Well Amtrak put all their NYP arrival and departure boards displays into one basket. If the old board had been left operationally in place then at least some information could be diseminated. Have worked with a group preaching for persons not to put all your eggs in one basket. Our biggest worry is GPS. What happens if GPS goes out ? Just one example is what happens to PTC ? The US government could shut it down or at least return selective availability at any time.
http://gothamist.com/2017/02/17/big_board_blackout_of_17.php
Board goes down for an hour, and everyone acts like it's the end of the world. I'm sure even those beloved Solaris had their issues. And still do - hence why they needed upgraded.
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
blue streak 1Well Amtrak put all their NYP arrival and departure boards displays into one basket. If the old board had been left operationally in place then at least some information could be diseminated. Have worked with a group preaching for persons not to put all your eggs in one basket. Our biggest worry is GPS. What happens if GPS goes out ? Just one example is what happens to PTC ? The US government could shut it down or at least return selective availability at any time. http://gothamist.com/2017/02/17/big_board_blackout_of_17.php
Have worked on any number of iterations of advancing technogies from lead pencils and cardboard to totally computerized. Each step along the path had it's failures and the refrain was always "let's go back and do it the old way". The reality is that once new technology is implemented and operational, the 'systems' that supported the old way no longer exist - either from a changed data form or a lack of people qualified to do things the old way.
If for whatever reason GPS goes into the garbage can, you still have Train Dispatchers and their CADS (Computer Aided Dispatching System) that don't rely on GPS for their source data. No knowing what if any safeguards get activated when GPS fails, I suspect that some form of speed and/or authority restrictions may be put in place.
CADS can fail and practically shut a carrier down. It happened to CSX around the turn of the Century - a virus got into the Corporate Main Frame and caused separate systems that communicated with the Main Frame to fail. It took about 48 hours to figure out what the problem was, devise an emergency strategy to get operations moving again, devise and implement a full solution so that fully normal operations could resume. I understand heads rolled in the corporate IT department for letting the virus in.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
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