You think BART is bad now

Because passengers rarely see situations where the train operator has to give instructions to passengers fleeing a disabled train or where the train operator has to drive the train on manual because the computers are down. 95% of the time you'll only see a BART operator stick his head out the window and press the button to close the doors.

Allow me to cut and paste my own post from last summer's labor negotiations after I got tired of reading about "all the train operators do is push a button":

Caution, wall of technical jargon text ahead. I see no other way to explain it other than with details. You want to do all the following with robots, good luck.

Most people only see what happens when everything is working properly. Allow me to provide some insight into what the train operator deals with when things go awry. I’m only going to explain some of the terminology and acronyms since for those who think it is all so simple, let them figure it out for themselves.

The first three scenarios are show stoppers requiring the train operator to have a detailed knowledge of the problem and the troubleshooting and corrective measures required to recover from them.

BOIP (Brake On In Propulsion)

If the friction brakes fail in the applied state on any car in the train while the ATO is requesting acceleration or propulsion, this is called BOIP. It causes an audible alerter to sound in the cab (BEEP, BEEP, BEEP) for ten seconds along with lit “friction brake” and “brake on” annunciators on the attendant’s console after which the train is forced to stop. This is to prevent dragging of a car with stuck brakes to the point of overheating and smoking or possibly causing a fire.

Once this occurs, it can sometimes be cleared by cycling the auxiliaries off and then back on. This is why the train sometimes appears to stop and go completely dead for a short while with the lights off and no air conditioning blowers.

If it can’t be cleared, the operator may be required to walk through the train to find the affected car and cut out the brakes. The affected car will have a lit interior trouble light and a “friction brake failsafe” lit on the CCP in a C car or “friction brake” highlighted on the FIMS panel of an A2/B2 car. There are various cutout switches and dump handles that must be operated to isolated the brakes on the affected car.

Nobody, from central controllers, to the vehicle trouble desk, to the mainline techs, to the train operators, relishes having to deal with a BOIP.

Door Open

If even a single side door leaf opens on a train that is in motion, the train is forced to stop. If a door fails to close while the train is stationary, the train won’t move. You can’t have trains moving with the doors open for obvious reasons. Often times a sensing circuitry failure indicates the door is open when it is actually physically closed. The operator will see a “door open” annunciator on the attendant’s console in the cab. Again, the operator may be required to walk through the train looking for a lit trouble light and listening for clicking relays in order to locate and cut out the offending doors.

A stuck parking brake somewhere in the train causes symptoms of both of the aforementioned problems.

ATO SET

The automatic train control uses redundant microprocessors to provide safe automatic operation. When the two processors disagree, a safety error termination occurs which stops the train. If this can’t be cleared with a key off recycle, the operator is required to open the ATO cabinet and change the configuration of leader/backup to bring the spare ATP online to replace the failed unit. The status of the ATPs is displayed on the LCD on the attendant’s console.

Steady “auxiliaries” annunciator

A steady “auxiliaries” annunciator on the attendant’s console can be caused by two different problems that have different symptoms. The first problem is caused by the failure of the pneumatic system on a car somewhere in the train. Since the pneumatic system provides compressed air for the suspension system, failure can result in a car that is lower than the platform or leans to one side. This becomes a trip hazard for the riders as they enter or leave the affected car.

When a pneumatic system (air supply) failure is suspected, the operator may be required to locate the affected car and then cycle fluorescent light circuit breaker #2 which also feeds the pneumatic system’s control circuits in order to attempt to recover from what is sometimes a temporary glitch.

The other problem which causes an “auxiliaries” annunciator is the loss of the inverter on a car somewhere in the train that supplies power to the car’s control and auxiliary systems. This failure has secondary annunciators such as “propulsion” and/or “dynamic brake” and “friction brake” which distinguish it from the pneumatic system problem. If this condition is allowed to persist, eventually the affected cars goes dead with no lights, air conditioning or the ability to properly report its various subsystems’ status to the lead car. This is one cause of the dreaded “all red board” on the attendant’s console of the lead car and it also stops the train and won’t let it move without the use of the “door open” and “brake on” bypass switches in the cab.

It is the operator’s responsibility to properly monitor, report to central control and the vehicle trouble desk (they dispatch the mainline techs to a train to deal with these items and to assist the operator), troubleshoot and provide corrective action for these malfunctions.

The operators are trained in the function and troubleshooting of the various car subsystems in order to be able to perform these tasks, which amount to way more required knowledge, skills and abilities than just pushing buttons and making announcements.

Train operators also need to be thick skinned individuals in order to deal with members of the general public who think they have some right to verbally berate (or worse) the first employee they see when something fails and the train is stopped in the middle of the transbay tube.

They must also be able to remain calm and rational in the face of some emergency that may require evacuating the train.

It is not a job for everybody and you certainly aren’t going to fire them (they are legally allowed to strike without being fired) and replace them all with people who will gladly do the job for a lot less. Ain’t gonna happen. There’s way more to the job than what you see when you ride the train and everything is working properly.

I spent a lot of years working with the trains and operators to be able to know all of this. I never had to deal with station equipment or work regularly with station agents. But you know what? That means there are all kinds of things that go on in their jobs that I don’t know about. One thing I do know is that they have to deal with all those self centered jerkoffs out there who think that as soon as they are paying for something, it means everybody that works there is their doormat or slave when anything goes wrong. Not everybody is cut out to put up with that kind of abuse on a daily basis either. For a lot of people, after a couple days on the job as a BART station agent they would either quit or they’d be at Santa Rita locked up on assault charges.