In one of my earlier editorials, I have addressed the importance of doing field studies. Recently, I was, by accident, in the situation to do a full-scale real-life case study myself. In early February this year, a major part of the Dutch railway system came to a grinding halt due to a major Reliability problem, and I happened to be stuck right in the middle. As a Reliability professional, I was, apart from the obvious frustration, of course most interested in the backgrounds of how a system like this can suffer from such a major problem, and this is what I would like to share with you in this editorial. The Dutch railway system has a structure that mostly resembles a star structure with one main hub in the middle. Currently, this hub is undergoing major renovations, and this means that many, highly complex and interconnected, systems have to be changed while the main operation continues. This operation can be compared with rebuilding the hull of a ship in the middle of the ocean.
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