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Chinese rail ticketing system crashes
Ouch!
On the tail of the suspension of their high speed program after a more tragic system failure, this “crash” underlines the haste in which China is prone to quality issues, which are also a issue in the manufacturing ( ironically enough) toy trains.
Makes one wonder what other shoddy practices occur there, such as in their coal mining industry (as documented) is another example. I just hope that the Three Gorges dam is an exception.
OOPS! Our technology (Which the ChiComs got in exchange for more cash to float the Government’s appetite for cash) seems to be vulnerable to crashing under pressure. It happens for events like a Paul Mc Cartney concert, the Daytona 500, Super Bowl, or any Steelers home game. Amtrak should have THAT problem. Wait. It could, just because it could.
Is this the biggest computer crash in transportation history?
To answer the question if this is the largest computer crash in transportation, No. SABRE went down a while back, but it was attacked by hackers, which we will not know if that occurred in China. Be assured that a high ranking techno wizard will be working in a rice paddy, under the eyes of an armed guard.
The hush story here (in Canada) is that Bombardier and the others who actually supplied the hardware were ‘advised’ that they should allow Chines suppliers to work on (read modify cheaper) some of the software and signalling. That caused the crash - wonder if it did this too.
Jay Walder administration’s first of hopefully many embarrassments?
For a first-hand look at this annual rail travel ritual, see the 2009 Chinese documentary film “Last Train Home.” It has great scenery, insights into the Chinese people and culture and, of course, lots of rail action. If you think US airports are overcrowded, wait until you watch the masses of people trying to board home bound trains.