Sydney's train network grinds to halt due to communications issue - ABC News

[Tony Galloway]

Wasn’t that long ago there was no 2-way radio, digital or otherwise, and trains ran just fine.

Now everything stops without it - what a joke.

Must be that wonderful ever onwards “march of progress” that makes everything work so much better.

Yeah, right…..

Tony

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-08/sydney-train-network-at-standstill/102069490

Sydney's train network grinds to halt due to communications issue

11 minutes ago

[Matthew Geier]

On Wed, 8 Mar 2023 at 17:39, Tony Galloway <a...@aapt.net.au> wrote:

Wasn’t that long ago there was no 2-way radio, digital or otherwise, and trains ran just fine.

Now everything stops without it - what a joke.

Must be that wonderful ever onwards “march of progress” that makes everything work so much better.

Someone (a group of managers more like it) has written the operation of the train radio system into the SMS and made it a 'vital' system so if that system is not operational, they are not meeting all requirements for 'safe operation'.

Never mind the railways ran for 100 years without radios and fancy digital trunked comms systems.

Seems the concept of a driver looking out the front window and observing the status of the signal lamps beside the track is no longer considered 'safe'.

There was no suggestion that interlockings had failed, or the actual train control systems were down, what they lost was the network-wide GSM-R-based train radio system. They couldn't talk between operations control and trains in the field.

I observed the Cronulla branch being operated as a shuttle during the outage, showing some initiative on the part of Sutherland station master to take local control of the Cronulla branch. I've seen reports that Blacktown did the same for the Richmond branch.

I just hope the relevant staff now don't get reprimanded for 'unsafe operations' for showing some initiative to keep things running. Not all station staff are safe working qualified anymore - I do wonder how they will formally withdraw the qualifications from SMs that still hold safe working qualifications, preventing any further local control initiative taking on their part again.

They did a software update of the train radio controllers on the weekend. I suspect that update wasn't tested under a full load of a busy system - or tested long enough - the new software having a 'slow leak', so that it only works for a few days - then falls over.

Vital systems should have redundant controllers with the software of each written by different teams so that the two don't have the same bugs. But that's expensive - doing all your R&D twice.

[peterm...@gmail.com]

COntroller duplication, update one and leave the standby on the previous software version and fail over to the older version.

[TP]

I wonder how the metro gets by without the controllers talking to the drivers. Oh wait.

Tony P

[Tony Galloway]

On 9 Mar 2023, at 09:00, Matthew Geier <mat...@sleeper.apana.org.au> wrote:

On Wed, 8 Mar 2023 at 17:39, Tony Galloway <a...@aapt.net.au> wrote:

Wasn’t that long ago there was no 2-way radio, digital or otherwise, and trains ran just fine.

Now everything stops without it - what a joke.

Must be that wonderful ever onwards “march of progress” that makes everything work so much better.

Someone (a group of managers more like it) has written the operation of the train radio system into the SMS and made it a 'vital' system so if that system is not operational, they are not meeting all requirements for 'safe operation'.

Never mind the railways ran for 100 years without radios and fancy digital trunked comms systems.

Yet another example of worthless deadshit managerialists imposed where they are neither wanted or needed.

How much are these anthropoidal pieces of shit paid compared to actual productive workers?

Seems the concept of a driver looking out the front window and observing the status of the signal lamps beside the track is no longer considered 'safe'.

There was no suggestion that interlockings had failed, or the actual train control systems were down, what they lost was the network-wide GSM-R-based train radio system. They couldn't talk between operations control and trains in the field.

This is what you get when incompetent, know-nothing morons with MBAs are put in charge off a skilled workforce that doesn’t need or want them.

Pay rates of this worthless, bullshit job, parasitic scum?

I observed the Cronulla branch being operated as a shuttle during the outage, showing some initiative on the part of Sutherland station master to take local control of the Cronulla branch. I've seen reports that Blacktown did the same for the Richmond branch. 

I just hope the relevant staff now don't get reprimanded for 'unsafe operations' for showing some initiative to keep things running.

Initiative! - better stomp on that before it gets out of hand!

Not all station staff are safe working qualified anymore - I do wonder how they will formally withdraw the qualifications from SMs that still hold safe working qualifications, preventing any further local control initiative taking on their part again.

No. That used to be a career path for traffic staff, not any more when deadshit managerialist  bludgers are put “in charge” (guffaw).

What do they get paid for their coprophagic Dunning-Krueger incompetence?

They did a software update of the train radio controllers on the weekend. I suspect that update wasn't tested under a full load of a busy system - or tested long enough - the new software having a 'slow leak', so that it only works for a few days - then falls over.

Vital systems should have redundant controllers with the software of each written by different teams so that the two don't have the same bugs. But that's expensive - doing all your R&D twice.

Back in the 1990s the Greiner govt. tried to build a centralised control centre at Chippendale to replace all the suburban signal boxes. I worked on this abject waste of money for 3 years as the morons (consultants, natch) running it tried to integrate the non-vital control circuits with the existing controls. It never worked, mainly because back emf from relays kept blowing up the diodes used to supposedly control it. One thing they tried was replacing the conventional diodes with zeners - I spent 6 months unsoldering the old diodes in terminals and replacing them with the zener diodes to solve this - failed again. The thing was eventually abandoned, but like dogs returning to their vomit they are obsessed with these systems intended to micromanage a deskilled and docile workforce - deskilled, of course, to reduce the power of industrial militancy.

Here’s a little tutorial to remind these worthless lackey straw bosses who really counts :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzcGXWx_CW0&ab_channel=BBCIdeas

Tony

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[Tony Galloway]

Yeah, they just leave trainloads of passengers (sorry - “customers”, “clients”, whatever) stranded in the dark without any information about what’s happening - much better, eh?

Tony

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[Matthew Geier]

On 9/3/23 09:53, TP wrote:
> I wonder how the metro gets by without the controllers talking to the
> drivers. Oh wait.

They have had a few shutdowns them selves due to the control room being
shutdown (fire alarms usually) with the trains all halting at the next
station when they don't get onward instructions from 'control'. They are
not immune to problems. They just are not tied directly into the TfNSW
'super-brain' that runs the conventional network.

I'm sure TfNSW has a project team on addressing that 'shortcoming'. :-)