2001 article concerning problems with the R142/A

[Union Tpke]

I didn't know there were any problems with the R142/A until I read this.

 

New Subway Cars Show Flaws And Are Removed for Repairs

By RANDY KENNEDY
Published: March 17, 2001

New high-tech subway cars that had been undergoing trial runs on the Nos. 2 and 6 lines were pulled from service last month because of persistent problems with their doors, brakes and electronic announcement and mapping systems, transit officials said.

The faulty cars, some of which have been repaired and returned to the rails, began carrying passengers last summer as part of tests for a new generation of subway trains that will cost more than $2 billion and replace all the oldest cars in the system, known as Redbirds.

But some of the new cars built by Kawasaki Rail Car Inc. had doors that would not close properly.

Another fleet of cars, built by Bombardier, the Canadian train manufacturer, had difficulty braking fast enough at some speeds, transit officials said.

Cars in both fleets had problems with their announcement and mapping systems.

The systems replace conductors' voices with automatic recorded messages, and the maps use lights to tell passengers the location of the train.

 

 

 

 

 

But the systems have been malfunctioning, with maps lighting up at the wrong stations and speakers calling out the names of the same stations again and again.

The removal of the cars, reported yesterday in The Daily News and The New York Post, began on Feb. 1, when eight 10-car Kawasaki trains were pulled. They were repaired and returned to service late last month.

On Feb. 3, six 10-car Bombardier trains were taken out of service, and delivery of new Bombardier trains was suspended, transit officials said. One of the trains has since been repaired and returned to the subway, and new trains are once again being delivered.

Lawrence G. Reuter, the president of New York City Transit, said yesterday that the problems would not delay the delivery schedule for the first order of 1,080 cars, which are supposed to be in service by next March.

An additional 470 cars are scheduled to be in service by March 2003, Mr. Reuter said.

''This is the way the normal process works on both rails and buses,'' he said, adding that when the last round of new subway trains was being tested in the 1980's, cars were pulled out of service 14 times because of serious flaws with their propulsion systems.

Officials expect other problems to crop up before testing of the new trains is completed, problems that could be serious enough to pull trains from service again, Mr. Reuter said.

For example, the door problems on the Kawasaki trains were caused by faulty relays.

But it is conceivable that after those are repaired, Mr. Reuter said, other problems could appear that were masked by the previous problem.

If enough malfunctions develop, the delivery schedule could be moved back, but officials said they were confident, at least for now, that it would not be.

''We do not see these as major issues,'' Mr. Reuter said.