Thousands of commuters left stranded for hours

Technical snag is becoming a buzzword with Delhi Metro commuters; not one they are particularly fond of. Thousands of passengers had a harrowing time on Tuesday due to software malfunctioning on Dwarka- Noida/Anand Vihar Metro Line. So far, the line has seen the biggest crowds, registering an average ridership of 6 lakh on weekdays.

Train services were affected due to intermittent automatic train supervision (ATS) server failure, resulting in the problem of identification of trains, which are monitored through computers. “Once the train identification numbers are lost, the trains will not be able to move. And this resulted in bunching of trains. The problem was rectified after sometime and services on the line resumed,” a DMRC spokesman said.

The glitch was reported at 11:42 am Delhi Metro said and was rectified by 12.35 PM. However, passengers complained that trains were running slow till late evening.

Shikha Singh, a resident of Netaji Subhash Place, who works with an advertising firm said: “We heard the problem was prevalent since morning. But it’s very chaotic now. It took me almost one more hour than usual. I started my journey at 5 pm from Noida and its 7 pm and I am still travelling. Nowadays the problem is occurring very often,”

Anther commuter, Kshitij Sharma, a web designer who lives in Chandni Chowk, said: “I do not know what the problem was but there were frequent announcements of delays. They were not even mentioning when the problem will be rectified.” During this period, trains between Moti Nagar and RK Ashram were run at a restricted speed.

The major problem occurred due to bunching of trains resulting in thousands of passengers remaining stranded at different Metro stations and trains across the network. The chaos continued throughout the afternoon and persisted till evening.

Source:http://www.mid-day.com/news/2010/oct/201010-News-Delhi-Noida-Metro-commuters-DMRC.htm

Amidst the recent slew of Metro fare increases, it was a piece of good news: The price of a SmarTrip card was going to be slashed in half from $5 to $2.50.

The price cut was a way to encourage the use of plastic SmarTrip cards as Metro tries to transition from paper farecards.

But now, Metro says that discount — which was supposed to start on Sunday — is being delayed because of software issues.

“Additional programming changes are being required to implement the reduction of the cost of a SmarTrip card,” a recent Metro press release states.

Some riders who thought they’d be getting the discounted cards by now aren’t happy.

“Metro has no information whatsoever about this on the easily reachable parts of its website,” Roger from Oakton writes WTOP. “Just one more Metro screw-up.”

There is no firm date when the discount will begin. Instead, Metro says it’ll start sometime in the early fall.

Using a plastic Metro SmarTrip card instead of the paper version does pay dividends for riders — rail trips cost 25 cents less with a SmarTrip card, and bus trips cost 20 cents less.

Metro says right now, about 75 percent of rail riders and 60 percent of bus riders use SmarTrip cards.

Source:http://www.wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=2041116

A software glitch on the first day of Metro’s higher fares allowed riders using paper fare cards at 34 stations to enter for the old fare Sunday.
Metro technicians discovered the problem early in the morning, said Reggie Woodruff, a Metro spokesman. The last fare gate was fixed by 2 p.m., when all stations were charging the higher fare. SmarTrip cards were charged the correct fare throughout the day.

Woodruff said it was unclear why the software, recently added to fare gates in the 34 stations to upgrade the transit agency’s fare collection system, failed to charge the higher amount.

“We anticipated that there might be glitches,” he said. “With all the programming we did for so many stations, it was bound to happen.”

The changes that took effect Sunday raised rail fares by about 18 percent and bus fares 20 percent. Implementing the increases was a challenge because Metro had only about 30 days to test and implement them across its bus and rail systems.

Source:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/27/AR2010062703361.html

A software glitch on the first day of Metro’s higher fares allowed riders using paper fare cards at 34 stations to enter for the old fare Sunday.

Metro technicians discovered the problem early in the morning, said Reggie Woodruff, a Metro spokesman. The last fare gate was fixed by 2 p.m., when all stations were charging the higher fare. SmarTrip cards were charged the correct fare throughout the day.

Woodruff said it was unclear why the software, recently added to fare gates in the 34 stations to upgrade the transit agency’s fare collection system, failed to charge the higher amount.

“We anticipated that there might be glitches,” he said. “With all the programming we did for so many stations, it was bound to happen.”

The changes that took effect Sunday raised rail fares by about 18 percent and bus fares 20 percent. Implementing the increases was a challenge because Metro had only about 30 days to test and implement them across its bus and rail systems.

Source:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/27/AR2010062703361.html