New York Subway Fire

From NY Times: bq. Fire Cripples 2 of City's Subway Lines A fire that began with a homeless person trying to keep warm by igniting wood and refuse in a shopping cart has crippled two of the city's subway lines, which might not be restored to normal capacity for three to five years, officials said today. Emphasis mine - OUCH! Here is some more and an indication as to why the three to five year timeline: bq. The Sunday afternoon blaze in Lower Manhattan was described as the worst damage to subway infrastructure since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It gutted a locked room that is no larger than a kitchen but contains some 600 relays, switches and circuits that transmit vital information about train locations. Hit the nerve center. These lines started operation in 1932 so the equipment is fairly old and not very replaceable. They have to engineer a replacement that will run on all of the old signal levels. The two lines carry 580,000 people each weekday.