Chicago Transit Authority Control Center

Status

Existing

Description

The CTA Control Center controls the movement of buses and rapid transit trains and provides power control for rapid transit operations. Both the BusWatch system and Rail Service Management System are resident at the Control Center, as are their dispatchers. This includes CTA Hub that will feed the Illinois Transit Hub.

Stakeholders

StakeholderRoleRole Status
Chicago Transit AuthorityOwnsExisting

Physical Objects

Traffic Management Center
Transit Management Center
Emergency Management Center

Functional Objects

Functional ObjectDescriptionUser Defined
Emergency Incident Command'Emergency Incident Command' provides tactical decision support, resource coordination, and communications integration for Incident Commands that are established by first responders at or near the incident scene to support local management of an incident. It supports communications with public safety, emergency management, transportation, and other allied response agency centers, tracks and maintains resource information, action plans, and the incident command organization itself. Information is shared with agency centers including resource deployment status, hazardous material information, traffic, road, and weather conditions, evacuation advice, and other information that enables emergency or maintenance personnel in the field to implement an effective, safe incident response. It supports the functions and interfaces commonly supported by a mobile command center.False
Emergency Response Management'Emergency Response Management' provides the strategic emergency response capabilities and broad inter–agency interfaces that are implemented for extraordinary incidents and disasters that require response from outside the local community. It provides the functional capabilities and interfaces commonly associated with Emergency Operations Centers. It develops and stores emergency response plans and manages overall coordinated response to emergencies. It monitors real–time information on the state of the regional transportation system including current traffic and road conditions, weather conditions, special event and incident information. It tracks the availability of resources and assists in the appropriate allocation of these resources for a particular emergency response. It also provides coordination between multiple allied agencies before and during emergencies to implement emergency response plans and track progress through the incident. It also coordinates with the public through the Emergency Telecommunication Systems (e.g., Reverse 911). It coordinates with public health systems to provide the most appropriate response for emergencies involving biological or other medical hazards.False
Emergency Secure Area Alarm Support'Emergency Secure Area Alarm Support' receives traveler or transit vehicle operator alarm messages, notifies the system operator, and provides acknowledgement of alarm receipt back to the originator of the alarm. The alarms received can be generated by silent or audible alarm systems and may originate from public areas (e.g. transit stops, park and ride lots, transit stations, rest areas) or transit vehicles. The nature of the emergency may be determined based on the information in the alarm message as well as other inputs.False
Emergency Secure Area Sensor Management'Emergency Secure Area Sensor Management' manages sensors that monitor secure areas in the transportation system, processes the collected data, performs threat analysis in which data is correlated with other sensor, surveillance, and advisory inputs, and then disseminates resultant threat information to emergency personnel and other agencies. In response to identified threats, the operator may request activation of barrier and safeguard systems to preclude an incident, control access during and after an incident or mitigate impact of an incident. The sensors may be in secure areas frequented by travelers (i.e., transit stops, transit stations, rest areas, park and ride lots, modal interchange facilities, on–board a transit vehicle, etc.) or around transportation infrastructure such as bridges, tunnels and transit railways or guideways. The types of sensors include acoustic, threat (e.g. chemical agent, toxic industrial chemical, biological, explosives, and radiological sensors), infrastructure condition and integrity, motion and object sensors.False
Emergency Secure Area Surveillance'Emergency Secure Area Surveillance' monitors surveillance inputs from secure areas in the transportation system. The surveillance may be of secure areas frequented by travelers (i.e., transit stops, transit stations, rest areas, park and ride lots, modal interchange facilities, on–board a transit vehicle, etc.) or around transportation infrastructure such as bridges, tunnels and transit railways or guideways. It provides both video and audio surveillance information to emergency personnel and automatically alerts emergency personnel of potential incidents.False
TMC Barrier System Management'TMC Barrier System Management' remotely monitors and controls barrier systems for transportation facilities and infrastructure under control of center personnel. Barrier systems include automatic or remotely controlled gates, barriers and other access control systems. It also provides an interface to other centers to allow monitoring and control of the barriers from other centers (e.g., public safety or emergency operations centers).False
TMC Incident Dispatch Coordination'TMC Incident Dispatch Coordination' formulates and manages an incident response that takes into account the incident potential, incident impacts, and resources required for incident management. It provides information to support dispatch and routing of emergency response and service vehicles as well as coordination with other cooperating agencies. It provides access to traffic management resources that provide surveillance of the incident, traffic control in the surrounding area, and support for the incident response. It monitors the incident response and collects performance measures such as incident response and clearance times.False
TMC Multi–Modal Coordination'TMC Multi–Modal Coordination' supports center–to–center coordination between the Traffic Management and Transit Management Centers. It monitors transit operations and provides traffic signal priority for transit vehicles on request from the Transit Management Center.False
TMC Safeguard System Management'TMC Safeguard System Management' remotely monitors and controls safeguard systems for transportation facilities and infrastructure. Safeguard systems include blast shielding, exhaust systems and other automatic or remotely controlled systems intended to mitigate the impact of an incident. When access to a transportation facility is impacted by the activation of a safeguard system, impacted systems and travelers are notified.False
Transit Center Connection Protection'Transit Center Connection Protection' manages the coordination of transit transfers between routes within a single transit agency, between routes of different transit agencies, or between different modes (e.g. a bus transit route and a ferry route). This functional object also supports the capability for an individual traveler to obtain connection protection throughout a specific transit trip. This application may be implemented through peer–to–peer sharing between agencies control systems or as a central transit transfer request brokerage that facilitates the management and coordination of transfers across multiple agencies and control systems.False
Transit Center Fixed–Route Operations'Transit Center Fixed–Route Operations' manages fixed route transit operations. It supports creation of schedules, blocks and runs for fixed and flexible route transit services. It allows fixed–route and flexible–route transit services to disseminate schedules and automatically updates customer service operator systems with the most current schedule information. It also supports automated dispatch of transit vehicles. Current vehicle schedule adherence and optimum scenarios for schedule adjustment are also provided. It also receives and processes transit vehicle loading data.False
Transit Center Information Services'Transit Center Information Services' collects the latest available information for a transit service and makes it available to transit customers and to Transportation Information Centers for further distribution. Customers are provided information at transit stops and other public transportation areas before they embark and on–board the transit vehicle once they are en route. Information provided can include the latest available information on transit routes, schedules, transfer options, fares, real–time schedule adherence, current incidents, weather conditions, yellow pages, and special events. In addition to general service information, tailored information (e.g., itineraries) are provided to individual transit users.False
Transit Center Multi–Modal Coordination'Transit Center Multi–Modal Coordination' supports transit service coordination between transit properties and coordinates with other surface and air transportation modes. As part of service coordination, it shares schedule and trip information, as well as transit transfer cluster (a collection of stop points, stations, or terminals where transfers can be made conveniently) and transfer point information between Multimodal Transportation Service Providers, Transit Agencies, and ISPs. An interface to Traffic Management also supports demand management strategies.False
Transit Center Priority Management'Transit Center Priority Management' monitors transit schedule performance and generates requests for transit priority on routes and at certain intersections. It may coordinate with the Traffic Management Center to provide transit priority along the selected route, including allocation of dynamic lanes and granting signal priority. It also coordinates with the Transit Vehicle OBE to monitor and manage local transit signal priority requests at individual intersections.False
Transit Center Security'Transit Center Security' monitors transit vehicle operator or traveler activated alarms received from on–board a transit vehicle. It supports transit vehicle operator authentication and provides the capability to remotely disable a transit vehicle. It also includes the capability to alert operators and police to potential incidents identified by these security features.False
Transit Center Vehicle Assignment'Transit Center Vehicle Assignment' assigns individual transit vehicles to vehicle blocks and downloads this information to the transit vehicle. It also provides an exception handling process for the vehicle assignment function to generate new, supplemental vehicle assignments when required by changes during the operating day. It provides an inventory management function for the transit facility which stores functional attributes about each of the vehicles owned by the transit operator. These attributes permit the planning and assignment functions to match vehicles with routes based on suitability for the types of service required by the particular routes.False
Transit Center Vehicle Tracking'Transit Center Vehicle Tracking' monitors transit vehicle location. The location information is collected via a data communication link between the transit vehicles and the transit center. The location information is presented to the transit operator on a digitized map of the transit service area. The location data may be used to determine real time schedule adherence and update the transit system's schedule in real–time. The real–time schedule information is disseminated to other information providers, which furnish the information to travelers.False
Transit Garage Maintenance'Transit Garage Maintenance' provides advanced maintenance functions for the transit property. It collects operational and maintenance data from transit vehicles, manages vehicle service histories, and monitors operators and vehicles. It collects vehicle mileage data and uses it to automatically generate preventative maintenance schedules for each vehicle by utilizing vehicle tracking data. In addition, it provides information to service personnel to support maintenance activities and records and verifies that maintenance work was performed.False

Physical Standards

SDODocument #TitleUser Defined
NEMANEMA TS 8Cyber and Physical Security for Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS)False

Interfaces To

(View Context Diagram)

Chicago Airports
Chicago Transit Authority ATSS System
Chicago Transit Authority Bus Info System
Chicago Transit Authority Bus Tracker Website
Chicago Transit Authority Bus Vehicles
Chicago Transit Authority Data Archive
Chicago Transit Authority Garages
Chicago Transit Authority Parking Management Guidance System
Chicago Transit Authority Rail Signaling Equipment
Chicago Transit Authority Rapid Transit Vehicles
Chicago Transit Authority Security Equipment
City of Chicago 911 CAD
City of Chicago DOT Roadway Maintenance
City of Chicago OEMC Field Equipment
City of Chicago OEMC Security Monitoring Equipment
City of Chicago Operations Center (OC)
City of Chicago TMC
Cook County Department of Transportation and Highways Field Equipment
Cook County Department of Transportation and Highways Maintenance Bureau
Cook County EOC
Cook County Sheriff Communications Center
Cook County TMC
DuPage County EOC
DuPage County Maintenance Operations
DuPage County TMC
IDOT District 1 Bureau of Traffic – Arterial Signal Operations
IDOT District 1 ComCenter
IDOT District 1 Traffic Systems Center (TSC)
Illinois Tollway Computer Aided Dispatch Center
Independent School District Dispatch
Lake County EOC
Lake County PASSAGE TMC
Metra Consolidated Control Facility
Metra Passenger Information Display System
Metra Security Equipment
Midway Airport Operations Center
OHare Airport Operations Center
Pace Control Center (IBS)
Regional Transportation Authority Travel Information Center (TIC)
RTA InfoTrans Signs
RTA Multimodal Trip Planner (Goroo)
RTA Transit Hub
Statewide Emergency Operations Center
User Personal Computing Devices
Weather Services