Forcing the system to fail but it's still stopping the train a few seconds later than planned. You have to be kidding me. That should be within the tolerances of the system. It also sounds like they need some experenced signal maintainers to come in and fix their crossings. UP or BNSF doesn't keep a crossing out of commission for months testing a new circuit. Once it works then it's a go.

Sounds like someone is worried about failure and doesn't want to take a risk of looking bad.