Makers of key devices warned Metro in 2004 of compatibility issues
A retired Metro official testified Wednesday in federal safety hearings that the same type of track signaling problems found in the deadly June 22 Red Line crash showed up in the equipment removed from a 2005 near-miss — but the agency tested it for the issue only after the summer’s crash.
Since the crash, Metro officials said they found eight other track circuits on the rail system that showed the same electric “parasitic oscillations” that officials believe caused the automatic train safety system to fail in June, causing one train to crash into another, killing nine and injuring dozens more. The other circuits have been fixed, Metro said, but the agency could not say where they were in the system.
The second day of National Transportation Safety Board hearings uncovered more problems leading up to and after the crash that could indicate that problems with the track circuit equipment have been more widespread than at the Fort Totten crash site.
Alstom Signaling, a manufacturer of some of the equipment, said his company warned its clients, including Metro, in a Sept. 7, 2004, letter that mixing other manufacturers’ equipment with Alstom’s presented “a serious and increasing risk to overall system safety.”
Neal Illenberg with Alstom Signaling also read excerpts from NTSB interviews with Metro’s technicians complaining about their concerns over compatibility problems when they mixed equipment from different manufacturers.
Harry Heilmann, who retired from Metro as assistant chief engineer this month, testified that the equipment at the crash site was mixed with other manufacturers’.
He said he was not aware of Alstom’s 2004 letter. But “I was aware of those concerns about compatibility,” he added.
Heilmann said those concerns prompted Metro to have one of its officials research it, then write a special engineering bulletin in 2006 to give its technicians a tougher, three-point testing standard.
But another Metro official, Communications Superintendent Alan Nabb, said he has since learned that the distribution to workers was “uneven.” Records showing how many workers received it have been destroyed.
Metro officials also acknowledged that the decision to put Rohr 1000 series rail cars in the middle of trains after the July 22 crash was made without engineering analysis, as The Examiner first reported.
“It was my understanding it was an operational decision, not an engineering decision,” said Metro Chief Vehicle Engineer Mike Hiller.
Assistant General Manager Dave Kubicek acknowledged that officials made the decision without following the agency’s own safety system controls.
Hiller testified that those rail cars show “signs of the car body failing” during crashes reaching 17 mph but that the transit agency has no speed restrictions when it uses them.
Metro trains are allowed to run as fast as 59 mph.
