BOSTON — Seven more of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s newest rapid-transit railcars have been found to have improperly installed bolts in brake assemblies, the agency’s board of directors learned Thursday.
The Boston Herald reports MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak told the board that six Orange Line cars and one Red Line car had the same issue that led to the breakdown of an Orange Line train on May 19. As a result of that incident, the agency took the 64 Orange Line and eight Red Line cars currently operating out of service for inspections [see “MBTA pulls cars from service …,” Trains News Wire, May 20, 2022]. It had started returning the cars to operation on Monday.
All seven cars have been returned to service, as have 58 of 64 Orange Line cars. The remaining six were scheduled to be inspected by the end of Thursday.
The cars are part of an order of 402 cars being built in Springfield, Mass., by a subsidiary of Chinese manufacturer CRRC. The agency will conduct further tests of the cars, and is requesting changes in the assembly process to ensure the bolts are correctly installed in the remaining cars in the order.
These new railcars belonging to Orange Line (one of the four subway lines of the MBTA) have faced several issues since their August 2019 entry into service.
To date, the Chinese compnay CRRC-built recent Orange Line trains have been pulled from service four times due to various problems, the latest of which was a braking issue due to improperly installed bolts, according to MBTA.
Of course, many commuters in the Boston area hope this is the last disruption!
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
“…improperly installed bolts in brake assemblies…” As someone in the industry that’s far too ambiguous. Improperly installed usually means over torqued or under torqued. Over torqued the head shears off, under torqued the whole bolt eventually rattles out. I’ve seen both on new equipment.
Was it on the assembly itself (last touched by the supplier) or a fastener holding it to the vehicle (installed by the manufacturer)? Admittedly I’ve been less than impressed by the first fruits of CRRC’s offerings for North America. (The race is on to see what comes first: the multi-levels for SEPTA or my retirement.) But this specific instance may not be their fault.
Quality control is a thankless job. Everyone does not like what you report. Just a partial list. The person who did the work. Company whose production is slowed. Bean counters who see job as an unnecessary expense because warranty work comes out of expense not in that counter’s area of investigation. Final receiver’s distress for delay in getting product. Any production superintendent who looks bad not finding the problem. If independent your boss gets the same grief. Get the idea?
As an inspector have been there done that. You will not be very friendly with the above.
How are those 40 year old American made Pullman cars working for you?
Is MBTA/MassDOT demanding any recompense from CRRC for all the defects found since deliveries began? If former MA governors get state pensions, how about cutting off Deval Patrick’s pension until all the Red and Orange Line cars are in service and have operated mech incident-free for two years? Deval (casino man) Patrick traveled to China and visited CRRC although I don’t have details on that. It was reported in the Boston Globe at the time. Btw, Deval, that self-proclaimed “man of the people”, friend of Barack from their days at the Univ. of Chicago in MY old neighborhood, only went out for new transit cars late in his second and final term. And he did it, IMHO, in an attempt to move his legacy away from its signature “achievement”, shepherding legislation that would open the state to the resort casino gambling interests. The Red and Orange Line cars were in dire need of replacements the day he was first elected in 2006. And he did nothing until 2012 or 2013.
Yeah, but they were built under 2 time Governor “good time” Charlie Baker. And of course supervised by the “brought you the big dig” MassDOT.