Being a European, I was wondering if some enlightened US person could give me some operational info on how fiber cuts are repaired in the US. Specifically what I am interested in those caused by train derailments. As I understand it in the US a lot of fiber runs alongside tracks, or is buried not very deep. Presumably when a train is derailed, it can be going at a reasonable speed, and is likely to (a) shred a few hundred meters of fiber, and (b) possibly fall on top of it making it difficult to physically access. Also one presumes that the affected area is then covered in cranes, winches, emergency services etc. who are likely to cause more damage. I am therefore presuming that what happens is someone splices around the cut with a (reasonably long) piece of fiber that they keep for this sort of eventuality, and later when things have calmed down the fiber is respliced to go along its original path. Is this correct? So: 1. How long after such a disastrous cut occurs is it normal to have connectivity back? 2. Do operators in general keep spare fiber? If so, how do they get it there? By road or by rail (both might be difficult)? 3. How long does the splicing operation itself take? 4. Can the resplice in general be done without much service interruption? It's (1) I'm most interested in - is the cut normally repaired (for instance) within 24 hours? In case you were wondering, the reason I'm asking this is because I have a theory I want to check out, which is that being spoilt with SDH over here, the operators have less (or indeed no) proper disaster plan for fiber cuts (varies operator to operator), and thus they get really caught out either when there are two cuts, when their SDH doesn't do the right thing, or when they forget that certain things aren't SDH. (Yes Peter, you know who I mean). -- Alex Bligh GX Networks (formerly Xara Networks)