Monday's Frozen BART Computers Still a Mystery

BART service after a computer problem at the Operations Control Center prevented system managers from monitoring train movement. 

But BART still isn't quite sure what caused the router problem that froze computer displays around 7:30 p.m.

"We're not really sure if there was a breakdown of the router itself," said Jim Allison, BART's deputy chief communications officer. "There are two routers... for some reason, instead of working together, they were competing against each other."

Allison said the problem was solved by disconnecting both routers, and then reconnecting one to the computer system. He said BART is confident the problem was fixed Monday night when it resumed regular service around 9:52 p.m., but it is still investigating what caused one router to fail.

Without the watchful eyes of the system managers, BART had to stop all train service until around 8:40 p.m., when they began using radio communication to restore limited service with major delays.

"The managers are essentially like air traffic controllers; they see the big picture," said Allison. Normally, the Operations Control Center features the entire system map on two large displays, plus smaller displays showing the details of each train on the tracks.

Managers use the displays to navigate trains around problems in the system — if, for example, a train stops moving because its doors are stuck, Allison said managers would stop other trains from entering that station, or perhaps switch them to another track.

Allison said nothing quite like this has happened before in his six years at BART. In March 2006, BART's main computer crashed, causing train service to be stopped during the evening rush hour, according to The San Francisco Chronicle. "If I remember correctly, that was a software problem rather than a hardware problem," he said.

BART said it may be weeks or months before it knows what caused the router problem.