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RobotRisk / SFMTA / 2019-02-28

Automated Train Control System central computer failure halts subway communications

S3 · 02/28
2019 · ~09:00 PT · SFMTA · San Francisco, CA, USA

Record

CompanySFMTA
Categoryother
Typeoutage
Date02/28
2019
Time of day~09:00 PT
LocationSan Francisco, CA, USA · Muni Metro subway
SeverityS3 (recall, enforcement, or fleet-wide fault)
Scalesystemwide, all subway trains (~40 trains), ~70 minutes
Confidencehigh
VerificationCited source on file; not independently re-verified
SourceSFMTA (agency blog)

What happened

SFMTA's Automated Train Control System (ATCS) suffered a central computer failure shortly after 9:00 a.m. on February 28, 2019, cutting communication with every train in the Muni Metro subway; non-communicating trains had to run in manual mode at reduced speed, and full communications were not restored until 10:10 a.m.

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