Yesterday was a day of pretty massive disruption. A malfunction in the tunnel’s safety system shut it down, cutting Link off at Stadium station. Meanwhile, Sounder trains were canceled and delayed right and left due to mechanical issues.
These things happen. I doubt the communications improvement plan is fully implemented yet, but if you were trying to use those services, how did ST do in letting you know what was going on, and what to do about it?
Yes, these things happen when you employ a single set of tracks with zero redundancy and a technology that has zero flexibility. These things are going to continue to happen in direct proportion to the number of miles of light rail that we build. Thankfully, virtually no one rides Link right now, so “these things” aren’t that big of a deal, but once we have a 50 mile system that hundreds of thousands of people rely on, “these things” are going to be a very serious problem.
How does what happened in the tunnel reflect on how Link was built?
If buses weren’t running through the tunnel we wouldn’t have such complex signal systems for Link. So in that sense when we do have a larger system issues like this won’t be as likely.
“Yes, these things happen when you employ a single set of tracks with zero redundancy and a technology that has zero flexibility.”
As opposed to very flexible streets and highways that are congested by design.
Your delay on the freeway and major streets are built-in. No accidents. No shutdowns. No incidents. It’s just like that. Every single day.
People eventually take detours even though the freeway is working just fine. First they detour to major streets. Then they start detouring through residential areas, which creates problems for the people who live in those neighborhoods. Eventually, even the detours become congested.
Now that’s flexibility.
Two things:
First very few modern rail systems have been built with multiple redundant paths. The systems that have them have developed them over time. Even then the cities with multiple rail paths still suffer major disruptions when one of those paths is blocked as all paths are usually needed to handle peak commute loads.
Second I really don’t think something like Link could have been built using buses. Sure it is technically feasible, but I don’t think the political will is there. Besides for corridors like Downtown to Northgate and Lynnwood a bus based system would cost just as much and offer less capacity.
The TV reports I saw were depressing. Transit cops were stationed at the tunnel entrances as the gates came down, security guards were hanging “Tunnel Closed” signs on the gates and Jim Forman was giving directions to bewildered travelers about how to get home. Shouldn’t someone other than Jim Frickin’ Forman be there to give out information!
Parka Boy saves the day!
We always call him “Danger Jim”
Though not as obviously irritated as the economist above, I do have to admit that agree with his assessment of the situation. I DO ride the rail and for a starving artist that can’t afford parking downtown I DO rely on the timing to be perfect on my commute. Things happen and I’m more than understanding in those cases. However, my commute has been interrupted with more and more frequency lately, making me rethink my decision to rely on such a new technology here in Seattle.
I was on a Northbound Link train yesterday around 4:45, we got to Columbia City, where the train stopped, and the operator said “I don’t know what the issue is, but I have been told that we’re going to be held here for a while”..
Hopped off, rode my bike north, and the train never passed me as I rode past the Mt Baker station, so I guess I saved some time by not waiting on the train. I wonder how long they ended up having to sit there…
That’s a better announcement than previous ones. If only he could add, “You can try the 8 on this street and transfer to the 7, or walk to Rainier and take the 7″. Actually, ST could just leave an emergency sheet in the driver’s compartment listing the bus routes from each station if the driver isn’t familiar with the area.
Great idea. I will send it to the appropriate people here.
WOW… I got lucky then. I went through without any issues at around 4:10pm Southbound on Link. I started receiving the e-mails around Rainier Beach Station of what was going on and then more Sounder issues.
Really, really bad day for ST Rail.
I got semi-lucky. Never needed to take the train, but I entered the tunnel and exited roughly 15-20 min before they closed it to all traffic.
I still question the wisdom of the bus tunnel (and tunnels in general) around Seattle.
The traffic on the avenues is mostly non-existent. Even rush hour moves faster than say, Central Avenue in Kent. So why a tunnel? They didn’t even do a good job of hooking it up to other transport systems as the Sounder is a long walk up and down stairs from the buses and LINK.
The inverted-logic bailoisms never end. It takes twice as long to ride the 14 from Convention Place to Intl Dist. Partly because of the stoplights downtown, and partly because the bus goes on an obscure part of 3rd Ave S (instead of going on the diagonal 2nd). It was frustrating when the tunnel was closed for renovation, and I feel sorry for people on the 358 and other routes that go entirely on the surface.
I still wonder why the 358 does go on the surface. They should push the 301 to the surface and have the 358 in the tunnel.
Because the tunnel exits at 9th, three blocks east of Aurora. They didn’t think it made sense to force buses to detour to fit the tunnel location.
I got to Pioneer Square station at about 5pm and proceeded to wait until 5:25 for a train. No announcements. When it arrived it was completely packed full. Maybe 10-15 more people squeezed on, but I couldn’t make it. The train operator made an announcement over the Link intercom to the effect that there was a signals problem; they’d be holding at each station as they went and that he didn’t know what kinds of delays that would create.
I live on Beacon Hill near the station, so at that point I went up to 3rd caught a 7X and walked home from Rainier. Didn’t find out what a mess I just missed until I saw the evening news, but it sounds like they closed the tunnel very shortly thereafer.
What perplexes me is the ‘complete closure’ for a malfunctioning computer and signal system.
When I used to drive Bredas and Hybrids through the tunnel, we had the same problems from time to time, but never once was the tunnel closed. The control center would advise all the buses of the situation, “all lights dark”, and we would proceed with caution. That’s why there’s a human at the controls – to exercise professional judgement when computers fail.
The news said something about the fire suppression system being tied to it, so that may require complete closure, by fire dept rules. Seems there should be an override protocol for that too.
I’ve suggested flagwavers…
Nonetheless, you cite times before they implemented joint operations signalling, which I’d presume is vastly more complex.
Still, even in railroad operations, it’s perfectly possible to work through signal failures. Train operators are given permission to pass failed signals at low speed, prepared to stop in case of any obstruction on the track. And if they’re really clever, they could even operate the line with manual block, having people at the stations. When a station is reported to be clear of buses, the train at the station behind is allowed to proceed and vice versa. They might have to figure such a system out if these failures become common.
Hey do you know any reference materail about rail operation procedures?
You are correct, without signals the train system can operate fine. (That is how we ran it Thursday night through Saturday morning.) The trouble was the “Fire, Life, Safety” systems in the DSTT. Having no way to manage the fire/ventalition system we were forced to shut down per SFD rules.
What went wrong with the ventilation and sprinkler systems? Why didn’t they have redundancy? Why weren’t they designed “failsafe”? This just seems like bad engineering.
Thats what happens when you get the FRA involved in the situation…
I subscribed to Transit Alerts from Metro when they first were available. Several of the routes I subscribed to are Tunnel routes. I received an alert at 5:47 PM that the tunnel was closed and it gave me alternate boarding locations for my routes.
The alert came much later than the closure, evidently. That can certainly be improved. But Transit Alerts did not exist this time last year and I believe they are extremely useful.
You sign up via a link on Metro’s Home Page, on the right under Alerts Center.
Couldn’t those fancy gates at the Tunnel Stations have permanent alternate-boarding info on them?
Doesn’t need to be permanent. Just a large temporary sign that’s more helpful than the “Tunnel is closed” ones, preferably customized to each entrance or station with a clear map and directions to alternate service.
OK, I had to make one, just to kill the time on the bus. This one for Intl Dist Station.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/viriyincy/4889267286/
Hire this man!
While I didn’t ride yesterday, I did get updates sent to my phone all day long. I rely on twitter to get me those updates when I’m not on my computer, and some of tweets came in hours late. Those that came via my RSS feed did much better.
I appreciated the email alerts of the Sounder delays. Unfortunately, the alerts in the morning were incorrect (wrong info on which train was delayed). I almost missed the train due to this and had to full out run to catch it yesterday morning.
Actually, while I have never riden the link from the airport without incident… I’ve never had problems with notification. They had the shuttle bus ready and notified the passengers clearly and appropriately. This might have been because they had lots of prior practice during the day. :-)
Still down on the link tho… so far, 0 for 5. I recognize, that I might be a very unlucky person…. but now it’s getting silly :-)
Man, you ARE unlucky! :-) I’ve done the airport run 15 or so times now, at all hours of the day, and have never been delayed. Or perhaps I’m lucky, but my last trip to Emerald Downs puts paid to that idea….
By all means, E.S., stop riding Link. You seem to carry a hex with you. ;)
My source says the batteries in a couple of the locomotives were stone cold dead…this the mechanical issues…
the hep generators dont keep a trickle charge on the starting batteries? of course if the battery is stone cold dead….
This sort of reminds me of when I last rode the Coast Starlight. We were stuck for a half-hour in SoDo waiting for an electrician in the field to come and fix a problem with one of the locomotives. Of course, we made up the time pretty quickly.
Okay, now on the bright side…ST can learn from this. As we’ve all said in the past, and Joni Earl has mentioned, there are very few of these issues that occur so ST doesn’t have the experience to face these issues when they arise. Well, now they do.
Between all the mode issues yesterday, I am sure they are having a conference today as to how to deal with these problems in the future. And if they are not, then someone at ST (with the addition of Metro) needs to get a plan in action.
Other than the tardiness in alerts, this wasn’t really an ST problem. And Metro alerts came out as just as late as the ST ones. Simply said, the tunnel just had a bad day.
You are right, it wasn’t a ST problem. It was due to the network going to the lowest bidder. :)
The same guys to blame for giving us lame next train messages instead of a realtime continuous arrival countdown.
In the tunnel where there is no cell reception you’re immune to the tweets and email alerts (which were well communicated). This would have been an opportunity for live ticker updates and radio communication with the security agents. I felt bad for the security guards who were bombarded with anxious commuters who had no information in the tunnel.
Some of us pay 20c for every text message, so we don’t subscribe to text alerts. I could get unlimited texts for $5, but that’s a waste if you only get a few texts a month.
Is there a twitter hash tag for Seattle transit delays?
Being a former Chicago train commuter, I have to say you guys don’t know from service delays and total information backouts. Of course, this is a new system so one would hope for better (and better than Chicago is really not saying much anyway).
I was stuck on my southbound commute last night (at a variety of stops the longest being Columbia City where I eventually bailed). I thought that the operator did a MUCH better job of keeping the passengers up to date than I have ever experienced on the Link. My experience in the past is that the usual information that could barely be discerned above the sound of the air conditioning was that the train was being held. This time the announcements were clear and there was some actual content. That seemed like a huge improvement.
Amateur hour… seriously. This is getting more and more ridiculous.
We replace a multinode, network of independent buses, which have flexibility on routing, with a single node, single file, single point of failure system and when it goes bonkers, everyone puzzles what went wrong.
Seattle needs to hire some topologists.
Every time a street closes unexpectedly, the bus network breaks. Just as badly. It’s not like people *know* where to go to catch suddenly-detoured buses.
Oh yes, remember that evening rush hour protest a few months ago that shut down a single intersection on 2nd Avenue? Conga line of commuter buses had to detour to 3rd Ave for a few blocks, jamming up service on 3rd as well as Stewart St all the way from I-5 to 2nd Ave.
It wasn’t just a bad day to ride the train, it was pretty bad to ride the bus, too. First, I helped about a dozen people figure out where they were going who were just standing around helplessly outside of a Pioneer Square Station entrance, staring at the little sign for where to get buses if the tunnel is closed but not knowing what to make of it. Tourists, especially, have a very hard time figuring out where to go. I then got on a 73 at 3rd & James, and through a combination of going up the surface streets in Downtown, going on the General Purpose lanes on I-5, and having to backtrack from the 45th I-5 exit, we got to 45th & the Ave 23 minutes late. I think it took about triple the amount of time it was supposed to. But luckily stuff like this doesn’t happen too often, and luckily the buses were still running in some form, even if they were very off schedule.
The 97 Link Shuttle was running, apparently all the way to Beacon Hill. The shuttle needs to be changed in a couple ways. First of all, it shouldn’t have a number, as people would then think it’s a regular route and not an emergency backup to Link. Secondly, it should say “Light Rail Shuttle” instead of “Link Shuttle” on the headsign because unfortunately very few people call it or even know it’s called Link.
One thing i’ve noted over the years is that the street supervisors and radio dispatchers need the ability to be able to start turning equipment back to maintain service on portions of the line that are unaffected by whatever problem has occured. Also modern systems dont seem to build nearly enough non revenue track to enable turnbacks and storing OOS equipment
I’ve also taken note of your last point during my rides along the system. The only places to store a trainset off the mainline are at Stadium and Rainier Beach, along with SeaTac if you dedicate one platform to storing trains and turn inbounds quickly enough to avoid holding the following train at the crossover north of the station.
On the other hand, given the nature of where the line was built — parmarily in tunnels, down the middle of a four-lane arterial and elevated — it’s tough to find a number of good places to park trains for en-route emergency maintenance or storage. Perhaps one solution would be the space the Mt. Baker and Columbia City crossover pairs far enough apart, with separate interlockings, that a trainset could be parked between the switches; this scenario introduces only a very small segment of single-track mainline which could be entirely mitigated for operational purposes by proper scheduling.
Video of exiting the train at Stadium Station and on to the 97 Link Shuttle then to catch my bus home. This was late in the evening, shortly before 9 pm. I rode from Tukwila and the operator announced there that we’ll continue on a bus to downtown at Stadium. No delays along the line. No information at stations along the line. The DSTT entrances were still playing the same generic messages. They should be running status updates and alternative info continuously on the message signs.
Looks like they are figuring this out on the fly. The PA told passengers to use their ticket as fare but then the Metro supervisor told us the shuttle was free. Then the supervisor had to give directions to the driver on where to go and stop. Why don’t they have this plan in place? Didn’t the tunnel shut down in the past?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo4Dx22qrzQ
Looking at these incidents I get the impression that the interface to those variable message signs is something unwieldy and not up to the task of providing useful information in these situations. I remember when the elevator at Tukwila broke there was an announcement about it where they spelled Tukwila “Tuckwilla,” which I presume was to get the synthesized voice to pronounce it correctly.
What I don’t understand is that why was there 3-5 empty metro business that were returning to base at around 5:35 be instructed to become instand bus bridge from IDS to Statium. They were heading down to that base anyways? In the earlier post, someone said that the train was held at Columbia City at 4:45pm. How difficult would be to prep all buses that were return to base via 5th ave S to standy to be an emergency bridge should a decision be made?
Because communications with the control center is tightly controlled. The operators must request to talk to a controller, via priority buttons.
The controllers are immediately swamped during a significant event, because they control probably 200-300 operators at any given time.
So it becomes a ‘keep your head above water’ type operation. They do a good job, under extraordinary circumstances. But there’s not a lot of time left over to ‘go the extra mile’, if you know what I mean Vern.
Also, I don’t think last-minute forced overtime is an expectation of Metro operators. Nor do I think it should be.
[...] Sunday Open Thread: 97 Link Shuttle by Oran Viriyincy Footage from the aftermath of Thursday’s tunnel debacle: [...]
The light rail delay last Friday August 13 made me miss my flight and ruined my weekend.
The train was delayed by over 50 minutes, and there was no explanation to the passengers as to what was happening or how long it would take to resolve. As a result of the delay, I missed my flight by minutes, waited for two hours trying to go standby on the next (and last) flight out, and then didn’t make it on. Flying out the next morning meant a big price hike, so I stayed in town, missing my good friend’s birthday.
I will never take the light rail again. From what I’m reading, delays seem to happen frequently; what is the point of having a train to the airport if it isn’t reliable?
I sympathize with your plight. But put the shoe on the other foot. If the freeway comes to a screeching halt several times a day, why do we have it?
Light rail blockages are still far less frequent than full traffic jams, and yet, people don’t give up their automobiles.
If you are going to fly out of town, heed the advice of the airlines, and plan to be there two hours ahead of time.
If the light rail was as undependable as the airlines, then I, too, would give up on it. Thankfully, it isn’t. Even the usually on-schedule Southwest got me home four hours late the last time I flew.
Multi-hour delays happened about 50% of the time when I flew. I swore off flying in 2007. If I’m going to have multi-hour delays, I’d rather be in a train.
I’ve relied on connecting from ST buses (550 or 554) to Link to get to the airport on numerous occasions over the last year, at varying times of the day, and have never had a problem with delays. As Brent points out, any transportation system suffers the potential for introducing delays into a trip, and one has to take that into consideration as a risk/benefit comparison in their planning.