Transit Officials Blame Subway Meltdown on Software Bug
By Chikezie Omeje and Elena Cox
A software bug was responsible for the July 19 subway meltdown, city transit President Andy Byford said Wednesday. And the same software has caused more than a thousand train delays in the past year, he said
“The signals were working, but we couldn’t see where the trains were,” Byford told the MTA board, adding that if a planned August software upgrade had been conducted earlier, the meltdown would have been avoided.
Instead, rush hour service was disrupted on the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 lines, as well as the 42nd Street Shuttle, for more than an hour last Friday evening.
The upgrade has now been put into effect.
Byford also ruled out a cyberattack.
The incident was the second failure this month in the Automatic Train Supervision (ATS) system, which enables the rail-control center to monitor signals and train movements. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the city’s ATS system is split into two sections: one that controls numbered subway lines and another that controls lettered routes.
Overall, Byford said, 1,017 trains had been delayed due to software problems within the past year, but added that those delays accounted for just one in 2,600 trips. That total doesn’t include delays caused by other factors.
“The failure of the ATS system, whether it’s once or twice or five times, even if it’s measured in in hundreds of thousands of trips, it’s unacceptable,” said MTA Chairman and CEO Patrick Foye.
It has been a rough few weeks for the transit system. Foye opened the meeting by addressing Friday’s meltdown, as well as a blackout that left a large swath of Midtown Manhattan in the dark on July 13. He also mentioned a heat-related power outage in Brooklyn over the weekend that affected 30,000 ConEd customers in Brooklyn and Queens, which Foye said delayed A and C lines. In addition, a flood hit the Court Square-23rd Street station in Long Island City on July 18; a viral video shows a man almost being swept away by as an E train approached.
Several board members wanted to know more about the software that caused Friday’s outage, which was built by Oracle and is operated on a Siemens system.
Board Member Lawrence Schwartz recommended a review of the software and its vendor. He also said vendors should bear the cost of the MTA’s response to disruptions caused by defective software.
Byford said passengers were not at risk due to the software malfunction. “The ATS failed, which meant that we couldn’t see the pervading aspect of the signals or position of switches.” He added that the trains had power and air conditioning until they were guided to the stations where passengers disembarked.
“We safely evacuated 3,000 people,” he said.
