After New Year's revelry, mass transit to get first Y2K test

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Don't take the train to the party! Link dated today. <:)=

WASHINGTON (AP) Transportation officials are uneasy about the readiness of mass transit systems for the year 2000, because huge New Year's Eve celebrations will send thousands of revelers toward public transportation just minutes after computers make the date change.

If a Y2K bug paralyzes subway nervous systems or the electrical supply that runs trains in cities such as Boston, New York and Washington, operators will have virtually no time to make repairs or warn incoming riders.

French officials will stop all trains and subway cars in France between 11:55 p.m. and 12:15 a.m. to ''respond to the anxiety'' of passengers, said a statement issued Monday by SNCF, the national train company.

Some U.S. operators, such as the Chicago Transit Authority, will conduct similar pauses. Federal officials think it's a prudent step.

''Rather than take any risk, they feel five minutes out of their schedule, with each train stopping in the station, would be a useful precaution,'' Mortimer Downey, deputy transportation secretary, said last week at a congressional hearing about the readiness of transportation systems for millennium change.

The so-called Year 2000 problem poses a special problem for mass transit because it will strike at the intersection of two unavoidable realities: the test of Y2K computer fixes at precisely the moment some transportation systems will be taxed by larger-than-usual crowds.

Some older computers were programmed to recognize dates in two-digit format, so the question emerges what will happen when 1999 recognized by those computers as simply ''99'' changes to 2000. Computers may malfunction and think the clock has been set back to 1900 instead of forward to 2000.

At that moment, New Year's Eve parties will be reaching their climax. Crowds urged to use public transportation as a way to avoid traffic will head for the nearest bus, subway station or railroad terminal.

Washington officials expect up to 800,000 riders that night on their Metro subway system, many of them attracted to the Lincoln Memorial for a millennium party hosted by entertainer Will Smith.

Boston is expecting 2 million for its First Night celebration, an increase of 500,000 people from a normal year, while Times Square in New York is expected to be a mecca for millennium buffs.

A Federal Transit Administration survey found that of 550 federally funded operators including bus, subway and commuter rail providers all but four said they are either Y2K compliant or have contingency plans. The remaining four, all in Puerto Rico, either did not respond or responded incorrectly.

Major subway operators insist they and their equipment suppliers have done all the tests they can do. Privately, some say they're not sure about the reliability of their electricity suppliers.

''We will have a number of technical people available. However, we've been assured by our contractors and subcontractors that they have met all the challenges to ensure a smooth transition,'' said Tom Kelly, spokesman for New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

''We came through the 9-9-99 with no problem, and people said that might be an issue,'' said Cheryl Johnson, a Washington Metro spokeswoman. Analysts had feared that Sept. 9, with its lineup of 9's, would seize computer brains.

Amtrak and commuter railroads also insist their trains are ready, but many have their own Achilles heel: they operate on tracks owned by freight railroads. The four largest freight lines in the country Burlington Northern Santa Fe, CSX, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific won't report their Y2K readiness until next week.

Rail experts say the public should not worry, since older subway cars and many locomotives are not computerized. Equipment such as grade crossing signals is tripped not by time and date information but by mechanical switches thrown by an approaching train.

Yet last month, Washingtonians got a hint of their subway's vulnerability. For the first time in 20 years, a computer that monitors every train in the Metro system froze just before the start of the morning rush hour. It caused delays of up to 50 minutes.

Metro officials said the problem was not Y2K-related.



-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), October 07, 1999

Answers

FYI,

This story made the LEAD on the news at 9AM on the world's first commercial radio station.

Hey FLAME AWAY. Do you think HONS MAN will GI now?

-- nothere nothere (notherethere@hotmail.com), October 07, 1999.


time to join the order of the hoof

-- save an apple (for.me@your.horse.!!!), October 07, 1999.

''We came through the 9-9-99 with no problem, and people said that might be an issue,'' said Cheryl Johnson, a Washington Metro spokeswoman. Analysts had feared that Sept. 9, with its lineup of 9's, would seize computer brains.

oh dear oh dear......

-- matt (matt@somewhere.nz), October 07, 1999.


Did anyone else get the chills when reading this article!?

-- Maggie (aaa@aaa.com), October 07, 1999.

Yes, I got chills, as has everyone in the Metro DC suburbs of MD and VA ever since we heard of the ridiculous Clinton Bash here. There isn't even room at the Metro parking lots to adequately handle a normal rush hour, which helped decide where I could reasonably expect to commute when job-hunting over many months and being unable to get downtown from a Virginia suburb for interviews some mornings! How are they going to handle this HUGE crowd surging out of downtown DC all at once that night? It is insanity to plan it, and insanity to plan to attend it.

To top it off, today's 8:30 a.m. local news on WGMS-FM 103.5 had a segment about Metro being unsure of its ability to serve after Y2K due to only [?] 40 of the [?]500 (unsure of figures being accurate in my memory) feeder services to Metro being compliant. I assume that's the buses, group van services, etc.

-- Elaine Seavey (Gods1sheep@aol.com), October 07, 1999.



Washington officials expect up to 800,000 riders that night on their metro subway system,....

When I read the part above,it really got me thinking about a program I watched last night.Now I see the concern.

-- Maggie (aaa@aaa.com), October 07, 1999.


Sounds like a good target for some terrorist group with a little bit of anthrax. Man you couldn't pay me enough money.

-- David Lee Roth (Diver Down@Van Halen.ou812), October 07, 1999.

David,thats exactly what I thought!

-- Maggie (aaa@aaa.com), October 07, 1999.

It gave me a chill as I thought about the possibility of several million people around the country being stuck out in sub-freezing conditions due to failed transit systems. I can't picture how crowds in Times Square could be moved without mass transit. Mass cases of hypothermia and frostbite could result.

Same for Chicago and Washington, DC. And those three cities have very good chances to be near zero degrees F or colder for New Years. How many revelers in any such crowds would be prepared to stay warm through the night and then hike out the next day? And what about food, water and sanitation for such footborne masses as they trek home, assuming transit system failures are all that goes wrong?

New Years morn and the sound of marching feet takes on a new slant I'd never really considered.

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), October 07, 1999.


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