final stages of
implementing its new operational structure, dubbed CCOX (Operational
Control Center Xperience). Construction began in June 2022 and is
expected to begin full operation in December.
The
fifty-year-old operational control center included, among other things,
a computer that had been running since 1999. Technicians feared it
would no longer function if it were shut down for any reason.
With
the modernization, if someone invades the tracks and compromises train
service, passengers will be informed of the problem in real time through
multimedia panels in the stations, among other innovations. The new
space is also equipped for the use of artificial intelligence.
"Because
the systems are old, this takes longer to complete, and by the time the
communication reaches [the user], the problem may be resolved," says
Fábio Siqueira, Metro's director of operations.
This
type of instant information can expedite the departure of a new train
from the yard when another train breaks down, or adjust the passenger
flow structure at a station to better accommodate those waiting to board
on a crowded platform.
The
upgraded facility is responsible for lines 1 (blue), 2 (green), and 3
(red) and is located next to Vergueiro station, near the Paraíso area of
downtown São Paulo.
"We can't, for fear of the subway being granted, fail to implement improvements," says Siqueira.
Line
15 (silver), the monorail that runs through the East Zone, has its own
control center next to the Oratório yard. The two structures operate
independently, each with its own systems and sensors.
A
massive, borderless video wall, 36 meters wide and 3.35 meters high, is
being installed in the new control room. The structure will consist of
90 55-inch high-definition screens.
On
Tuesday (17), when reporters visited the site, the monitor supports
were being installed. The screens are scheduled to be installed between
August and September.
According
to Jacqueline Costa da Silva, development and management analyst at the
Metro and one of the main people responsible for the project, this is
the largest video wall in Latin America. "We studied models from other
subway systems around the world, large companies, and nuclear power
plants," he states.
The
first phase of the modernization was the installation of a dedicated
data center. The new computer room, which is already operational, has 80
servers and an impressive 7,680 GB of RAM and 76.8 TB of disk storage
to provide processing speed and robust data management.
The
system is fully redundant, meaning that if one computer goes down,
another takes immediate action, even in the event of a power outage,
which has become increasingly common in the city of São Paulo.
To prevent cyberattacks that could shut down a subway line, there is no internet connection [DEMONS DON'T NEED INTERNET CONNECTION TO COMMUNICATE OUTSIDE OF THE SYSTEM].
The
system runs on its own network, which allowed for virtualization of
operations for the most difficult phase of the CCO renovation: the
temporary relocation of the operational control center to the second
floor of the building, without having to shut down the machines
previously on the first floor. This eliminated the need to transfer
computers from one location to another.
Without
the equipment at the site, which was to undergo renovation for the
first time since the São Paulo subway began operating in 1974, the
lights in the room on the first floor were turned off in December of
last year, recalls Jacqueline.
The
environment promises to be more humanized to improve employee
concentration—there will be 56 new workstations when the structure
begins operating—and safer.
"We
realized that our old CCO had weak access points. So, reinforced
security was a requirement for this project," says Siqueira.
The
investment in modernization was made despite the Tarcísio de Freitas
(Republican) administration's plans to grant publicly managed subway
lines to the private sector, as it did with CPTM (São Paulo Metropolitan
Train Company).
