I deal with disaster scenarios all the time. I am paid to look at a system we have and figure out where it could fail. then come up with a way to minimize that risk, either by a fully automated redundant system or some other backup plan.
So saying I was surprised when I read that the MTA had to turn off an entire train line and it won’t be back for nine months would be an understatement. How can a major municipal corporate not have redundant systems for minor components like switch controls? If you have a system that is worth billions of dollars, and millions of people use each day it sort of should be a given that you have backups for critical systems. I guess the MTA can say oops. This article explains what happened, or that the NYPD isn’t really sure yet. They are still investigating.
Thankfully I am no affected by this issue, but because of what I do it got me to stop and think "redundancy, we really do need that"! I am now not sure if big companies or small ones get the whole redundancy thing right?