Did CPUC Meddling Cause Sprinter Shutdown?

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Did CPUC Meddling Cause Sprinter Shutdown?

March 15, 2013 by Drunk Engineer

This week marks the 5th year anniversary of the NCTD (San Diego) “Sprinter” rail service. But instead of celebrating, the service was abruptly suspended after the Calif. PUC discovered premature wear in the brake rotors.

Embarrassed NCTD officials don’t even know when the service will resume. The outage could be as long as four months. Bus bridges are being run as an interim measure.

Media reporting has generally described this as a management snafu. NCTD subcontracts maintenance to Bombardier and Veolia. Their work was overseen by the district’s rail mechanical engineer. He knew about the problem, but apparently did not act on it. He has since resigned.

However, this does not explain why the rotors wore out so fast in the first place. This Sprinter model is used all over Europe, and I am not aware of any reported issues with premature brake wear.

One possible explanation might be that San Diego’s Sprinters are not quite off-the-shelf models. You see, the CPUC decided it knew better than the vehicle’s designers and spec’ed out their own braking system for the train:

“They’re big brakes, better than (in) Germany,” said Husemann, noting the train’s stopping power.

Bullock said the brawny brakes were installed to satisfy a California Public Utilities Commission requirement.

The cars are diesel-powered multiple units, which are new to California and rare in North America. The commission had specific requests for the brakes, requiring Siemens to engineer them specially for NCTD cars.

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Posted in transit | Tagged CPUC, NCTD | 5 Comments

5 Responses

on March 15, 2013 at 7:06 am | Reply The Overhead Wire

Could it be that the heavier cars because of dumb american crash standards are harder to stop and thus create more wear on the brakes?
on March 15, 2013 at 3:13 pm | Reply Drunk Engineer

No, the Sprinter has a waiver. The major modifications were to the brakes and the air conditioning.
on March 15, 2013 at 8:43 pm | Reply Reality Check

And according to Sprinter shutdown jolts North County:

[NCTD officials] said the decision resulted from “an abundance of caution.” The setback, which the region’s transit chief [Matt Tucker] described as “embarrassing” and “difficult,” is expected to inconvenience thousands who rely on the Sprinter along its 22-mile corridor from Oceanside to Escondido.

[...]

Tucker said he learned of the brake problem “very suddenly last week.” It triggered days of arrangements for the replacement buses, according to a news release from the transit agency.

When U-T San Diego asked Tucker about the brake issue Thursday night, he said a preliminary investigation revealed that a subcontractor knew about the issue with the brakes, as did the district’s rail mechanical engineer. The information somehow didn’t make it to higher-ups at the agency, Tucker said, and the engineer who oversees maintenance contracts has resigned.

But the California Public Utilities Commission, which oversees rail safety in California, advised the transit district on Thursday to “Please replace all brake rotors that do not meet the manufacturer’s specifications immediately.”
on March 15, 2013 at 8:48 pm | Reply Reality Check

Whoops, the goofed and omitted some parts at the end of the above story quote:

On Friday, he said the trains’ premature rotor wear on the central disc braking system fell below the maker’s standards, leading to his agency’s voluntary stop of service.

But the California Public Utilities Commission, which oversees rail safety in California, advised the transit district on Thursday to “Please replace all brake rotors that do not meet the manufacturer’s specifications immediately.”

Tucker said that normally, the district would have changed out the rotors in 12 more months — at the same time it would replace the trains’ wheels.

Still unclear is how long the Sprinter might be down, although the agency estimated a period of “60 to 120 days.”

An extended closure is expected because the Sprinter is one of only a handful of diesel multiple-unit trains, a subset of light-rail trains, in the United States. It was made by Siemens in Germany.

Replacement brake rotors aren’t “sitting on the shelf” anywhere nearby, one transit official said. They may have to be custom-ordered from Europe.
on March 19, 2013 at 7:44 pm | Reply AB

Would the author of this blog be able to contact me at 619-293-1705? Thanks.