Metro News Release

For immediate release: March 31, 2005

Metro equipment upgrade should reduce train delays

An equipment upgrade to hundreds of rail cars should reduce train delays beginning later this year, Metro officials announced today.

Rail car manufacturer ALSTOM has redesigned a relay board and upgraded station stopping software, which it hopes will solve many of the automatic train control (ATC) system problems that delay customers. ALSTOM, the agency’s biggest contractor, is supplying the automatic train control (ATC) system to 740 new and rehabilitated rail cars. The ATC problems include issues with rail car door openings, station overruns and the loss of train speed and movement. Any ATC breakdown is likely to cause a delay to customers.

Metro officials believe the redesigned onboard equipment could fix ATC malfunctions in 556 of the 740 rail cars that Alstom has contracted to repair. The remaining 184 are still being manufactured. Metro will test the equipment in April. Once ALSTOM makes the ATC improvements and addresses other engineering concerns, Metro officials predict reliability should improve beginning later this calendar year. The transit agency uses mean distance between delays (MDBD) to measure rail reliability. The average fleet wide MDBD is forecast to improve from the current 41,700 miles to a minimum of 56,000 miles by the end of the year. Metro already has one of the highest levels of service reliability in the nation.

The transit agency also plans to form an expert advisory panel to help speed up resolution of major engineering, safety, quality, reliability and contractual issues.

News release issued on March 31, 2005.