Second Ave. Sagas

New Metro-North cars fail stress test

Written by

Benjamin Kabak

in

,

Kawasaki is currently hard at work prepping an order of M-8 cars for Metro-North to replace the aging rolling stock that heads into Connecticut. The original order, placed in 2006, called for delivery of 210 cars beginning in 2010 at a cost of $713 million with an option for 90 more at $170 million. With delivery looming, a slight problem has emerged: They cars failed their first stress test. According to Christine Stuart of CT News Junkie, one of the M-8s “buckled ‘slightly’” when subjected to 800,000 pounds of force.

Both Metro-North and Connecticut Department of Transportation officials did not express much concern over the failure and noted the results were fairly minor. Delivery of the cars will not believed, but officials are looking for an explanation as to the cause of the buckling. For more on the new rolling stock, check out Station Stops’ 2008 profile of the M-8’s. Apparently, these cars include power outlets for every seat.

Comments

7 responses to “New Metro-North cars fail stress test”

  1. Jaystreet

    Buckled? Aren’t these a modified M7 design? The poor New Haven riders – will they ever get new cars?

    Reply
  2. Alon Levy

    The emphasis on stress tests is what is wrong with American railroads today. In other developed countries, the safety standards are for signaling and accident elimination, rather than crash safety. The American crash safety standards are so stringent that they require trains to be much heavier than they have to be, increasing their cost and energy consumption and reducing their speed and acceleration.

    Reply
    1. pete

      Must be the american way. Americans are too irresponsible and narcissistic to drive a auto or train correctly. So you must fortify each vehicle to survive insane accidents, so the idiot can walk out, then drive another vehicle irresponsibly. Its pretty much impossible for there to be a crash, occupied block is 15 mph, and the blocks before it are tiered slow downs, at most driver would be killed, passengers just shaken up. Freight trains move so slow (30 mph), I can’t see how there can be an accident. MN/LIRR isn’t the american west where the passenger train must stop and the conductor moves the switch by hand.

      Reply
  3. anonymouse

    It’s what I call the “cat in the safe” model of safety. Imagine, if you will, putting a cat in a safe and dropping it out of a building. The criterion for safety is whether the safe was dented or not. Incidentally, automotive safety was also kind of like that in the bad old days, but now cars (and European trains) make use of crumple zones, which are designed to deform in a collision in such a way that the structure absorbs the impact energy and provides a slightly more gradual deceleration. I think this whole “buffing strength” regulation has its roots in rules for freight railroads designed to ensure that cars will survive a “hard coupling” in a hump yard.

    Reply
  4. Donald

    I like the old M3s…

    Reply
  5. babbaganush

    For the clowns on here complaining about stringent safety testing – share your gripes with the six dead and scores of seriously injured folks from the DC commuter crash. I’m sure your arguments will carry a lot of weight with them.

    Reply
  6. Metro-North to scale back New Haven service :: Second Ave. Sagas

    […] a prototype by the end of 2009 and ten cars a month after that, things went wrong. The cars failed a stress test in June of 2009, and last month, reports surfaced of delays in testing the new rolling […]

    Reply

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