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“National” PTC outage?
Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2022 2:29 pm
by TSS
Earlier today, Amtrak put out a notice that due to a national PTC outage, all trains would incur delays. I am visiting family in Minnesota and heard the local BNSF dispatcher react with surprise and delight when the first train called him reporting functional PTC.
Obviously, locomotive equipment is interoperable, but each railroad has its own brand of line-side equipment, and I always assumed each had their own back-end systems as well. BNSF has servers to deliver data to trains on its lines, CSX on its lines, and so on.
How is it that there can be a national outage? Is there some central data repository?
Re: “National” PTC outage?
Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2022 2:57 pm
by DaveO
Sounds like it was a problem at Amtrak.
PTC just being used as a scapegoat maybe?
Re: “National” PTC outage?
Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2022 3:57 pm
by TSS
DaveO wrote: ↑Mon Oct 03, 2022 2:57 pm
Sounds like it was a problem at Amtrak.
PTC just being used as a scapegoat maybe?
No, as I mentioned, the BNSF in Minnesota seemed to have an outage as well, affecting all trains.
When I looked at the Amtrak map, the late trains seemed to be all on BNSF lines. So maybe Amtrak mis-reported a BNSF outage as “nationwide.”
Re: “National” PTC outage?
Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2022 6:01 pm
by Saturnalia
TSS wrote: ↑Mon Oct 03, 2022 3:57 pm
DaveO wrote: ↑Mon Oct 03, 2022 2:57 pm
Sounds like it was a problem at Amtrak.
PTC just being used as a scapegoat maybe?
No, as I mentioned, the BNSF in Minnesota seemed to have an outage as well, affecting all trains.
When I looked at the Amtrak map, the late trains seemed to be all on BNSF lines. So maybe Amtrak mis-reported a BNSF outage as “nationwide.”
Amtrak did indeed cite a nationwide outage, and Lincoln Service trains, among others, were impacted, although overall it appears to have been lite.
Once they figure out that everybody will be dead in the water, the call to let trains run cut-out was likely swift, but then they're limited to 59mph for passenger, 49mph freight AFAIK
Re: “National” PTC outage?
Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2022 7:21 pm
by Tom49801
Saturnalia wrote: ↑Mon Oct 03, 2022 6:01 pm
TSS wrote: ↑Mon Oct 03, 2022 3:57 pm
DaveO wrote: ↑Mon Oct 03, 2022 2:57 pm
Sounds like it was a problem at Amtrak.
PTC just being used as a scapegoat maybe?
No, as I mentioned, the BNSF in Minnesota seemed to have an outage as well, affecting all trains.
When I looked at the Amtrak map, the late trains seemed to be all on BNSF lines. So maybe Amtrak mis-reported a BNSF outage as “nationwide.”
Amtrak did indeed cite a nationwide outage, and Lincoln Service trains, among others, were impacted, although overall it appears to have been lite.
Once they figure out that everybody will be dead in the water, the call to let trains run cut-out was likely swift, but then they're limited to 59mph for passenger, 49mph freight AFAIK
If they are cab code equipped, wondering if the speed limits are higher than 59/49 where allowed by time table speed limits?