Unsuck DC Metro: OK, Computer!

Guest · 662 weeks ago

OCC can give absolute blocks to 10 feet of the train ahead of you. This did not have to be a stand still.
Metro wants more money. Anytime Metro inconveniences the customers and the system glitches become absolute failure like this....Metro is trying to get more money for repairs, trains escalators, salaries, managers salaries, new computers, new radios.

HOW ABOUT CUTTING THE 3 FIGURE SALARIES of these EMPLOYEES and MANAGERS!!!!!!!!
THE employees are causing the continual breakdowns and failure by Metro having a need for begging for more money!!!
GET READY........metro will soon ask for more money!

Cary · 611 weeks ago

There are NO failure codes 1 through 33. Code 34 is meant to be a deployment of personnel at key interlockings (i.e., intersections for automobiles) to perform manual block operations of the trains safely, like a traffic cop, for automobiles.

+28 Vote up Vote down

Anon · 662 weeks ago

Has the ROCC computer joined the union?

+44 Vote up Vote down

wesindc · 662 weeks ago

Dan Stessel: Please keep the trains running HAL.
HAL: Sorry Dan I can't do that.

1 reply · active 662 weeks ago

Ever n Anon · 662 weeks ago

My vote for post of the day! LOL!

+11 Vote up Vote down

SEJOJO · 662 weeks ago

Sat, 07/14, 2:00 Hour, Potomac Ave Station, waited 10-15 minutes, no announcements of what was happening, crowd kept growing, we gave up and exitied where SmartCard, METRO charged $1.70 for Inconvenience of being stranded on a Steam Bath Platform. WTH??? METRO really sucks to charge people that METRO FAILED to provide Services to. METRO should review records where people entered & exited stations within 30 minutes and credit back the money METRO stole.

3 replies · active 662 weeks ago

fsdkljflksjd · 662 weeks ago

It wouldn't be very hard to have a system in place where fares were not charged if the same card was used to exit w/in a short time frame, say two minutes. None of this matters though because metro knows it's easier and they benefit by not having such a system in place. If metro lost money you can believe they would act on it.

+5 Vote up Vote down

anon · 662 weeks ago

Oh, right, like how they acted after learning they were being scammed for thousands of dollars at their parking lots? It took them literally years to figure out they were losing money, and it wasn't chump change. They're too dumb to know when they're losing money.

Heck, they're losing money now because people are leaving them whenever possible.

+8 Vote up Vote down

Andrew · 662 weeks ago

ditto for the two revenue collectors that stole hundreds of thousands of dollars over many years. They only got found out when they the convenience store clerk got tired of them buying lottery tickets and paying in quarters every time. Metro had no idea money was walking right out of their front door.

+10 Vote up Vote down

jkuchen · 662 weeks ago

I have many fond memories of the TRS-80 Model 1 computer--it was a good computer for its time. Of course, that time was 1980, and the monitor made watching Channel 3 nearly impossible for the family members nearby. Ah, there's the analogy for Metro!

+9 Vote up Vote down

Bitter Brew · 662 weeks ago

@Stan Dessel: You bought $11,000 of Macs for your office? What is that, $100 / tweet / year?

3 replies · active 662 weeks ago

-6 Vote up Vote down

Kara · 662 weeks ago

If they do design of any sort it might make sense. They are the favored device of designers and other types of artists.

If he is only doing tweets though, no, it does not make sense.

+8 Vote up Vote down

Bitter Brew · 662 weeks ago

Metro's defense - it was:
"based on the need for better technology for our communications outreach."

That sounds like Twitter, not art/design to me. Anyway, didn't we learn that they outsourced the $400,000 of over-designed and worthless Rush+ brochures?

Kara · 662 weeks ago

Right, Dan has no need for it. My point was there could be a legit case for the relevant department and I often see that done.

My fave was that they needed to develop inventory software. That is an off-the-shelf product, not something you reinvent each time.

+8 Vote up Vote down

@VeggieTart · 662 weeks ago

Gee, Metro, thanks for letting me know BEFORE I entered the Metro system that there was a computer glitch. Had I known before entering the faregates, I would have gone right back to catch the 38B at Ballston Saturday. Enjoy the $1.70 you clipped from me for spending less than 10 minutes in the system.

And having TWO frozen escalators in a bank of three, with one going down is inexcusable. I'm just glad I caught the bus.

+5 Vote up Vote down

@suchfail · 662 weeks ago

You paid for a service, its called the right to enter Metro :-P

Seriously though, inexcusable that this delayed the ENTIRE system. It s hows OCC does note trust their operators to provide VALID POSITION REPORTS. The signals still work, so you have your red and green signals -- Thats ALL you need. More incompotence.

+16 Vote up Vote down

Kid Charlemagne · 662 weeks ago

I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue!

+29 Vote up Vote down

basic · 662 weeks ago

>10 PRINT "EXPECT DELAYS";
>20 GOTO 10

2 replies · active 662 weeks ago

+10 Vote up Vote down

unsuckdcmetro 92p · 662 weeks ago

Hahahah! That's about as far as my "programming" ever got.

jkuchen · 662 weeks ago

Make it

>5 CLS
>10 PRINT "EXPECT DELAYS"
>20 GOTO 5

and you've got a TRS-80 classic. When you'd do an instant clear-screen like that, the letters would start to phase in and out or flash. I wonder if you could do something like that with the PIDs? :-)

+6 Vote up Vote down

Vienna Bound · 662 weeks ago

I hope there will be a system-wide review of all processes and the back-ups. What if a computer 'glitch' caused all the signal lights to be green and there were multiple collisions? What if a computer 'glitch' caused all communications to fail? What if a computer 'glitch' occurred during a freak summer storm that took out cellular communication centers and 911 call centers so that operators couldn't communicate with central control with their personal cell phones? We already know that the K-Mart blue light special phones along the tracks may or may not work depending upon which department fixed the door panel or phone first.

How often are these back up systems checked to ensure tat they are functioning propertly?

3 replies · active 662 weeks ago

+17 Vote up Vote down

Jason · 662 weeks ago

"How often are these back up systems checked to ensure tat they are functioning propertly?"

This sounds suspiciously like preventative maintenance. You're not suggesting that Metro would do anything BEFORE somebody dies, are you?

Vienna Bound · 662 weeks ago

Oops! My bad. It's Monday. I forgot that Metro's slogan is "Honey Badger don't care."

Neenya · 662 weeks ago

Actually, I think it's more like 'if you believe in caring, you believe in slavery'

+19 Vote up Vote down

fsdkljflksjd · 662 weeks ago

My parents are in town visiting and they wanted to take metro to go to the zoo. Shady Grove to Woodley Park would cost the six of us $67.50 using paper farecards and including one peak trip. My parents asked if I was joking. Ahh, the memories I have of a nice smooth train ride, not being jerked around, literally, and the 10% bonus for putting $20 on a card, oh that glorious 10% bonus, gone forever!

2 replies · active 662 weeks ago

guest · 662 weeks ago

hmm, maybe all these wmata problems are a nefarious scheme by the cabbies to get more people into taxis? :-)

Whoops · 662 weeks ago

I noticed a typo.
You put "nefarious" instead of "cunning."

+15 Vote up Vote down

Mariterri · 662 weeks ago

I just think that we are at the point of no return with Metro. The system is too broken to fix; it can only just sputter along and we can be grateful that we made it to work alive if only a little sweaty. I have been riding metro since 1989, and my take is that until the DC, VA, MD and federal governments figure out a cohesive method to enforce accountability in both safety and funding, we are screwed. Too many cooks in the kitchen with too many differing agendas and too little accountability beyond the latest soundbite or twitter feed. Heavy sigh with little hope (I mean, even the deaths of riders and workers have done little to change the system).

guest · 662 weeks ago

transit mtg today:
http://wtop.com/654/2944758/New-rail-transit-safe...

+7 Vote up Vote down

Ritt Momney · 662 weeks ago

Metro fixed the computer problems retroactively.

Jazzie B · 662 weeks ago

According to the AP, the 3-year old $20M central computer system that
monitors the position of every train in the Washington, D.C., Metrorail
system failed on the morning of 24 Sep 1999. The backup involved personnel
with walkie-talkies along 96 miles of track monitoring trains. As a result,
the morning startup was delayed by half an hour.

[The cause was not identified. But this was reportedly the first time in
23 years that the start of daily service was delayed!
"A graphics generating device for Metro's finicky central computer
system froze about 3:20 a.m., sending Metro managers racing to fix it
before the scheduled start of daily service at 5:30 a.m. But they
couldn't restore it until 5:46 a.m., which meant normal passenger
service didn't begin rolling until about 6:15 a.m." -- resulting in
45-minute delays to start the day. "Last fall, the system crashed
several times during rush hour, including one episode similar to
yesterday's when computer-generated views of sections of the system were
blacked out for nearly two hours. In the 15 months after the system was
installed by McLean-based BDM International, it crashed 50 times."
Source: Computer Failure Puzzles Metro Opening Delayed, Rush Hour
Slowed, by Lyndsey Layton, *The Washington Post*, Saturday, September 25,
1999, Page B01, courtesy of Keith Rhodes; PGN-ed http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-...

mike · 662 weeks ago

The LCARS system wouldn't have never crashed

2 replies · active 662 weeks ago

hrh king friday 13 · 662 weeks ago

Isolinear chips, eh?

mike · 662 weeks ago

or some Dilithium Crystals

UnSuck Fan · 662 weeks ago

"It is unclear whether that particular back-up system is for cases like this weekend's, for a destructive event such as a fire--or both."

Events are too tame. Perhaps when The Apocalypse is upon us it will work.

Tommyboy74 · 662 weeks ago

Here's an idea, and a perfect way to bust the messed up unions in the system. Some cities have outsourced rail operations and even repair functions. Example- in Toronto, GO Transit was recently outsourced to Bombardier, who is responsible for staffing and operating the trains. In London, Alstom is responsible for railcar maintenance and operations. And guess what- reliability and on time performance improved in those cases.

Unfortunately, we all know what Jackie and the ATU would say if that were to ever be proposed let alone become reality...

Anonymous · 662 weeks ago

Made do without a car for six years in DC, Metro finally drove me to it and couldn't be happier. Now only take metro to and from work

Anon · 662 weeks ago

Anyone know what happened to the Post's Metro reporter? Recent stories on the system have been written by random reporters. And I'm not just talking about the fluff piece about the Hispanic man in Metro's private printing plant that "works harder than the new generation."

1 reply · active 662 weeks ago