Canadian Railroads > Vancouver Skytrain suffers two massive failures.

On two occasions in the past week, the "Expo Line" and the "Millennium Line" of Vancouver's automated light rail system suffered massive control system failures, resulting in the driverless trains stalling between stations. Most of this system is on an elevated "guideway" and as a result hundreds of passengers were evacuated from the trains and had to walk along the guideway to the nearest station.

There were no reported injuries but many angry and delayed commuters.

The first incident was attributed to a computer failure, and the second one was attributed to work being carried out by an electrician adapting the present electrical power network for the future "Evergreen" line.

The CEO of "Trans Link", the public agency which operates light rail in the Greater Vancouver District is under criticism for initially blaming and suspending the electrician in the second incident before fully investigating the incident and is being accused of "throwing the worker under the train" to satisfy public anger rather than exercise due diligence and have the work done at night when the trains are not operating.

The image shows a second generation Skytrain approaching Surrey Central station northward in 2013.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/24/14 05:52 by eminence_grise.

When I was in Vancouver with Sperry back in 1997 I rode SkyTrain a couple times. I asked how the operator got in and out of the cab and someone told me there was no operator. Another passenger proudly exclaimed "Oh, SkyTrain is great! It has no brakes*, no driver and it goes a hundred miles per hour!" I was afraid to ride SkyTrain after that. I only rode it three more times when speed really mattered, instead I would ride the trolleybuses and buses everywhere I went.

Later on in 2008 I wrote SkyTrain including the above quote. They liked the quote so much that one of the people from SkyTrain met me and took me out on a tour. After seeing how much stuff is involved and how much overlay on the controls I felt safe and rode SkyTrain quite a bit during my five day visit in 2008. I found out that it did have a braking system and it did not go a hundred miles per hour.

*This referred to the original SkyTrain route uses linear induction so basically the SkyTrain has brakes but they do not operate in the traditional sense.

Jim

But haven't all of us been brainwashed into thinking that all of this automated stuff is perfect and works flawlessly one hundred percent of the time?

Now I just don't know what to believe.

SkyTrain has been operating pretty well since when, maybe 1986? That's a decent track record, I'd say.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> SkyTrain has been operating pretty well since
> when, maybe 1986? That's a decent track record,
> I'd say.

As originally introduced, the "Skytrain" was a design by UTDC (Urban Transit Design Corporation) called ALRT, Automated Light Rail Transit, a Canadian Government Corporation. The same technology was used in Scarborough ON and Detroit, MI.

Subsequently, the Canadian Government got out of the transit design business, however other countries carried on with the development of automated transit systems. The newer "Canada" line uses different technology and does not interchange with the two older lines. However, the "Evergreen" line under construction will connect with the "Expo" and "Millennium" lines.

Melding more modern control systems with the 1986 system is bringing some challenges, and the major shutdown caused by "worker error" involved an interface between the old and new systems.

"Trans Link" employees are represented by CUPE 3000, having been earlier OTEIU (a BC only union) and ATU before that. The conflict between transit management and employees goes back decades and is somewhat ideological. Did Trans-Link actually suspend the electrician? Perhaps, but both sides made political hay with it.

UTDC was an Ontario government corporation, not Canadian government.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_Transportation_Development_Corporation

Thanks for the info.

I know the blending of original 1970s and 1980s technology with newer systems has caused a lot of havoc on the Washington DC subway, as well.

You know, the title of this thread is very misleading.
I was expecting to see something about a structural collapse.