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?

Re:Hackers ruining our infrastructure

[Frosty Piss]

I think it's the Chinese.

Re:Hackers ruining our infrastructure

[PPH]

I think it's the British

Re:Hackers ruining our infrastructure

[flopsquad]

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

Well dammit we'd know already if they hadn't gone dark with all the unbreakable encryptions on their iPhones!

Re:Hackers ruining our infrastructure

[CanadianMacFan]

Maybe they should have used that encryption on the infrastructure instead.

Re:Hackers ruining our infrastructure

[frovingslosh]

Of course it's the Chinese, but we will never know for sure until we make out computers even less secure by forcing Apple to build in back doors.

Re:Hackers ruining our infrastructure

[Darinbob]

Yes, let's encrypt all the power lines.

Re:Hackers ruining our infrastructure

[kenwd0elq]

Could be; especially since a similar problem is affecting the D.C. Metro trains. Perhaps the Iranians have reverse-engineered Stuxnet and pointed it back at us?

Re:Hackers ruining our infrastructure

[arglebargle_xiv]

Dholes. Gotta be dholes.

Re:Hackers ruining our infrastructure

[AmiMoJo]

I was going to suggest North Korea, but they are screwing themselves enough at the moment. Logic suggests this one will be attributed to China.

Re:Hackers ruining our infrastructure

[houghi]

So why is it connected to the Internet? And who thought that would be a good idea?

Re:Hackers ruining our infrastructure

[mangamaster03]

Siemens is good about issuing firmware updates as these vulnerabilities are found. I keep getting emails telling me to upgrade my S7-300s. Whether BART actually acted on the firmware updates, which requires shutting down the micro-controllers is a different matter altogether. My guess as to whether they went out and updated firmware for all the controllers?...Nah...it's not that important.

Re:Hackers ruining our infrastructure

[CanadianMacFan]

Yes because the bad guys are trying to hack the power lines.

Solar flares

[Anonymous Coward]

Solar flares are my goto explanation for pretty much any hardware failure. That, and carnies.

Re:Solar flares

[ZipK]

That, and carnies.

You can't trust 'em. Nomads. Smell like cabbage. Small hands.

Small hands... short fingers.

Re:Solar flares

[kenwd0elq]

My "go to" excuse for any electronic problems is "sunspots, or stray cosmic rays". However.....

The Sun has been very quiet for the last several weeks, and Solar Cycle 24 is on a steep downward trend. I expect that we'll begin an extended Solar Minimum by the end of 2016 which may last 3-4 years (the "average" is 2 years, and the last Solar Min was nearly 3). I also expect that the next few solar cycles will be fairly quiet. Perhaps not Maunder Minimum quiet, but probably Dalton Minimum quiet, or nearly so.

You should visit www.spaceweather.com periodically to keep up to date on this.

Also; it's going to get somewhat chilly by and by.

I-squared-L?

[swschrad]

could there perhaps be enough inductance in the multi-motor systems that it is generating its own connect/disconnect/connect surges? try isolating those DC motor controllers from both the track and the motors with some diode stacks and snubber caps.

Re: I-squared-L?

[WarJolt]

Oh come on. It couldn't possibly be that simple. I write software for a living and even I know to look for back emf first.

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:I-squared-L?

[MrDoh!]

Hacking sounds solid. To eliminate other things; Physical check of the power along the entire route, see if someone's tapped it for any reason or there's 'odd boxes' attached to junctions/controllers?

Re:I-squared-L?

[FirstOne]

Couple that with time and mechanical wear.. The bionding between rail segments is wearing out, (and/or being stolen for scrap metal value.) A few intermittant rail to rail connections based on rail movement, (as when a fully loaded train passes over), would inflict a world of hurt on the 1000volt DC electronics.

Re: I-squared-L?

[Opportunist]

Nine out of ten times the solution is the "oh c'mon, they can't be THAT dumb!" one.

Re: I-squared-L?

[hey!]

I had a boss once who hired a consultant and was angry when the consultant told him to do the obvious thing.

"You know what a consultant is?" he groused. "Someone who borrows your watch to tell you the time."

I thought about this for a moment. "Yeah, but what's he supposed to do if you're standing there with the watch on your wrist and you don't know what time it is?"

Re: I-squared-L?

[Aaden42]

And eleven out of ten times, they are in fact THAT dumb.

(And the other time it's an off-by-one erro

Re:I-squared-L?

[BronsCon]

On one hand, if the (looks like 000 gauge) conductors connecting the rails are being stolen, that could post a problem. On the other hand, since there are 4 paddles on each side of each car (as the 3rd rail can be on either side, depending on which side the platform is on at the next station), each car maintains contact with both rails as it transitions from one to the next. Likewise for the wheels, making the ground connection for each car. Coupled with the fact that cars share power, a 10 car train will be in contact with 4 or 5 rail pairs at any given moment, a majority of the bonding conductors would have to be missing or severely damaged to cause even a minor power issue. Cars are sized such that when the front of the train is crossing a rail threshold, the rear of the train is in the middle of a rail, so good contact is guaranteed at all times unless the first or last car is severely damaged and missing at least two paddles on the 3rd rail side. Even then, the likelihood of damage is minuscule.

It is almost certainly a supply problem.

Re:I-squared-L?

[BronsCon]

And yes, I meant "pose a problem", not "post a problem". My fault for not proofreading.

Re: I-squared-L?

[UnknownSoldier]

That reminds me of an old engineering joke:

Ford, whose electrical engineers couldnâ(TM)t solve some problems they were having with a gigantic generator, called Steinmetz in to the plant. Upon arriving, Steinmetz rejected all assistance and asked only for a notebook, pencil and cot. According to Scott, Steinmetz listened to the generator and scribbled computations on the notepad for two straight days and nights. On the second night, he asked for a ladder, climbed up the generator and made a chalk mark on its side. Then he told Fordâ(TM)s skeptical engineers to remove a plate at the mark and replace sixteen windings from the field coil. They did, and the generator performed to perfection.

Henry Ford was thrilled until he got an invoice from General Electric in the amount of $10,000. Ford acknowledged Steinmetzâ(TM)s success but balked at the figure. He asked for an itemized bill.

Steinmetz, Scott wrote, responded personally to Fordâ(TM)s request with the following:

Making chalk mark on generator $1.

Knowing where to make mark $9,999.

Ford paid the bill.

* http://www.snopes.com/business...
* http://www.smithsonianmag.com/...

Re: I-squared-L?

[geoskd]

Oh come on. It couldn't possibly be that simple. I write software for a living and even I know to look for back emf first.

True, but as the article mentioned, the system was designed for 1/20th of the current passenger load. I suspect that the problem actually lies in the way these cars are slowed. The obvious (intelligent) way to do it would be to induce back emf into the supply, and put some of the energy back into the system in the form of increased mains voltage. In small amounts (one car at a time), this would be a relative non-issue. In larger amounts, an especially unlucky synchronization of cars all slowing simultaneously could, in theory, overload the system and cause massive transients.

The articles also mention that the cars have both DC and AC motors, but only the DC motors are getting cooked. This leads me to expect that the problem has been building up for a while, but has been below the threshold of damage to the motors until recently. The fact that it is the thyristors (used to rectify the AC power for DC use) which are failing, tells me that both the AC motors and the DC motors have been receiving severe overloads, but the Thyristor was simply the weakest component and has been failing first.

If it turns out that the back emf is the culprit, the solutions are not simple. In effect, they need to find somewhere for that energy to go other than back into the supply network. Any option they go with is either going to A) significantly reduce the efficiency of the system or B) require additional expensive hardware be installed onto every car.

Re:I-squared-L?

[Archfeld]

That is a good thought, but you would think that a mass part replacement like that would have jumped out to any semi-competent maintenance staff, or if it had been occurring over a long period of time, the failures would have gradually increased. I don't really know but they had better solve it soon, any extended disruption of Bart is going to turn an already shitty commute into a disaster.

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

[reve_etrange]

But by continually expanding

The number of people a transit system serves is determined by the choices of those people, not the administrators of the system.

Re: You can't defer maintenance forever

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, just think if actual personal automobile costrs were directly born by the users, they would run screaming.

Instead it gets widely subsidized in invisible ways.

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.

Re: You can't defer maintenance forever

[bhiestand]

Given that almost every single adult in the country drives, well, the cost of driving is spread over the people using it. Now, there are the deliberately ignorant, but most of us understand that property taxes pay for schools and roads, state income tax pays for roads and schools, and that federal taxes pay for 400 types of welfare, defense contractors, and interstate highways.

I can't tell which side of this argument you are on.

Re:You can't defer maintenance forever

[Bruce Perens]

If it's anyone's choice, it comes down to the number of jobs that are created in the region. Use of highways and transit systems is an implication of that.

And it happens that we haven't yet dealt with retarded policies that don't just allow, but depend upon, continuous growth.

If this happened in your body, it would be diagnosed as cancer. Put it in a region, and we kid ourselves that it's progress.

Re: You can't defer maintenance forever

[LynnwoodRooster]

And those ways would be? The last study I saw, from the DOT's Bureau of Transportation Statistics, was that automobiles were a net contributor (more revenue than expenditures on roads), and actually subsidized transit.

Re: You can't defer maintenance forever

[reve_etrange]

They look great when you ignore externalities, sure.

Re:You can't defer maintenance forever

[reve_etrange]

BART is about equally priced to driving for a single person, and significantly more expensive for multiple people (i.e. versus carpool). People use it because, despite it's various frustrations, it's genuinely more convenient than driving, not because it's less expensive.

Re: You can't defer maintenance forever

[LynnwoodRooster]

OK, so what are those external costs? And how about the external - and direct - costs of mass transit?

Re:You can't defer maintenance forever

[rossz]

When I could BART to work I did so because I could sit back and read instead of gritting my teeth in traffic. The trip time was about the same, but it was no longer wasted time.

Re: You can't defer maintenance forever

[arglebargle_xiv]

So he's imaginary?

Re:You can't defer maintenance forever

[Princeofcups]

BART is about equally priced to driving for a single person, and significantly more expensive for multiple people (i.e. versus carpool). People use it because, despite it's various frustrations, it's genuinely more convenient than driving, not because it's less expensive.

BART is the only way to get across the Bay during rush hour without waiting at least 2 hours to drive across the bridge. That's NOT an exaggeration.

Re:You can't defer maintenance forever

[DarkSabreLord]

It's not just that - BART was simply never meant to be operating on the scale it does today. When BART was built, the creators envisioned a system that would serve about 100,000 people per week and choke points such as the Transbay Tube were built accordingly. Naturally, as the population increased, upgrades had to made. This worked for a while, but eventually lack of funding for serious overhauls caught up with the
constantly increasing ridership. Maximum capacity is heavily influenced by the fact that sections like the tube are single line, with no easy way to expand to double or triple. BART could theoretically be a 24/7 system, but as things stand now their engineers need every minute of the nightly downtime they have to service a rapidly aging rail system.

The rails already in place are almost at capacity, with a train crossing over them every 2 minutes. With the tech booms of the last decades, there's been an even bigger spike in these numbers. Over the last decade alone, passenger alightings at some stations have more than doubled. On busy days, the BART system now serves 25 times more riders than originally envisioned. There's some money for additional trains, but that can only do so much. Eventually, we are going to need to spend money on either more parallel tracks, cars, and bigger platforms or just a new system altogether.

Their administrators are simply being realistic about the situation we're in

Re:You can't defer maintenance forever

[Alex Zepeda]

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.

Bullshit. The substation that was first identified as a problem is a mere months old. Granted, BART is terrible at money management seeking to replace the existing Oakland Airport bus shuttle with a half billion dollar cable car (because reasons). Turns out they don't even have the money to do basic track maintenance.

Re:You can't defer maintenance forever

[Dahamma]

But by continually expanding

The number of people a transit system serves is determined by the choices of those people, not the administrators of the system.

It's obviously both, but in this case THEIR wording does refer to the administrators since by "expanding" they mean "adding additional stops". Kind of a "duh" comment, really...

Re: You can't defer maintenance forever

[Anonymous Coward]

Externalities relate to escaped costs, those created by use but not completely covered by related payments. In context this means pollution. Leaded gas, corrosion to roads and other vehicles from exhaust fumes, air pollution causing acid rain and green house effect.

Re:You can't defer maintenance forever

[thegarbz]

A 40 year old electrical system? Oh woes me!

Seriously though while you may be right electrical systems, especially the always on kind which don't cycle can last for a hell of a long time much longer than 40 years. But there are some peculiarities though. Taking maintenance into account a lot of failures are very overt and instantly show the source of the problem through arcing or flashovers in the piece of failed gear. Typically you know straight away where the source of the problem is, and the simplicity of electrical systems means their integrity can be easily verified.

My guess? They've introduced something the system wasn't designed for and can't pinpoint the exact source of their problems. This happens frequently in mass transit systems.

Re: You can't defer maintenance forever

[Hognoxious]

Plus congestion and the lost time it causes.

In that respect, public transport has a positive externality due to the fact that most people riding the subway aren't simultaneously driving a car.

Re:You can't defer maintenance forever

[sociocapitalist]

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.

That's a political answer to justify asking for more money - it is not a technical answer that should be accepted on /.

Re:You can't defer maintenance forever

[serviscope_minor]

Unless those services are priced well below actual market costs - then it's "buying" riders.

It's amazing that people (a) ignore that roads are subsidised and (b) the free market is not a magical solution which solves the preoblem of limited space in any sane way. If you don't have mass trasit, then you rely on roads and when they get full, things block up and you start to lose serious amounts of productivity. Fortunately the city administrators who you so hate have a job of keeping the city running rather than worshiping at the alter of a fals version of free marketism.

In other words, BART is too big to fail in the same way that the roads are too big to fail.

Anyone who thinks that you can magically separate mass transit from the rest of the road system should be sentenced to have to drive through Tooting Highstreet (an area of south London relatively poorly served by trains) during rush hour every day for a year.

Re: You can't defer maintenance forever

[serviscope_minor]

OK, so what are those external costs? And how about the external - and direct - costs of mass transit?

It's people who cause costs. Why not save money by closing the city and forcing everyone to go elsewhere? When you understand why that would be a bad idea, you may begin to understand why simply analysing the costs of things is a poor idea.

Eventually you may begin to understand why cities work better with mass transit, despite it being a "cost". Hint: you may want to consider things that cause and reduce productivity to offset costs.

Re: You can't defer maintenance forever

[Anonymous Coward]

Conservatives hate talk about externalities. Their so called free market relies on you not noticing, and God forbid holding them accountable for, pollution, congestion, oil subsidies and tax breaks, a huge military devoted to guarding overseas private assets (oil wells and shipping lanes), poisoning of water supplies, seizure of land for private gain, mandatory insurance at predatory prices (which is somehow not ok with healthcare, except for the predatory pricing part), inefficient use of resources (automobiles in daily service won't last 40 years), and the list goes on and on. The ones who demand you pay and pay and pay for every last thing never actually want to pay their own way, but they sure like to make you think they do.

But they'll complain mightily about public transport being subsidized, particularly when it involves things like rail systems, and especially when it's because rail systems tend to cause good externalities like reduced traffic congestion, better energy efficiency, etc. After further review, busses still suck though.

I love my car, but I live in the South where they make sure public transport is slow, inconvenient, and only for poor and minority people. It's kind of alien to me when I visit a place where people from all walks of life use it. I've discovered I like not having to use a car for everything.

Re:You can't defer maintenance forever

[Anonymous Coward]

"BART is about equally priced to driving for a single person, and significantly more expensive for multiple people (i.e. versus carpool)."

If youre driving into the city, this is not true at all unless your employer has free parking. Most of the cost of diving into the city is paying for parking, which is anywhere from $30 - $80 a ~day~.

The vast majority of BART ridership and hell-like experience is into the city in the morning and out again in the evening...if youre traveling from any other BART stop to any other, its not that bad at all.

Re: You can't defer maintenance forever

[ooloorie]

Leaded gas,

Hasn't been used in many years.

corrosion to roads and other vehicles from exhaust fumes,

Those are not "externalities" since they are costs drivers themselves bear and pay for.

air pollution causing acid rain

Acid rain comes overwhelmingly from power plants, not automobiles.

and green house effect

Personal transportation is only a small contributor to atmospheric carbon, and the difference between trains and cars is fairly small. With electric cars, cars are actually better than trains.

Re: You can't defer maintenance forever

[ooloorie]

Plus congestion and the lost time it causes.

That's not an "externality", since it's the drivers themselves that bear the cost of congestion.

Re: You can't defer maintenance forever

[ooloorie]

Eventually you may begin to understand why plantations work better with beautiful carriages and stables, despite it being a "cost" paid for by the slaves working in the fields.

FTFY

Why not save money by closing the city and forcing everyone to go elsewhere?

The only "force" that is involved here is the fact that federal, state, and local tax payers are forced to subsidize a transit system that most don't benefit from and will never use.

Re: You can't defer maintenance forever

[Hognoxious]

An individual driver doesn't cause congestion for himself, he causes it for everybody else. And as I already pointed out, people on trains aren't causing it at all.

Re: You can't defer maintenance forever

[ooloorie]

An individual driver doesn't cause congestion for himself, he causes it for everybody else.

We're discussing whether drivers pay for the costs that their choice of transportation incurs. They do, as a group, even when it comes to congestion, since the cost of congestion balances out between drivers (if I slow down your commute, you slow down my commute, so I do pay this "externality").

Of course, congestion would be almost non-existent if it weren't for government mismanagement of transportation and roads in the first place.

And as I already pointed out, people on trains aren't causing it at all.

Trains cause numerous externalities, including congestion, noise, and pollution. More importantly, though, they are heavily subsidized, which isn't so much an "externality" as simple crony capitalism and corruption.

Re: You can't defer maintenance forever

[serviscope_minor]

FTFY

I think the main problem is you're a complete and utter smeg head. There's no equivalence to those two things.

The only "force" that is involved here is the fact that federal, state, and local tax payers are forced to subsidize a transit system that most don't benefit from and will never use.

Oh I see you're one of those very silly people who think they live in an isolated island where nothing outside affects you. Even if you never use the train, it takes a lot of cars off the roads which makes the roads better for you.

Everyone directly or indirectly uses the roads in the bay area, therefore everyone benefits from BART.

The main problem is idiots who are incapable of getting beyond thinking that "free market! libruhls!" actually constitutes logical thought and reasoning.

Re: You can't defer maintenance forever

[ooloorie]

Everyone directly or indirectly uses the roads in the bay area, therefore everyone benefits from BART.

Everyone would benefit even more if the subsidies that currently went to BART would be invested in road upgrades and new highways.

See, robbing me at gunpoint and then giving me back $5 to catch a bus home doesn't mean that I'm better off than if I hadn't been robbed at all.

I think the main problem is you're a complete and utter smeg head.

You are a testament to the quality of a modern Oxford education.

Re: You can't defer maintenance forever

[serviscope_minor]

Everyone would benefit even more if the subsidies that currently went to BART would be invested in road upgrades and new highways.

[citation needed]

And tell me, where would those highways go?

See, robbing me at gunpoint

Taxes are a thing. Don't like them? Go live in the Libertarian Paradise of the Congo.

doesn't mean that I'm better off than if I hadn't been robbed at all.

Then try moving somewhere there are no taxes. See how much better off you are. Toodles!

You are a testament to the quality of a modern Oxford education.

They teach Red Dward quotes at Oxford? News to me...

Re:You can't defer maintenance forever

[hey!]

That's a bit simplistic. If you expand a system, it will automatically attract more riders if the cost to the rider remains the same. And therein lay the rub. The rational basis of the decision to expand the system is a cost/benefit one, even if the system is publicly subsidized. The rationale for public subsidies is based on there being market externalities, but once you factor in those externalities the benefits have to outweigh the costs.

That's where politics comes in. Service expansion is popular, but rising fares and taxes are not. Fortunately the public has a short memory, so what you do is expand service and "pay" for it by deferring maintenance. You get the credit as a genius, and your successors get the blame. It's what economists call an "agency cost".

Re: You can't defer maintenance forever

[Aaden42]

Nope. Just on a tangent.

Re: You can't defer maintenance forever

[LynnwoodRooster]

I see you've never sat around waiting for a train to clear the road... I time my commute in the morning to avoid the trains, since I cross the tracks 3 times.

Re:You can't defer maintenance forever

[LynnwoodRooster]

What are the subsidies of roads? Remember - gas taxes are supposed to be going to road maintenance (even though they tend to be used to subsidize mass transit). And where have I stated anything about hate? Hyperbole much? I'm just explaining a way that BART can buy customers and thereby guarantee its own existence - yes, too big to fail (like the fantasy high-speed rail from LA to SF).

Re: You can't defer maintenance forever

[bmxeroh]

No mod points today, so all I can give you is an lol.

Re: You can't defer maintenance forever

[Bob the Super Hamste]

Local roads are also a benefit to all of the city and county residents whether they use them or not. The food they consume, mail they receive, garbage hauled away, and government services, fire, police, and ambulance, are all delivered on those roads. Personally I would love to have roads paid for exclusively by taxes and fees by those using them in proportion to the damage they cause, also for fairness you wouldn't be able exempt some vehicles (looking at you buses) from the roles. That becomes a big problem so having things like vehicle registration fees and fuel taxes are reasonable but only work at a state level. In my state at most 60% of some of that income can go towards roads while the rest goes to pay for mass transit. Similar things happen with the federal gas tax. Also do not misconstrue this to mean that currently roads would be fully funded if it weren't for some of that revenue being diverted but mass transit isn't the panacea that it is made out to be either, especially for someone like myself who has a 30-40 minute commute each way by car but if I were to use mass transit it would take 2.5 hours each way assuming no problems or missed connections. The only time I have had a car commute that long was one time when there was a huge snowstorm during the work day and I had things that needed to be done and couldn't get out early to avoid the big mess. Even then the buses were taking longer than usual and who knows how long of a delay I would have had if I had to change buses.

Re: You can't defer maintenance forever

[Bob the Super Hamste]

The only "force" that is involved here is the fact that federal, state, and local tax payers are forced to subsidize a transit system that most don't benefit from and will never use.

I find this somewhat amusing given my experience when Metro Transit went on strike. I found that when they were on strike traffic improve slightly during my commute times. That may have been better planning on people's part or because of the lack of giant mostly empty buses getting on and off of the highway.

Re:You can't defer maintenance forever

[EndlessNameless]

It makes sense to put out a statement like that when you've been warning people for years that the system is overgrown, decaying, and in need of massive investment.

Intermittent problems are always the most difficult to diagnose, so I'd expect it to take some time.

But the public will expect an immediate statement, because no one has patience in the face of engineering challenges.

So I agree in principle with them for making the statement and also with you for stating that it does not belong on Slashdot. There should be a post about this in a month or three when they figure out what the problem is.

Re: You can't defer maintenance forever

[ooloorie]

[citation needed]

This post summarizes cost per passenger miles quite well and provides sources: http://ti.org/antiplanner/?p=8...

And tell me, where would those highways go?

Ripping out BART and replacing it with roads and buses would be a start. There is plenty more space.

Then try moving somewhere there are no taxes. See how much better off you are. Toodles!

I have no problem with paying taxes per se (that means "by itself"). I have a problem with rent seeking, corruption, waste, and forcing people into poverty.

Re: You can't defer maintenance forever

[dyslexicbunny]

I hated having to use my car to go everywhere in Atlanta but MARTA goes fucking nowhere and it's too damn hot in the summer to wait for buses. And it's a city that could benefit from expanded service because the connector sucks ass pretty much all the time.

Conservatives replaced the HOV lanes with variable price toll lanes that no one wanted to use because it's bullshit so they tanked the prices to try and get people using them. Even then, I bet they're still gonna take a loss on them and they can't undo them as Federal money was taken and spent but can't be repaid.

But that's the free market for ya.

Re:You can't defer maintenance forever

[mangamaster03]

Why wouldn't they use digital controllers? It's a natural assumption they would be. It doesn't necessarily require internet connection, but it does require a private network to be run along the length of the tracks.

A digital controller can manage all aspects of running the train, it can be monitored remotely, and it can be upgraded easier than an old analog electric control panel.

Re:You can't defer maintenance forever

[BronsCon]

gas taxes are supposed to be going to road maintenance (even though they tend to be used to subsidize mass transit)

The irony being, if they make mass transit attractive enough that people actually start using it, the gas taxes dry up.

Re:You can't defer maintenance forever

[reve_etrange]

The whole idea that BART ridership increases in the past five years have been caused by limited service expansion over the past two decades is pretty dubious. Public data and statements from BART make it pretty clear that it's the core downtown SF/Oakland stations, and certainly stations between Concord/Fremont and Daly City (that is, original stations from the '71 - '72 openings) that have seen the most ridership growth. That growth in ridership has occurred because of wide spread economic and population growth in the Bay Area, not expanding service to past residents.

Re:You can't defer maintenance forever

[reve_etrange]

The argument is that adding a few more outlying stops over the last 10 - 20 years has caused doubled ridership at downtown stops in the past 5 years, which happen to coincide with major economic and population booms in the region. It's pretty clear that the latter, rather than the former, is causative for the increase in system load.

Re: You can't defer maintenance forever

[reve_etrange]

I find this somewhat amusing given my experience when Metro Transit went on strike. I found that when they were on strike traffic improve slightly during my commute times. That may have been better planning on people's part or because of the lack of giant mostly empty buses getting on and off of the highway.

Dunno which MT you're referring to, but the Bay Area sees crippling traffic slowdowns during BART service interruptions such as the strike three years ago.

Re: You can't defer maintenance forever

[reve_etrange]

Ripping out BART and replacing it with roads and buses would be a start. There is plenty more space.

You're shockingly ignorant of the greater SF Bay region if you think that statement makes any sense. It would mean multi-deck city streets, extensive car tunnels under existing roadway, and so forth.

I have a problem with rent seeking, corruption, waste, and forcing people into poverty.

Right...accessible transit is forcing me into poverty...by making it at all possible for me to get to work.

Re:You can't defer maintenance forever

[reve_etrange]

Agreed. This thread has a lot of uninformed comments from folks who've never lived or worked in the Bay Area, making ludicrous claims that eliminating BART to "make space" for "more roads" would solve all our problems.

Re: You can't defer maintenance forever

[ooloorie]

You're shockingly ignorant of the greater SF Bay region if you think that statement makes any sense. It would mean multi-deck city streets, extensive car tunnels under existing roadway, and so forth.

There is plenty of space for more highways on the peninsula, even apart from replacing BART by roads. Just better connectors between 280 and 101 would do wonders.

Right...accessible transit is forcing me into poverty...by making it at all possible for me to get to work.

Obviously, you are on the side of the greedy, privileged minority who enrich themselves at the expense of other tax payers. I mean, who wouldn't have half their transportation costs paid for by other tax payers and then get a special right of way for his troubles?

Re: You can't defer maintenance forever

[reve_etrange]

There is plenty of space for more highways on the peninsula, even apart from replacing BART by roads

You admit that "replacing BART track with roads" was at best a non sequitor, and then refer to subregions not served by BART. OK, then.

the greedy, privileged minority

Right, it's the people who don't own cars that are the rich and privileged. You need to get out more.

half their transportation costs paid for by other tax payers

Does making up arbitrary numbers to suit one's ideology fly in your line of work? Interesting.

Re: You can't defer maintenance forever

[ooloorie]

Right, it's the people who don't own cars that are the rich and privileged. You need to get out more.

No, I said greedy and privileged. And "not owning a car" these days is less a sign of poverty and more often a sign of an ability to live and work in expensive neighborhoods connected by public transportation.

Does making up arbitrary numbers to suit one's ideology fly in your line of work? Interesting.

The fact that BART is heavily subsidized follows from their own budgets; I suggest you look at them. The situation is even worse because, as discussed here, BART themselves admits that even with the massive subsidies they are receiving, they can't even perform necessary maintenance, so in order to keep the system going, they need even more subsidies.

Awe, come on now

[s.petry]

I don't buy that one for a second, it makes way too much sense. I think it's people urinating on the 3rd rail, and we need another season of Mythbusters to prove it!

Free trade

[Areyoukiddingme]

Damn those Chinese capacitors! Damn you to hell!

I suspect ...

[PPH]

... some sort of interaction between filter/power factor capacitors in the new substation and the inductive reactance of the tracks and distribution system. Transients caused by the inherent imperfect third rail to car contacts causes a ringing (oscillation) in the system which, with the new substation on line, happens to be on or near a frequency that some of the rolling stock motor controllers don't like.

Throw some power quality analyzers on various sections of the track and watch the system's transient voltage response with power sources in various configurations.

Re:I suspect ...

[93 Escort Wagon]

Transients caused by the inherent imperfect third rail to car contacts causes a ringing (oscillation) in the system ...

Oh, sure - blame the homeless.

Re:I suspect ...

[gopla]

Seems most probable cause.

I don't know the technical details of BART systems sitting in India. Is it supplied by 60 Hz AC and the rectifiers are installed on the cars that run on DC motors? Usually these power electronics devices build in 1980s are robust enough. We have gained experience now and toughened the circuit in modern drives, but I doubt it be the case in 80s. Any adverse interaction with filters or may be some kind of ferroresonance can cause high voltage and damage such equipment.

Throw some power quality analyzers on various sections of the track and watch the system's transient voltage response with power sources in various configurations.

This is the best way to investigate such problems. I am sure the real experts are doing already doing it. There is nothing mysterious or sensational like hacking going on here. Just plain overvoltage problem causing weak old power-electronics to fail.

Re:I suspect ...

[BronsCon]

This is exactly what the mastermind behind the BART hacks would say.

I kid, of course. But seriously.

Re:I suspect ...

[dgatwood]

This is the best way to investigate such problems. I am sure the real experts are doing already doing it. There is nothing mysterious or sensational like hacking going on here. Just plain overvoltage problem causing weak old power-electronics to fail.

That would be my first guess as well. If it is happening in one spot consistently, though, I'd expect something more subtle, like AC phase problems. For example, if the power company changed the routing of the lines without telling anybody, you could perhaps get a big voltage spike when the train switches from one power rail to the next, assuming you ended up with a situation where AC from one rail was getting combined with AC from another rail inside the vehicle.

vitrification of grounds and more rain

[Anonymous Coward]

So the A & B cars having inductions motors seem to be fine, while the problem seems to be confined to the C cars having the DC motor. That's one difference.

Also, what else has changed? Take a look at wunderground to see that the Bay Area is having a wet season.

Why would the C cars have been mostly fine all along and having trouble now?

So there's charge building up in the DC motors that they can't handle and that makes them blow out. The charge has nowhere to go. What controls the flow of charge? Grounding. What can go wrong with grounding? Good grounds can go bad when a lot of discharge causes the sand in the soil to vitrify (melt into glass) after discharges and lightning strikes have been shooting through it for decades. Better grounds can unexpectedly form when more highly conductive paths form up. The AC induction motors will suffer a power loss but can handle the charge jumping back & forth in unexpected ways, while the DC motors can't.

Add it all up. This has to be a grounding problem aggravated by the wet season, and an underlying assumption that once you sink a ground it's good forever. It isn't.

Re:vitrification of grounds and more rain

[Anonymous Coward]

Throw together something to actually log what is going on. Even something like this, with the right voltage divider plugged into a little rugged PC like this or similar would probably work and you could create the logging code with Labview. Perhaps something like this, though variations may also work:

1) Continually collect data. Dump data to a queue.
2) Second process pulls from queue, and looks for anything out of spec.
3) Out of spec data, along with say 30 seconds either way gets sent to another queue
4) The other queue saves that data to a file as it really is (i.e. int16), before being zipping it. That process sends a file name to another queue. The file is ideally stored on a ramdisk.
5) The next process send the file to an FTP server run on a VPS, before deleting the file and freeing up memory in the ramdisk. Set the queue sizes such that data collection is paused if the FTP process gets too far behind.
6) Connectivity to the FTP server is via a cell phone that is also strapped to this and of course being charged by a USB port from the PC. Store data in some reasonable folder structure. (FUSE userspace FTP FS in linux works for this indirectly, though this is windows. Likely you can still script it, possibly with shell commands and system execs..)
7) Probably should set a lower bound in data reporting, so that the code sends at least one example of the worst data received every hour or other interval.

You could probably replicate that setup for around $1k, plus if you can use something like cricket wireless and keep the data rates down, well that is $40+$30+$20+$10 for 5 lines, so $100 per 5 lines, or $20 per box per month.

In the really ideal case, Windows Embedded could be used with an overlay file system, so, at worst, you have to restart the box and reset the phone.

In short, instrumenting things is not that hard. Sure it requires an actual engineer, and some care may be required to interface with the actual voltages involved safely, and/or to read currents, if desired (indirectly most likely), but it is all doable and shouldn't take more than a couple weeks to get something simplistic up, and maybe a month to get something somewhat robust up.

Re:vitrification of grounds and more rain

[Alex Zepeda]

Turns out the problem is frying fuses on the A&B cars and thyristors on the C cars.

Re:vitrification of grounds and more rain

[thegarbz]

Throw together something to actually log what is going on. Even something like this, with the right voltage divider plugged into a little rugged PC like this or similar would probably work and you could create the logging code with Labview.

You're in university or work in research aren't you? In the rest of the world we just hire off the shelf logging equipment specifically designed for the task and move on.

Re:vitrification of grounds and more rain

[thegarbz]

This has to be a grounding problem aggravated by the wet season

Grounding problems are the cause of problems in the rail cars for many different reasons. My favourite is when an Australian train company decided to go green and implement regenerative breaking on all their equipment without any forethought. After purchasing an entire fleet of fancy new green trains they found the power goes out at the train station every time the train approaches.

But really this is not helped by the fact that ground forms an important part of the electrical path in a rail system, and not just a safety mechanism as in most other cases.

Re:vitrification of grounds and more rain

[mangamaster03]

Turns out the problem is frying fuses on the A&B

Easy fix. Just replace each fuse with a simple piece of copper pipe. That way the maintenance level required stays level across the system.

Re: vitrification of grounds and more rain

[dj245]

Watching the first 'digital native' generation trying to deal with real world problems is kind of cute, isn't it?

I think this issue is more of inexperience, rather than generational differences, as the parent implied when they speculated that the GP was in university. When labor is basically free or labor cost are not important (as in many University or research settings), the solutions gravitate towards customized hardware operated by a relatively highly skilled person. Data collection in the real world gravitates towards commercial off-the-shelf solution operated by person of a lower skill level. It just doesn't make sense to have an electrical engineer running around checking grounds using a complicated in-house built tool when you can send an electrical technician at 1/2 the hourly rate and have them use a 3rd-party calibrated tool.

control computers probably spygrading to Windws 10

[raymorris]

Perhaps the newest computers controlling the system have forcibly "upgraded" themselves to Windows 10.

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:Real Time Monitoring

[Nemyst]

Have you seen the Bart? It's falling apart from all sides, the cars are old. Back then, real-time monitoring wasn't a thing.

Re: Real Time Monitoring

[Anonymous Coward]

Distributed, time synchronised Power Quality.

Not SCADA, but at least IEC61000-4-30 PQ

The DC parts are even simpler to measure. I would bet almost none of the feeders have anything but an over current relay.

Re:Real Time Monitoring

[BigU 03C0mpin]

If you're surprised that BART is lacking something remotely logical and/or basically requisite you don't understand BART or the non-Tech Industry side of the Bay Area.

BART only funds repairs, no technical improvements what-so-ever. The most recent redesigns are ways to fit more standing people in each car since it raises rider count. In fact, the only technological changes I can think of having happened to BART in the 25 years I lived in the Bay Area was the upgrade to the Clipper Card system.

Bathrooms in stations? All the underground ones, particularly in SF are closed permanently. Above ground stations outside of SF, if it's in service it might be open. It will be one of the most awful public bathrooms you've been in. I honestly have found nicer solar and pit toilets in the California back country than I've ever found in a BART station unless the station was a new expansion station.

Anyone with half a brain can see that zero money has gone into BARTs technical budget in a long time. From my passenger perspective, it's been at least a quarter century.

Re:Real Time Monitoring

[thegarbz]

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

Outside of a power generation company looking at maybe one or two substations away from their plant you'll find power infrastructure monitoring to the level that could aid predictive maintenance is non-existent. Even in utilities it's non-existent. Even in companies that don't run their equipment into the ground it's non-existent.

Re:Real Time Monitoring

[hughbar]

Actually, the Tube in London is ancient (I'm not going to say 150 years old, because it was steam at the start) and still running, with problems. It's also over-capacity, to the extent that the entrance barriers sometimes need to be closed at some stations. So BART is a child or an adolescent by comparison. Actually, maybe the problems are problems of adolescence!

Re:Real Time Monitoring

[mangamaster03]

I know Southern Company in the southeast is putting in remote GPS-synced Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) all over their entire grid, with a new fiber optic backbone to go with it. This will give them split second accurate monitoring capabilities across their entire network, with one in almost every major substation.

No, this isn't cheap, but that's what running a monopoly gets you. The ability to make needed improvements to a network, and passing on costs to customers. The system protection built into the power grid runs on a highly networked system of controllers, relays, and industrial computers, and gives them levels of monitoring that BART could never afford. PMUs, Static VAR Compensators, and networked relays all work together to protect the power grid, the generation plants, and end user equipment.

Preventative, and predictive maintenance is very important in the power industry, and they have the cash flow to support it.

Re:Real Time Monitoring

[thegarbz]

Is it the same souther company that was sued by ever major oil company after a power outage in a critical Texan location a few years ago? Most monopolies spend their cash flow filling their own coffers and put in this kind of thing only when absolutely needed. If they did do it under their own accord then that would be uncharacteristically forward thinking of them. They should fire everyone before the toxic idea of "investing in the future" spreads.

Maybe its because they use DC instead of AC

[drfreak]

Savages!

Re:control computers probably spygrading to Windws

[freeze128]

I visited the Bay area in 1987, and I remember seeing the ticket sales machines having the big blue IBM logo on them. I bet the controllers run OS/2 warp.

Back when I was a kid

[Snotnose]

In the mid-70's I went with my parents to the bay area to meet some friends of theirs. They decided we needed to eat at a restaurant that required a BART ride. Keep in mind, back then BART was brand spankin new, ultra-reliable, much cheaper than gas. We never made it to the restaurant. I was like 10 years old, I have no idea why, But as an old fart nowdays whenever I think of BART I think "not gonna happen".

On the other hand, that was the first time I saw Black Sabbath's Paranoid album. Didn't hear it, but Ed (son of parental unit's friends, some 3 years older than me) made sure I knew it was the best album out at that time.

Re:Back when I was a kid

[__aaclcg7560]

Keep in mind, back then BART was brand spankin new, ultra-reliable, much cheaper than gas.

President Nixon rode it during the 1972 election.

http://blog.sfgate.com/thebigevent/2012/08/16/rail-to-the-chief-when-nixon-rode-bart/

Re:Back when I was a kid

[Muad'Dave]

Wow. I remember reading about BART in my 6th or 7th grade social studies textbook. That was in 1976-77 or so.

Re:Donald Trump

[ls671]

Nah, it's the aliens:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sci...

http://www.collective-evolutio...

It should be a breeze to deactivate BART trains then :-)

Eels on a train

[sjames]

It all started 2 years ago when a student majoring in EE took an exotic canoe trip on the Amazon. One day the canoe capsized while he was studying and his book sank to the bottom. Thee eels read voraciously and learned about series parallel wiring of batteries. An idea was born.

And so now we have Electric Eels on a Train!

Re:Eels on a train

[whoever57]

And so now we have Electric Eels on a Train!

Is that better or worse than snakes on a plane?

Re:Eels on a train

[sjames]

Not sure, but it seems to be more expensive at any rate.

Re:Eels on a train

[khallow]

You spilled it too early, so now there will be copycat movies hitching a ride on your blockbuster. Prepare for Lampreys on a Barge and Rugrats in a Car. Coming to theaters near you!

Re: Maybe

[galgon]

It's not a tumor!

Explain Toles' Cartoons

[Streetlight]

This thread seems to explain many of Washington Post editorial cartoonist Tom Toles cartoons having very negative comments on DC's Metro. The continuous stream of cartoons point to constant problems with the system and inane explanations by its executives.

perhaps someone is testing

[MrKaos]

a cyber attack.

Thirty years too late...

[__aaclcg7560]

BART is finally coming to Silicon Valley. I'm so excited. Meh...

http://www.vta.org/bart/

Location for the non article readers.

[basecastula]

So the first time was entering the tube at west oakland and the second time was between north concord and bay point? Yea I know I didn't RDFA but I think the info would be helpful here instead of possibly there.

Re:Harmonics on the grids?

[93 Escort Wagon]

So somebody reversed the polarity on a flux capacitor, which destabilized the warp field matrix?

Re:Who stands to benefit?

[pauljlucas]

The new BART cars have already been ordered and are on their way. This was finalized a while ago.

Re:control computers probably spygrading to Windws

[HotNeedleOfInquiry]

Those ticket machines were running in 1975. Not even MS/DOS.

How is BART supposed to update trains...

[Nova Express]

...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...

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.

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

[Not-a-Neg]

In all honesty, that's basically the minimum needed to earn a living wage in Silicon Valley.

North Korea?

[Etherwalk]

Why? If the cause is cyberattacks, we are in a much more adversarial relationship with North Korea at the moment. China's cyberattacks are directed at espionage and industrial espionage; this isn't their style.

Re:North Korea?

[eric_harris_76]

If these sorts of mystery problems go away after the North Korean regime collapses or is overthrown -- next year, next decade, whenever -- we'll know.

Not that knowing will help us much now. Or then, for that matter.

Re:Who stands to benefit?

[Z00L00K]

Considering that it's aged - don't rule out aging wire insulation that no longer does its job.

For those outside the US...

[BeCre8iv]

WTF is a BART?

Re:For those outside the US...

[jittles]

Bay Area Rapid Transit - San Francisco's Bus and light rail system

San Francisco's transist system is called Muni. BART covers more than just San Francisco and is most common in the East Bay though it has been expanding into the South Bay over the last 10-15 years.

Re:Donald Trump

[Coisiche]

I think there's a movie franchise that already explains this and it's not aliens...

This is beside the Pacific, right? This is clearly the giga-monster that is a result of all the atomic tests in the Pacific 60 years ago approaching the west coast. Good time to take a holiday in Florida, you'll only risk wet feet from the rising sea levels there.

I've got a theory

[maroberts]

It must be bunnies, bunnies, it must be bunnies! /Buffy

Poor guys

[bickerdyke]

I wouldn't want to swap with those poor engineers working overtime to find out what's wrong here. as one myself, I know how desperate this can feel.

On the other hand, there is no better feeling than finally finding the root cause. The better the more unconnected it seems to be at first sights. That's what you got your degree for.

Homeless crazy poop

[Applehu Akbar]

All downtown BART stations have to be periodically taken offline so that human excrement can be cleaned out of the escalators.

Re:Homeless crazy poop

[BronsCon]

Sadly, the above statement is true.

Beards

[OopsClunkThud]

why does it suddenly start happening now ?

Static in all the beards on board. Ridership is at an all time high, much of it bearded wunderkind, but since they are all totally unique they blind to the collective effect of accelerating all that change.

Re:Looking in wrong place but across the magic sea

[thsths]

Indeed. Running power systems is not easy, and railway power is especially difficult (at least houses and substations are typically stationary). Some good research has been done on this in Europe - and I am sure experts are available for reasonable fees. (Maybe that is the actual problem?)

Re:Karma

[Bartles]

Fine, if you're going to down vote that, then it's Charles Hill's ghost looking for some payback, saying that if BART is going to shutdown cell service to prevent protests, then he'll shut down the trains.

Re:It could be solar....

[mangamaster03]

When did generation and transmission split and become two separate businesses? Our regional power company manages both.

And that cost of the "free" solar and wind that the power company is absorbing...that's not gonna last. There is legislation moving right now to require a flat fee for anyone hooked up to the grid. California pitched a hissy fit about it last summer, but you can't have free solar power, and an on-demand, always on reliable power grid at the same time. If you want the reliability of the grid, you're gonna pay for it.

Re:probably relays, not even 74 series TTL

[BronsCon]

I see you haven't been to the bay area in a while.

Re:global warming. its settled science!

[BronsCon]

I think this was meant to be funny, not as a troll. I could be wrong, but it did make me laugh.

better late than never

[LunaticTippy]

I am very excited. I'm in Milpitas these days and when I want to visit the city or go to berkeley or oakland I have to drive or bike to Fremont to catch BART. Those few miles are super awful after work. Having a station much closer to home is going to make my life much easier.

Re:I'm not sayin' it's aliens...

[Rakarra]

Like that thing that never happened in New York?

Now now, we only wish Men In Black II hadn't happened.

Re:Geomagnetic Flux

[LunaticTippy]

Faults don't really affect magnetic variation. In the area annual change is 0 6' W per year, or 0.1 degree. Such a slow change wouldn't cause a sudden spike in failures, not to mention the entire BART system isn't all that long.

A Subway named Mobius

[mcswell]

http://www.rioranchomathcamp.c...

San Andreas

[pebear]

I think the San Andreas fault is about to give way. And all that static electricity is making it's way into the grid and shorting out the BART infrastructure. We had better get the Rock and Paul Giamatti on this issue because they are the only ones who can save millions of Californians....

Re:Who stands to benefit?

[dl_sledding]

{gn mode on}
AC: it's expertise. You should also learn how to use caps and avoid run-on sentences.
{gn mode off}

Re:Karma

[Rakarra]

Shouldn't he be dicking around in the Fruitvale station? Now THAT would cause some real delays, given the numbers of trains from three different lines that go through that shared station. Instead, the problem is in front of the end station on a single line, which doesn't significantly affect the other lines.