ATLANTA — A technology glitch that affected several Norfolk Southern systems — including positive train control and its freight yard operating system — caused delays across the railroad today.
“Earlier today, Norfolk Southern experienced a technology hardware outage that impacted some operations. At this time, we have no indication that this was a cybersecurity incident. We are resolving the outage and trains that are on our lines resumed movement this afternoon,” railroad spokesman Connor Spielmaker said.
In a late-evening statement, the railroad said all systems were restored by 7 p.m. ET, but that it expected the impacts of the outage to last “at least a couple of weeks.” The company is working with customers on updated timings for their shipments.
The intermittent outage, which also affected the railroad’s customer portal and other systems, began this morning and lasted for several hours. Trains that could not connect to the PTC system were not allowed to proceed.
Virginia Railroad Express, the Washington-area commuter railroad, canceled and held trains on its Manassas Line due to the outage. The railway canceled train 331, it said in a 5:19 p.m. service alert.
At 6:08 p.m., VRE told commuters to seek alternate transportation. But in a 6:22 p.m. alert, VRE said Manassas Line trains have been permitted to proceed into NS territory. Train 333 was running 20 minutes behind schedule, VRE said.
The outage affected Amtrak’s Crescent as well as Piedmont service in North Carolina, the New York-Pittsburgh Pennsylvanian, Chicago-Michigan Blue Water and Wolverine service, and Northeast Regional service to Norfolk and Roanoke, Va.
— Updated at 6:55 a.m. CDT with Monday night NS statement.
NS does have hot and near real time backups for their systems.
They also have disaster recovery plans, hardware and places.
They also can run trains on paper (track warrants) to some extent.
My hunch…as systems have become more interconnected over the years, a failure of one could logjam a cue and bring down others.
We shall see.
Should probably go w/o saying; NS should have a backup system, either other computer system on standby or even paper with time schedules ( old school).
Just read on a business website (Which I’m sure Dr. Güntürk Üstün will find on his own.) that NS is expecting the tech outage to impact ops for the next two weeks. Maybe FRA would be better at safe and reliable train operations since they make the rules.
FRA rules make it very difficult to run trains if PTC goes down. Even if the signals are working just fine, FRA considers it basically dark territory. It’s totally ridiculous and another case of administrative stupidity. On NS, as far as I know, trains must run under clear block rules. Which, outside cab signal territory, is difficult to do because you don’t have a C signal. Soooo….. the dispatcher basically has to run the railroad like it’s track warrant territory. One of the reasons I retired early is the fun is gone and these rules and regulations are getting absurd.
Exactly, James. PTC technology is the opposite of reliability. Reliability comes from human initiative, not from an algorithm mandated by Washington bureaucrats.
It didn’t start with PTC. I’ll never forget that great line in TRAINS MAGAZINE, years ago, that CSX couldn’t run trains in Michigan because there was a hurricane in Florida. (All trains were dispatched from Jacksonville.)
The second-greatest railroad novel is this year’s “Seldom Willing”. It places second to “Atlas Shrugged”. Ayn Rand anticipated PTC.
“It didn’t start with PTC. I’ll never forget that great line in TRAINS MAGAZINE, years ago, that CSX couldn’t run trains in Michigan because there was a hurricane in Florida. (All trains were dispatched from Jacksonville.)”
Who was the moron who put a central dispatch site in a hurricane zone?
Oh, CSX, of course,
There is too much reliance on technology. If the traffic control system do not detect any commands to anything on its network after say 1 hour then the signal system should revert to ABS signal displays.
If the outage “began this morning and lasted for several hours,” why is VRE cancelling evening trains?
NS is such a train wreck, Literally.
This isn’t the first time a PTC outage has had a major impact on NS railroad operations this year. In March, Amtrak was forced to cancel trains for multiple days in a row because of an outage.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
The kind of system outage that makes you wish it hadn’t happened.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
Unreliability will drive (Intentional pun) rail commuters back to their cars faster than a fare increase. Did VRE give free rides home like carpoolers supposedly get if they have to unexpectedly work late?