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MTR Corp, a trusted subway operator in Hong Kong, has been shaken by any complacency it may have suffered after a train crash Monday, the first such accident in 40 years of service.
MTR quickly towed jagged compartments and cleared debris of tracks after two empty trains rubbed against each other near the city's central station, in the early hours of Monday morning. The accident occurred during an attempt to test a new $ 3.3 billion (US $ 420 million) signaling system to increase capacity. Both drivers involved suffered minor injuries.
The service between the central and admiralty stations of the central business district of the city was partially suspended for two days.
Faced with public claims regarding the safety of its service, a game of reproach is launched because MTR, the operator of a cost-effective service renowned for its reliability, blamed the accident on the negligence of the big Thales software provider. However, the Paris-based multinational, as well as its Canadian subsidiary that designed the new rail signaling solutions, reacted to what it calls MTR's lack of sense of risk during testing.
According to MTR, the collision on the Tsuen Wan line revealed that the accident occurred after Thales had failed to previously simulate the particular scenario that had been tried on Monday. According to MTR, this, together with a software error in the new system, SelTrac, simultaneously assigned the same two-train level crossing. However, local newspapers report that Thales insists that he has not received a request for such a simulation.
MTR had previously stated that the incident had occurred during tests simulating the move to a second rush hour backup system with trains close to each other, after failure main backup systems and the first backup system.
It appears that MTR is suing Thales for damages. The railway operator may have strong arguments, but experts believe that the company could also have failed to invite Thales to simulate all scenarios, including trying to switch to a second backup system.
Amaury Jourdan, vice president responsible for Thales's technical and transportation activities, told Hong Kong newspapers that there was "nothing abnormal" in the software's design, saying that the problem was related to the "redundancy architecture" specific to the Hong Kong system. , implying that the MTR request for a second backup system was at the origin of the condemned test.
The accident forced MTR to partially suspend train service between the central and Admiralty stations for two days earlier this week, resulting in overcrowding in the two stations serving the Central Business District of MTR. city. Photo: Asia TimesThe signaling system involved was also at the origin of an accident occurred at the morning rush hour in Singapore in November 2017, in which 36 passengers and two employees were injured after a crowded train stopped another stationery train at Joo Koon Station.
According to the Singapore land transport authorities, the collision was caused by a "software logic problem" that prevented communication between the equipment on board the train and those on the edge of the track. A series of software flaws meant that a safety device designed to ensure the maintenance of sufficient distances between the trains was disabled, and Thales would have solved the problem that year.
In addition to Singapore, the London Underground also uses similar technology to modernize its signaling infrastructure on the Jubilee and Northern lines.
Thales, in consortium with the French company Alstom, has been awarded the contract for the installation of new signaling and upgrading of systems on seven of the eleven lines of MTR.
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