video record
Media not available in the Digital Archive
Description
The programme examines the effects of automation in the BART system on safety and reliability of the system.
Metadata describing this Open University video programme
Module code and title: TD342, Systems performance: human factors and systems failures
Item code: TD342; 05
First transmission date: 25-04-1976
Published: 1976
Rights Statement:
Restrictions on use:
Duration: 00:24:30
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Producer: Andrew Millington
Contributors: Ronald John Beishon; Harre Demoro; Nathan Grief; Willard Wattenburg; Don Evans; Bill Rhine; Chuck Brown; John Kiely
Publisher: BBC Open University
Keyword(s): Central control; Earthquake; Monitoring; Oakland West; Public Utilities Commission of California; Speed codes; Wayside computers
Footage description: Harre Demoro and then John Beishon introduce the programme. Film shots from a camera in the driver's cab of a BART car. Shots of Nathan Grief (BART engineer) inside a BART train just after an emergency stop due to a door malfunction. He explains the procedure which must be followed by the trail attendant in order to locate and correct the fault so that the train can continue. Grief demonstrates the procedure as he talks. Finally, Grief explains how this procedure was modified in order to streamline the system. John Beishon reviews the three main computing facilities which control the trains in the BART system (wayside multiplex boxes, station computing equipment and the central computer). Film shots of each of these facilities. Over shots of the central control room, Beishon explains how the system maintains safety while a crippled train is on the line. Harre Demoro reviews, briefly, the safety record of BART and compares it with safety on the area's freeway system. Film shots of BART train and freeways. Willard Wattenburg and Harre Demoro discuss the effect of tight control over the system by the California Public Utilities Commission on BART safety. Don Evans and then Harre Demoro discuss failure in BART trains which cannot be handled by the BART automatic system. Film shots of a BART underground station as a train is pulling in. John Beishon joins the discussion. Film shots of a BART train in an above ground station and shots of a map of the BART network. Don Evans (BART consultant) explains ways in which the BART system could be designed so that by building in higher levels of redundancy and alternative back-up controls, a failure in a sub-system would not automatically result in a stopped train. Film shots of the BART central control room. Chuck Brown (BART control room operator) gives details of a typical failure on one of the BART tracks and explains how this is dealt with by lengthy, on the spot, human intervention. Don Evans points out how this type of failure could be dealt with while keeping the trains running. John Beishon and John Kiely (Engineering Consultant) sum up the programme with a discussion of the possibility of earthquakes and how the BART designers and engineers have taken this possibility into account. Credits (over aerial shots of San Francisco suburbs).
Master spool number: 6HT/72128
Production number: 00525_5240
Videofinder number: 759
Available to public: no