Monday, August 23, 2010

One switch to rule them all

Some of you may not even be home yet to read this because, as you unfortunately know, the LIRR had a fire at a control tower east of Jamaica. Apparently, the fire knocked out a switch that serviced 10 of the 11 branches of the LIRR. Obviously, this must have been an inferno that engulfed the very core of the LIRR’s nervous system, overwhelming all back-up systems, laying waste to all contingency plans, and keeping an army of heroic staff at bay. Alas, this was not the case, and so it is therefore the focus of a much belated rant.

As the story goes, a power line that supplies the third rail shorted out and caused a fire at a nearby control tower which in turn destroyed a switch that controls 90% of the system for our nation’s largest commuter railroad! What is wrong with that statement? I’m not sure where to begin. Were you surprised to hear that equipment based on pulleys and levers controls such a crucial junction of the LIRR’s system? Could it be that the control tower had no fire alarm, or no nearby staff to fight a fire? Perhaps it was even that, in this day and age, a single point of failure of this magnitude even exists?

If LIRR service announcements are correct, it appears that the fate of the entire LIRR system is held by a single switch. You would think that this control tower would be a virtual Fort Knox of the LIRR and that this switch was one of the most sophisticated pieces of technology in the system. Not the case, and I can understand that – but pulleys and levers? What year are we in that we have vintage equipment as the backbone of our railroad? Was Conjunction Junction in charge of that control tower as well? I’m sure that tower looked like a museum, complete with the latest in smoke signaling technology.

I read in the WSJ online edition that the power line short was likely caused by heavy rains? That’s another major ‘WTF?!’ New York is one of those places that, at times, can experience the harshest weather of every season, including that funny stuff that drips out of the clouds every now and then. What’s that called again? Oh, right, that’s called rain. I guess we never thought that these things should be weather proof. So my vision of this power cable is that of a frayed power cord on your ancient vacuum cleaner. You know, the one with years’ worth of electrical tape wrapped around it. Only this one controls a commuter line carrying over 100,000 people a day. If they only had that tape…

Another line from that article also struck me as odd: “More than 50 extra switch and signal workers were called in to Jamaica…” Let’s break this part down a little. More than 50 – extra – switch and signal workers. So not only are there switch and signal workers that focus on a very specific thing, but there are 50 EXTRA of them. That’s an army of people that work on switches and signals! Let's please have one of them at this control tower, and we can still send out the 49 for coffee and donuts.

What takes the cake in all of this is the comment from LIRR President Helena Williams that, even though the LIRR is replacing 1920’s era equipment, the piece of equipment that actually caught fire was less than 10 years old! Does that mean it’s OK that it happened? Perhaps it’s the equipment’s fault? This is baffling to me, and should be extremely embarrassing to the LIRR. The fact that new equipment was susceptible to such a condition, and that the likely 50-100 year old equipment would still have been working, is ridiculous. Sometimes even new equipment can fail, I get that, but how it fails and how it is backed up sounds like the real failure in all of this. Also, the 100 year old control tower that runs on hamster wheels could have had better monitoring. Perhaps one of the 50 extra switch workers can stop by every now and then to indiscriminately spray WD-40 on everything. That ought to do it.

12 comments:

Nassau Commuter said...

The entire MTA is an embarassment. I'd love to know how much us taxpayers are on the hook for those 50 extra workers who are, I am sure, making quadruple pay for their overtime due to bloated MTA contracts.

Anonymous said...

You said it. Everyone should demand refunds from LIRR for this week. None of us should have to pay for this kind of service.

Commuter Devil said...

How many of you were surprised by the residual delays today? Not me. I expect the LIRR to use this excuse until mid-October. Maybe even blame a fare increase on it. "Attention passengers, due to the control tower fire from two months ago [fill in problem here]."

Anonymous said...

We're in Day 3 of this mess and there's no end in site. What happened to the 50 switch workers?! I heard that the nearby donut shop made a killing in one single coffee break. Maybe all 50 of them can form one single giant switch worker robot. Second thought, that would just mean it would need a much bigger donut.

Anonymous said...

The wasteful spending and ridiculous working rules created by the union will prevent any money from being invested into the actual system. The MTA budget is a mess, one tax after another is levied on individuals, businesses etc to fund this bloated budget. The budget pays the bloated salaries of MTA workers. The budget should fix the antiquated system that these rails are. Did you see how hard it was to fire a handful of token booth workers earlier this year? Instead of progressing, the MTA fought it tooth and nail, so now we have to pay their salary when a more efficient way to do business was created. I pay for my monthly pass to get to work on time, not to support the MTA workers. Get a job in private industry like the rest of us, save for your own retirement, and try to make it on your own without the union spending our tax dollars to set you up with a golden ticket.

Anonymous said...

Supposedly back to normal tomorrow. We will see. Normal meaning 5-10 minutes late anyway. I like the idea of demanding refunds. I emailed LIRR and they told me they are a government controlled agency and not a private company so have no power to give refunds. What a joke. I forwarded that email to our senators and representatives and suggested we get a tax credit if we had a problem this week.

Anonymous said...

50 extra switch workers! I really dont think that part got enough coverage. What could they possibly have done after all of them descended upon that control tower?! Did all 50 of them have a different task? Its even more embarassing that the LIRR sent 50 switch workers to fix this problem than the problem itself. They had 5-10 decades to replace that equipment, and now its going to cost a crapload more than if it were done in a routine way 10-20 yrs ago.

Anonymous said...

What should sadden everyone most of all is that LIRR executives probably get to keep their jobs as if nothing ever happened. If this were a private company, they'd be gone.

Nassau Commuter said...

I fired off emails to all the NY Representatives I could locate on the House/Congress Website. Carolyn McCarthy sends me a letter saying the LIRR/MTA is a NYS agency and that another Rep would better serve me. Thanks for passing the buck. Now I just get spam from this other Reps office. Nothing will be done because without the union vote these Reps would be toast.

Anonymous said...

Enjoy your non-stop Republican led budget cuts that forced the MTA into maintaining 90yo equipment instead of spending the money needed to replace it.

It's not a toy train set people.

Anonymous said...

I think it was the democratic "union friendly" way of doing business that lead to the MTA's budget crisis and our predicament.

Anonymous said...

tornados can happen. trees can fall on a track and disable service that is out of the lirr's control. did that tornado destroy all of their ability to communicate to a jammed up Penn station crowd? they closed the gates and no one had a clue about how one could get home. maybe a few people with a megaphone indicating how trains were running from Jamaica or Brooklyn would have helped. nope! just the usual attitude of the lirr, not caring one bit about its customers. lirr sucks!