Bug Under The Track

There are a lot of lessons about bug reporting you can take from this BBC News story about a train suspended on washed-out track for 12 minutes

For a start, can you read the story and form a clear story of precisely what actually happened? No, neither could I.

Whatever did happen, the fact that nobody was injured and there was no apparent damage to the train meant that a potentially very serious incident was never properly reported or investaged at the time.

The responsible manager in Translink’s Safety department said he was not aware that the front of the train had run over the unsupported track and did not think the incident required a formal investigation.

It had happened just before key staff had gone on holiday and there was `”insufficient senior management oversight” of the events. Delays meant evidence was not properly collected and the train’s black box data recorder was overwritten before the information on it could be downloaded.

Although i have to say this line also raises eyebrows:

The previous year the Rivers Agency had also hosted a workshop on the flood map for owners of infrastructure to help them understand the risk to their assets. Northern Ireland Railways were invited but did not attend “because the invitation, sent by email, ended up in a spam folder”.

I’m resigned to the fact that mainstream news reporters lack domain knowledge when it comes to the railway industry, but the whole thing is, as Ben Simo said on Twitter, it’s “Bad reporting on bad reporting exampled. There are some bug reporting lessons in here somewhere”

Indeed.