Photo by fdmount

Twice during the weekend, Metro passengers across the system found themselves idling at stations for more than half an hour. The stoppages came suddenly and left trains holding on platforms with the doors kept open, the result of a failure in one of Metro’s central computer systems.

The first outage came about 2:10 p.m. Saturday when Metro’s information-management program, which allows workers at the transit agency’s rail control center to see trains’ locations on a dynamic map, failed.

“Out of an abundance of caution,” Metro said in a press release, all 44 trains running at the time were ordered to arrive at the nearest station and remain there until further notice. The system came back online nearly 40 minutes later. During the stoppage, Metrorail officials stayed stayed connected with train operators via radio. The system came back online and trains got underway by 2:50 p.m.

But 10 hours later, it happened again, leaving late-night passengers stuck in the same situation between 12:30 and 1 a.m. Sunday morning. Eventually, Metro’s control center gave trains radio-transmitted directions to begin operating agan, but the source of the computer outages remained a mystery.

Late Sunday afternoon, Metro’s investigation was still ongoing, with no reason for the system failures announced. But Metro officials point to an internal problem and not any external cybersecurity threat. Metro spokesman Dan Stessel wrote in an email that there was “no evidence” of hacking.

Still, on Monday morning, Metrorail operated with a show of technical force, dispatching additional supervisors to more trafficked stations throughout the morning commute to respond more directly toward any more potential computer failures.