BART suspended its entire operations early Friday morning due to a “computer networking problem”, with transit crews trying to figure out the problem.
BART officials said around 5 a.m. that the transit line has a problem with its control system.
Commuters are advised to use alternate means of transportation.
There was no given estimate on when the transit agency would resume its operations.
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Thank God i don’t take bart anymore.
50 year old infrastructure. Smh
No Problem…. everybody drive.
Bart works excellently with the following exceptions
When it rains
When is snows
When it’s windy
When it’s too cold
When it’s too hot
When the Union says to heck with it.
There should be no reason the entire BART system should go down unless there was a catastrophic event ….. where’s the redundancy? …. and they still insist on billions of $$ for system upgrades & improvements? – not a penny imho
Wouldn’t be surprised if someone hacked the system. The system was probably written in BASIC for PC DOS 1.00.
I think they upgraded it to Windows for Workgroups 🙂
They should have gone Linux. Which BTW, is the most used OS in the world. IT professionals learned years ago after trying big name database systems that Linux did the trick (and free) and easier to maintain. Plus if you have an Android phone it is running on top of embedded Linux. So are a lot of other devices.
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I remember some time in the early 1990s when a People Link got news groups and I was reading the computer programming section that a guy was excited because he got his MINIX running. That was Linux Torvald (the father of Linux). I had also been playing with MINIX having purchased the thick book on it.
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If BART is running on Linux the may replaced their experienced IT staff with DEIs. I have friends (who used to work for Microsoft) arriving today in their RV which will have a lovely time driving up from the South Bay. Better keep sharp eyes because a lot of the car drivers may do crazy things.
The BART control system was designed and built in the 1960s. That means it will be a mix of IBM 360 or 370 assembler, COBOL, ALGOL, FORTRAN, and RPG (the old style meant for punch cards that’s barely mentioned on the Internet). The California DMV systems are from the same era. Incidentally, a certain very large bank also is stuck this era. I suspect the IRS and postal service are the same
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They are all maintained by now 70+ year old computer programmers. When chatting with one of the system maintainers I learned he had coded parts of the Apollo Moon landing computer. I’m sure that machine still works as well today as it did in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
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Over the decades, grand plans get announced to update or upgrade legacy systems. These projects end up creating a lot of upset as they get rolled out as it turns out people are unable to fully understand how the legacy systems operate and thus don’t fully replicate the behavior of the legacy system.
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Years ago I was tasked with interfacing a modern system with someone’s legacy beast. One of the data fields was the person’s age. From time to time they would send me an age that was the letter “I” (eye). This was not a defined value and the maintainers of the legacy system did not know what it meant. I eventually tracked it down to a single department that was using the letter “I” (eye) as shorthand for infants. The legacy system had apparently been updated at some point to allow an age of “I” (eye). Humans seeing an “I” on a screen likely assumed age one, not aware they were looking a letter, instead of a digit.
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Multiply that little special case by millions of data fields and you’ll see why it’s hard, it not impossible to replace a legacy system without breaking many things.
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Also, what exactly is a “modern” system? These days, technology is evolving a rapid pace. Today, latest and greatest, is tomorrow’s obsolete junk that you can’t get parts nor support for. Is it possible to build a system that will still be considered “up to date” ten years, or decades, from now?
For those who may not know, the bart computer system is at least 50 years old and that they are in the process of updating it but i think this is something they should have done decades ago. I was at concord b bart this morning and it was a crap show. Lots of upset people trying to get to work or to the sfo airport.
Bart is old outdated and they still ask for money what the heck bart? When is it enough? Uber lyft drivers are charging a fortune today. Thats money people will be short just to get to work or get home.
Good thing bart is a NO profit system ? ? ? ?
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What maintenance letter is bart at ? ? ?
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Letter C is for crisis
Letter P is for preventative
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After 32+ years in industrial maintenance experience, if Regular maintenance
is not done the equipment decides when.
Any system’s reliability is only as good, as it’s level of maintenance.
most will use it as an excuse to stay home. Bart will use it as an excuse to raise fares.
Typical Calif.And probably sabotage.
And they still try to say we went to the moon.6 times.Wake up people.