NEW YORK — Completion of an order of new electric multiple unit railcars for the Long Island Rail Road, already 18 months behind schedule, has been pushed back another 17 months, WSHU radio reports.
Completion is now projected by September 2023.
The order of 202 M9 railcars from Kawasaki reflects “workmanship issues,” as well as supply-chain and COVID-19 related manpower issues, according to the parent Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The agency says defects found in the first 132 cars delivered are being addressed, and that it will hold Kawasaki responsible for the resulting costs.
The M9 cars began operating on the Long Island in September 2019 [see “Long Island RR debuts first of new Kawasaki cars,” Trains News Wire, Sept. 11, 2019]. A report earlier this year by the New York State Comptroller said the LIRR was partially to blame for the delivery issues with the order, although the MTA said it “fundamentally disagrees” with that assessment [see “Report finds Long Island Rail Road shares blame …,” News Wire, March 29, 2022].
Separate question – has anyone here ever been on a working M9? If so, are the seats, especially arm rests and headrests, as bad as on the M7’s?
Also, what ever happened to the M9A order for LIRR? Is it also Kawasaki?
LIRR figured out a way to avoid delays and problems on replacing the remains of its diesel fleet – do nothing! Order nothing. I guess they figure or hope that once enough DE’s / DM’s and C3’s give up the ghost, they can shout down diesel country service. As things stand, they no longer have enough equipment to run the full daily service and the summer drunk tank service to the Hamptons from Penn, and haven’t in some years, though this year seems worse. Plus they stopped doing summer leasing of cars (old MARC cars). And considering that even if they ordered ‘off the shelf’, you’d probably need to double or triple the expected lead time. Plus it’s my impression that they no longer plan to electrify the Port Jeff line, though they do still seem to be trying out batteries on a few cars – which might work on the Oyster Bay line but not so much on the PJ or other diesel lines.
Does NO one have a Quality Assurance
department anymore?
Ford Motor Company is maybe thinking of maybe starting one, maybe if there’s fifteen more recalls on the Bronco.
Now that is funny.
Railroads or manufacturers?
If referring to LIRR, do they still have any staff qualified to supervise a manufacturer?