This message is in response to a few concerns I have heard recently in regard to the impact of Y2K on the U.S. freight rail system. I am employed as an electonics and software engineer in the transportation industry, and while I don't claim to know all the details of all the embedded systems in use by the railroads, the locomotive manufacturers, or suppliers, the critical ones that I am aware of are not in any way date dependent.

Train braking systems are not date dependent. They are primarily pneumatic, and those that are electropneumatic are all backed up by failsafe (in some cases partially redundant) pneumatic systems.

My understanding of the traffic control systems that are in use by the railroads is that they are quite antiquated in that they rely heavily on voice radio communications. In other words, the locomotive engineers are continually in voice contact with the traffic controllers (who are in a centralized location). Once the engineer communicates his location and heading information to the traffic controller, the controller can then remotely actuate track switching devices in order to route conflicting traffic onto alternate routes or into appropriate "sidings." (Sidings are loops of track that essentially go nowhere. Their purpose is primarily to provide a place where a train can wait while other traffic, either oncoming or overtaking, can safely pass.) While this antiquated approach may be ridiculed most of the time, it turns out to be a serendipitous advantage when it comes to Y2K susecptibilty.

Likewise, the signaling systems are not date dependent. Signalling systems place a speed limit on a given section of railway. They depend partly on the voice radio link between the engineer and the controller, but mostly they depend on weak electrical signals that pass through the rails themselves. These signals are generated by signalling equipment located along the track, and are picked up by the locomotive and displayed to the engineer. If the engineer fails to acknowledge a particular signal within fifteen seconds or so, then the brakes are automatically applied and the train is forced to stop.

The only rail systems that I know of that are date dependent are data recorders. These are the "black boxes" similar to the ones used on airplanes to record various operating parameters over a period of time. The U.S. Federal Rail Administration requires that these devices record continuously (without overwriting old data) for a period of at least 48 hours so that investigators have at least two full days to recover the recorder in the event of an accident. Some systems record for more than 48 hours, but 48 hours is the minimum. A Y2K bug in one of these systems could cause erroneous or non sequitir recording in the few days spanning the new year, or possibly even render the recorder inoperable, but there is nothing life threatening about this failure. In fact, there is nothing about this failure that would prevent the equipment from being safely operated.

I would like to hear a response from someone who works directly for a railroad (particularly someone in traffic control) or someone who works for a locomotive manufacurer. If you know of other rail systems that are Y2K susceptible, or if any of the systems I have mentioned above are more susceptible than I have described, please let me know; I would greatly appreciate it.

David Auslander

-- David Auslander (dauslander@usa.net), May 13, 1998

Answers

I appreciate the information about embedded chips in the railroad industry. However, most of the information about railroads that has caused me concern has related to the ability to schedule and route trains and freight cars. It is obvious that the problems at Southern Pacific were caused by computer glitches in trying to merge various scheduling systems in the merger with Union Pacific and ATSF. At the site www.garynorth.com/y2k/detail_.cfm/1487 is a posting that includes the words, "Sure, you can run a few trains manually, but at a fraction of the capacity of the current computer managed system." This was written by Cory Hamasaki. Any comments on t

-- Dan Hunt (dhunt@hostscorp.com), May 13, 1998.

The real issue concerning Y2K and trains, from what I've read, is the switching and tracking systems which control how trains are made up and where they go. I bow to Cory Hamasaki's expertise here -- he has seen and used the (obsolete, outdated, ancient) source code for the program most railroads use, and according to him it is riddled with date fields requiring remediation. Also, and again this is CH info, only 500 or so people in the world know how to handle the language used for the program. 100 to 150 are in the NYC area because the same language is used in the financial district computers.

-- J.D. Clark (yankeejdc@aol.com), May 13, 1998.