On Jan. 11 an FAA computer outage had grounded over 11,000 flights. Between last Thursday and Sunday, back office server issues with Amtrak I-ETMS (PTC) resulted in over 50 Amtrak train cancelations out of Chicago alone along with numerous spot cancelations. The FRA had a preliminary report the next day - we haven’t seen anything from the FRA or Amtrak even offering to investigate. At least 15,000 and perhaps over 20,000 passengers suddenly had to find alternate means of reaching their destinations. It appears that neither Amtrak nor the company that offers the server service had backup facilities. Continuous tranportation can be provided if the carrier is willing to accommodate some redundancy in its facilities. Recently when CSX had a situation that affected the computers used by train dispatchers in the systemwide facility in Jacksonville, the dispatchers were moved into a back-up facilitiy until the main office was up and running. When I worked for Conrail, their busy Selkirk Yard kept running without a hitch after an October heavy/wet snow felled so many branches that the greater Albany, NY area lost commerial power for several days. Why? Because Selkirk had backup generators. I firmy believe that everyone who had a ticket who was denied transportation during this period needs to contact his/her elected officials. And
What’s that going to do? Really?
It’s because of the law that the trains couldn’t deaprt without having PTC initiated. They helped caused this mess.
“We are currently experiencing a communication issue impacting the nationwide network managed by a third party. This is causing train cancellations and delays in some areas,” Amtrak said in a statement. “Some trains may also be running at reduced speeds. Updates will be provided as available.”
Didn’t we have a thread about out-sourcing?
When traffic control systems malfunction or crash, operations cannot continue safely - it makes little difference if the mode of transportation is air, marine or railroad - all of which ARE NOT line of sight operations when operated at their customary maximum speeds.
I have been an airline passenger inroute and ON my connecting flight when the ATC lost all flight plans that the carriers had filed for flights to leave Atlanta. Instead of a before Noon arrival at destination it was a after 8 PM arrival. D