All BART trains were stopped due to ‘computer networking problem’

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Fare Gates, Scanners, and Rider Experience

  • Many comments focus on new gate tap scanners performing poorly: slow reads, handwritten “hold for 4 seconds” notes, and frequent queues of riders stuck at gates.
  • Several people say the old magstripe or earlier Clipper systems were faster and more reliable; others note Clipper’s original design prioritized offline, fraud-resistant operation over user experience.
  • Some point out that the same vendor (Cubic) supplies problematic readers to multiple agencies.
  • Supporters of the new gates argue they reduce fare evasion, calm stations, and improve cleanliness; critics doubt they’ll ever pay for themselves or justify the disruption to paying riders.

Funding, Governance, and Free-Fare Debate

  • BART’s heavy reliance on farebox revenue (vs subsidies) is seen as a key vulnerability post‑pandemic, with ridership around 40% of 2019 levels.
  • Several argue the Bay Area needs a single regional transit operator instead of 27 agencies, to coordinate funding, routes, and service levels. Others are skeptical bigger bureaucracy would improve outcomes.
  • Strong disagreement over whether BART should be free:
    • Pro-free camp: better for environment and equity; fares are not the main barrier; roads are already heavily subsidized.
    • Anti-free camp: fares are needed for funding and to deter crime, drug use, and “vagrancy”; worry that totally free service would worsen perceived disorder and further suppress ridership.
  • Multiple examples of discount programs and low-income fares are mentioned as preferred over universal free access.

Service Quality, Safety, and Land Use

  • Opinions diverge: some describe BART as dirty, unsafe, and “trashy,” others say post‑pandemic changes (new gates, more frequency) have improved things and that service is “mostly fine.”
  • There’s broad agreement that many destinations remain poorly served and that dense, mixed-use development around stations is critical; local zoning and NIMBY opposition are blamed for slow progress.

Networking Outage and Technical Resilience

  • Commenters joke about DNS and legacy hardware, but the posted postmortem says intermittent connectivity in a redundant network segment caused loss of track-circuit visibility in the control center, forcing a systemwide shutdown until that segment was isolated.
  • Some question whether better failover, redundancy design, or dual signaling systems (like those used elsewhere) could prevent full-network outages in the future.

Comparisons and Broader Context

  • Frequent comparisons to NYC, London, Tokyo, various European and Asian systems: faster adoption of proven tech, better integration, and denser land use are seen as key differences.
  • Several lament that the US, and California in particular, chronically underinvests in maintenance and transit while over-prioritizing cars, despite clear economic and social benefits of robust public transport.