‘First of its kind’: City previews new rail operating center ahead of grand opening

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - When the rail system begins interim service on June 30, the new Rail Operating Center in Pearl City will serve as its high-tech nerve center.

“We should be very proud of this system because it is state of the art ... It’s the first of its kind,” said Patrick Preusser, the city Department of Transportation Service’s Director of Rapid Transit.

Using 1,500 cameras mounted throughout the rail system, highly trained controllers will monitor each of the stations and trains along the rail line’s first 10.75 mile segment between Kapolei and Aloha Stadium.

“The security system we have is very sophisticated and is able to identify and recognize patterns. And if something is recognized, there’s actually an alarm that gets generated and the camera pans to that position,” said Preusser.

“We actually get alarms if trains are operating more than 10 seconds late or 10 seconds early at each station.”

In addition to its surveillance cameras, the entire rail line and its stations will be patrolled by unarmed security teams. Fire and police have also trained to respond to emergencies on the trains and at the stations, the city said.

“There’s a number of emergency call boxes in the trains and on the station platforms as well,” said Preusser.

The city gave the local media a preview of the Rail Operating Center on Thursday after it was turned over by the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation.

The city said the rail system is also prepared to handle natural disasters and power outages.

In case of an outage, backup generators automatically kick in and allow the train move at a slower speed to the next station to allow passengers to get off the trains.

“For immediate stuff like a earthquake, we have seismic detectors throughout the system,” added JR Carino, the rail system’s operations control center manager.

“So we get an alarm from the system and it actually will smartly stopped the trains.”

The rail system has been rigorously tested for the past year. But the real test comes on June 30 when the public gets to ride the rail for the first time.

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