North American Network Operators Group

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Re: If you were in a government Cyber-warning center

  • From: Chris Kilbourn
  • Date: Fri Apr 26 18:36:22 2002

In the past few years on NANOG, I've noticed a strong correlation between
train derailments and network outages. (Not to discount the backhoe
correlation in any way of course...)

The question I have is this:

If fiber runs are trenched into the railbed, and we know that trains
go off of the tracks every now and then, what, if anything, is being
done to harden the conduit?

Would trenching it deeper help? Has encasing the conduit in a
steel-reinforced channel been examined? Or is there something about
laying conduit next to track and the accident modalities that I am
just missing here?

Given this week's higher frequency of rail accidents and their
attendant network disruptions, it seems like the cost/benefit of
looking at this issue might have shifted a bit.

I can only see these right-of-ways becoming increasingly valuable
over time and in our post 9/11 environment, this seems to be an
area that seems especially vulnerable.

Just curious...


At 5:26 PM -0400 4/26/02, Sean Donelan wrote:
On Fri, 26 Apr 2002, Steve Gibbard wrote:
Are train derailments common events that don't get much press coverage (or
maybe that don't get much coverage unless it's a passenger train), or was
this an especially bad week?
According to federal records and news reports, train derailments are
up about 15% even if you take into account the growth in rail traffic.
Regards,

Chris Kilbourn
Founder
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