Abstract :
The AUTOMATED OR SEMI-automated operation of rail transit vehicles is commonplace on the rapid transit systems constructed over the past 50 years. Operation is usually automated on the short ?people mover? lines at airports; it is semi-automated on the long-range suburban rapid transit systems such as Bay Area Rapid Transit in the San Francisco Bay area of California and the Washington D.C. Metro system. All depend on digital computer-controlled propulsion, speed monitoring, braking, stop positioning, door operation, and scheduling. There was, however, a short rapid transit line that did all those functions without computers more than a half century ago, and it did so under one of the most famous thoroughfares in the world.
