Metro News Release
For immediate release: July 4, 2010
Metro prepares for tonight's July 4th ridership
Repairs continue on 4000 series rail cars; four cars already back in service
As Metro prepares for tonight’s heavy ridership following the July 4th fireworks, it is continuing work to repair its 4000 series rail cars that were removed from service to inspect and repair the car door motors. The fleet of 100 cars was removed from service late Friday night. Minimal impact is expected on tonight’s service.
Metro officials have already repaired the door motors on four rail cars and returned them to service. Between four to eight cars are expected to be repaired each day with all of them returning to service by the end of the month. Between 60 and 70 of the 4000 series rail cars are in service on an average weekday.
Rail officials expect little impact to service today, Independence Day, because the service plan calls for 800 rail cars to be in service at the height of the “fireworks rush” between 6 p.m. and midnight. Service will not be affected on Monday, July 5 because it is a federal holiday, and ridership is expected to be light.
Tuesday through Friday service is expected to be impacted somewhat, when typically 850 rail cars are used for the morning and afternoon peak hours. However because the week is starting with a federal holiday, ridership is not as likely to be as high as a typical work-week as locals often extend their vacations during 4th of July week. Additionally, each day will see some rail cars returned to the fleet as they are repaired and put back into service.
“We took the precautionary and proactive action to ensure the highest level of safety for our riders in making the decision to remove the cars from service until each door motor’s circuitry is rebuilt,” said Metro Interim General Manager Richard Sarles.
The action was taken to address a possible short in the car door circuitry that could cause the doors to open while the cars are in motion. The removal of the cars from service was prompted by performance tests and observations conducted by Metro's operations staff, not by any single event. The cars are undergoing a rigorous inspection, repair and testing process. None were in use yesterday (July 3).
The problem identified is within the circuitry of the cylindrical door motors, which are about a foot long and five inches in circumference. In total, the 100 rail cars have 1,200 motors as each rail car has 12 individual doors.
The 4000 series cars are currently at different rail yards. It will take a team of individuals at least one solid day to work on each car. The process to put the fix in place has several steps. This includes removal and inspection of the door motors at the Brentwood rail yard, then shipping them to the Greenbelt rail yard where the motors themselves, which each weigh about 10 to 15 pounds, will have their circuitry repaired, cleaned and rebuilt. Then it is back to Brentwood rail yard, where the motors, will be reinstalled and tested before returning the cars to service. After the July 4th holiday, which is the main focus for the Rail Department resources today, staff may be redeployed to possibly add another rail shop for exchange and testing depending on material availability in hopes of getting more of the cars back into service sooner.
Metro had been attempting to simulate an occurrence of the door openings in a controlled environment in a rail yard and was able to do so late last week. Late Friday afternoon the engineers, maintenance experts and quality control officials were able to identify the cause of the concern as well as the needed fix. The decision to remove the cars was made Friday evening.
“There was not any single occurrence that triggered our decision,” said Deputy General Manager of Operations Dave J. Kubicek, who recommended that the cars be removed from service as a precautionary measure. “We are always studying our cars and looking at ways to improve their reliability. In doing so, we discovered this issue.”
Metro’s 4000 series rail cars were manufactured by Breda and were delivered and last put into service in 1993. No other series of Metro railcars have the same door system as the 4000 series cars. During the mid-life overall of the 2000 and 3000 series cars, which also were manufactured by Breda, new door equipment was installed. Metro’s entire rail fleet consists of 1,120 cars.
Metro notified the Tri-State Oversight Committee, the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Transit Administration of the concern and the remedy to move forward.
News release issued at 2:58 pm, July 4, 2010.