The Risk Factor

Last week, a system problem at Tokyo Metro Co., which operates the capital's largest subway network, and East Japan Railway Co., Japan's largest rail operator caused both of their electronic ticket gates to fail for several hours. As a result, several hundred thousand morning commuters rode the rails for free.

Nippon Signal Co., the maker of the gates, has not determined the cause of the malfunction, although a communication problem was suspected as the cause. It was the second time these electronic gates malfunctioned. Last December, the ticket gates wouldn't accept Suica (smart card) commuter passes as payment.

Seattle's newly renovated downtown bus tunnel has been shut down for the second time this week due to a computer malfunction, reports the Seattle Times. The tunnel reopened for weekday bus service on Monday, Sept. 24, 2007.

According to the Times story, "All of the systems in the tunnel — such as ventilation, lighting and signals — are controlled by a computer system installed during the recent retrofit of the tunnel. The computer is based at Sound Transit's new operations center in Sodo."

The tunnel handles 1,076 bus trips on 18 routes on a typical weekday.

There is no word as to when the tunnel will be re-opened.

Seattle's newly renovated downtown bus tunnel will remain closed through Friday (UPDATE: now Monday, 24 December; UPDATE 2: Make that 26 December; UPDATE 3: Make that until further notice; UPDATE: Opens on 27 December.) due to a computer malfunction, reports the Seattle Times.

According to the Times story, "Sound Transit, which recently led a tunnel-retrofit project, found suspected flaws in two or three circuit boards and will also replace five or six similar boards, said its light-rail director, Ahmad Fazel. Replacement boards were being flown to Seattle Wednesday night, he said."

"Fazel said the Seattle tunnel controls include a backup mode. But, he said, the flawed circuit boards were staying "on" even after they failed, disrupting the backup program, he said. Manual controls exist at each of the tunnel's five stations, but without the computer system, the stations would not be united, he said."

The Australian newspaper Herald-Sun reported over the weekend that the A$500m smartcard Myki ticketing project that is already 9 months late, is looking to be even later and cost a lot more money.

The government of Victoria awarded the contract for development of a smartcard ticketing system for public transport to the Keane Australia Micropayment Consortium (Kamco) in July 2005, with a planned go live (public trials) date of March 2007. The new system, if ever completed, will allow passengers to use a single plastic smartcard to travel on a network that spans 270 railway stations, 480 trams and 1,650 buses. Passengers would be able to store value on their cards via self-service machines, the telephone or the Internet.

Software issues have caused many of the schedule and cost problems, surprise, surprise.

The official current projected date is for the Myki system to become fully operational by June 2008, although the government is today saying they hope to see it operational by the end of 2008, but the smart money is now betting for sometime in 2009.