NEW YORK – The saga of Bombardier Transportation’s R179 subway cars has another negative twist in New York, where authorities have just taken them out of service following a suspected incident.
Shortly before 1 a.m. Wednesday morning, a 10-car train split between the sixth and seventh carriages as it proceeded northbound and entered Chambers Street Station in Manhattan.
This information was confirmed by Interim President of the New York City Transit Authority, Sarah E. Feinberg.
No injuries are reported and the operation to get people off the cars went smoothly, according to NBC.
“At this time, we believe this to be an isolated incident, but I am launching a full investigation and, out of caution, the entire R179 fleet is out of service until further notice. We have redeployed additional spare cars and minimal service impacts are expected, ”Feinberg said in a statement.
“This is the latest unacceptable problem with one of Bombardier’s R179 cars,” she continued, saying that Bombardier Transportation cars will not be returned to service “without certainty and validation that all cars are suitable for passenger service, period ”.
At the start of the year, 298 new Bombardier Transport metro cars had been temporarily taken off the rails for safety reasons, in particular after two incidents, one of which involved the opening of doors while a train was running.
Bombardier Transportation had singled out its door supplier following the problems of last January.
As of May 2019, further problems were reported with R179 subway cars, built in Plattsburgh, New York, this time regarding weld defects for pillars of structures used to protect conductors in the event of a crash. ‘accident.
The controller of the City of New York, Scott Stringer, had for his part highlighted that the transport authorities had been three years late in relation to the contract with Bombardier Transport, which had contributed to inflate the bill for the supply of It should be noted that the French company Alstom announced the acquisition of the Bombardier Transport division of the Quebec conglomerate Bombardier last February. However, this transaction has not yet been finalized.
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