What's Frying the Electrical Systems On BART Trains? (ieee.org)

Tekla Perry writes: Earlier this month, BART engineers shut down a substation in hopes that the closure would quiet the power surges that were frying the electrical propulsion equipment on BART cars -- a peak of 40 in just one day in February. The shutdown seemed to solve the problem, but BART officials weren't sure they'd really found the answer. Yesterday, the power surges popped up again, on an entirely different section of tracks, damaging 50 cars before BART closed off that section, rerouting passengers onto buses. Track inspections yesterday revealed nothing, and BART reports that it has reached out to experts around the country and asked them to fly in and help solve the mystery. Do you have a theory? Note: BART is the 5th-busiest heavy-rail rapid transit system in the U.S.

Comments

Hackers ruining our infrastructure

[fragMasterFlash]

Which nation-state is sponsoring the hacking crew that will inevitably be blamed for this issue?

You can't defer maintenance forever

[hawguy]

BART already tweeted the reason behind the breakdowns:

From @SFBART:
BART was built to transport far fewer people, and much of our system has reached the end of its useful life. This is our reality.

BART has been continually expanding while deferring maintenance on the rest of the system, and that policy has finally come home to roost -- much of their infrastructure is over 40 years old and they can't defer maintenance forever. But by continually expanding, they've made themselves too big to fail (and they've gotten more counties on the hook to keep the service running), so they'll get bailed out one way or another.

Re:You can't defer maintenance forever

[bill_mcgonigle]

BART already tweeted the reason [nytimes.com] behind the breakdowns:

That's not a reason - it's a complaint (and a beg for more money). Maybe they do need more money, but if the cause of the surges remains a mystery, then by definition they don't know the reason.

I'm sure they don't have any SCADA systems exposed to the Internet (right?), but "old stuff" is just a guess. And there are some good "old stuff" guesses elsewhere on this story.

Real Time Monitoring

[BoRegardless]

I'm truly surprised that they don't have intensive real time monitoring with sensors through their whole system.

Proper engineering and maintenance of such a critical system demands it.

Re:Real Time Monitoring

[Hans Lehmann]

Monitoring of what? Sensors through the whole system that measure what? What exactly is this proper engineering that you claim they should have done? Armchair engineers always seem to have perfect hindsight.

Re:I-squared-L?

[Archfeld]

Unless they have recently upgraded a mass of cars or track, why does it suddenly start happening now ? The system has been in use and fairly reliable for a long time. I have no proof, but the suspicious borderline paranoid inside me is screaming that someone is hacking at the electrical infrastructure that feeds the Bart system, and the problem lies outside their direct observation, and is likely with PG&E's supply system to Bart. PG&E has demonstrated the disregard for maintenance, monitoring, and the security incompetence in the last few years to allow for something like this. It will likely take some outside support for Bart to prove the failures don't lie inside their infrastructure to get PG&E to even begin to look at their own systems.

Re:How is BART supposed to update trains...

[Princeofcups]

...when all their money is going to high salaries and benefits for union employees?

Over 200 BART employees earned over $200,000 a year in total compensation...

Those look mostly like executives, which are definitely NOT Union positions. The Unions are the ones trying to get some of that executive salary down to the real workers.