The stability of two-dimensional state-space systems can be determined by knowing the zero manifolds of the characteristic equation

or, equivalently, the eigenvalues of the matrix

for all real ω. We propose a new simple test for the special case when the matrices A
1and A
2are simultaneously reducible to upper (or lower) triangular form. This test can also be used to simplify the general problem if these matrices are partially reducible to the triangular form.