Major signalling problems at Swindon

[mr_moo]

Hi everyone,

Major signalling problems have closed the railway completely at Swindon this morning. Busses are being laid on instead!

It's just been updated (in the last 10 mins) to say some trains are on the move but a reduced service is operating and
some routes are still suspended, such as Cheltenham to Swindon.

Does anyone know what is going on?

I would normally be in the chaos myself but today I'm on leave (jut a random day to do house stuff). What a good day to pick!

 

[Retorus]

Blimey, glad I chose to come home yesterday and not today as I was originally going to!

 

[Ferret]

Total loss of power/signalling on the panel at Swindon. Oops!

 

[Zoidberg]

Signalling now restored ... from a Network Rail Tweet a minute or so ago.

Network Rail ‏@networkrail

#Swindon - Signalling was fully restored at 09:30. Our apologies for the ongoing disruption to services. @FGW @nationalrailenq

 

[Captain Chaos]

All back on now. Faulty UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply?) inverter which has been bypassed to restore signalling.

 

[michael769]

All back on now. Faulty UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply?) inverter which has been bypassed to restore signalling.

They should really rename those IPS. I have had more power outages due to failed UPS than I have had from powercuts! :razz:

 

[Chris M]

Another lucky miss here - I'd have been in the thick of it had it happened tomorrow!

 

[mr_moo]

Ooh dear! Thanks everyone! It sounded like something to do with the signal box. My wife works very nearby. I did ask her to check if there was smoke coming from the signal box or something!

 

[455driver]

Good advert for these huge ROC installations, imagine the delays when one of those fails!

 

[Temple Meads]

Good advert for these huge ROC installations, imagine the delays when one of those fails!

That's a very good point, and forgive me if I'm being somewhat melodramatic, but if terrorists decided to target said huge signalling centres, then a huge amount of disruption over a wide area could result.

 

[carriageline]

The area they control can be transferred from one ROC to another.

You can not prevent failures. If they was to try and prevent SPOF (single point of failures) they would be spending billions and billions. There has to be some compromise.

I'd expect ROCs to have data center/ back up/redundancy features. IE back up generators, independent power supplies, etcetera. Basically enough power to last a few hours without power.

Again though, it's all money. And we all know where they try to claim the money back.

 

[Zoidberg]

... forgive me if I'm being somewhat melodramatic, but if terrorists decided to target said huge signalling centres, then a huge amount of disruption over a wide area could result.

The railway system (included under the heading of 'Transport') is part of the Critical National Infrastructure and critical premises, installations and services should be appropriately protected.

Read more about the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure at http://www.cpni.gov.uk/

CPNI protects national security by providing protective security advice. Our advice covers physical security, personnel security and cyber security/information assurance.

and from http://www.cpni.gov.uk/about/cni/

The national infrastructure

The UK's national infrastructure is defined by the Government as: “those facilities, systems, sites and networks necessary for the functioning of the country and the delivery of the essential services upon which daily life in the UK depends”.

The national infrastructure is categorised into nine sectors:

communications
emergency services
energy
financial services
food
government
health
transport
water

There are some cross-sector themes such as technology wherein there may be infrastructure which supports the delivery of essential services across a number of sectors.

 

[ilkestonian]

That's a very good point, and forgive me if I'm being somewhat melodramatic, but if terrorists decided to target said huge signalling centres, then a huge amount of disruption over a wide area could result.

Isn't the critical stuff protected within a blastproof structure?

 

[tsr]

Isn't the critical stuff protected within a blastproof structure?

You forget that terrorists can unfortunately be quite inventive and, in the future (as sometimes now), won't just rely on bombs...

 

[Flamingo]

Ever seen the fence around the new Control Centre in Cardiff? It's a bit more than a bit of chickenwire.

 

[maniacmartin]

They should really rename those IPS. I have had more power outages due to failed UPS than I have had from powercuts! :razz:

Where I work (which is not the rail industry), we have fitted transfer switches after each of our UPS's so that we can transfer UPS-fed equipment directly to mains power to take the UPS out for servicing. You get 1-2 seconds without power, but they've proved to be an extremely good investment

Some UPSs can even align their AC output so that its in phase with the incoming mains AC, so that for a planned outage, you can have a seamless transfer to mains. (Obviously no use if one just breaks without warning)

 

[ilkestonian]

You forget that terrorists can unfortunately be quite inventive and, in the future (as sometimes now), won't just rely on bombs...

True; a bit of Oriental hacking perhaps??

 

[tsr]

True; a bit of Oriental hacking perhaps??

Possibly! It depends on if/how the system is connected to the wider Internet systems. I imagine there is also scope for sophisticated internal sabotage (something that I may well be laughed at for saying, but remember it can happen in other safety-critical industries).

 

[fgwrich]

Ever seen the fence around the new Control Centre in Cardiff? It's a bit more than a bit of chickenwire.

Yep, and it's something we've got to look foward to here in Basingstoke. But at least Network Rail are paying for a new footbridge over the mainlines in the process!