Photo of the Day: November 27, 2009
Car Pushed Into Anacostia River By Train
Obamas At Smith Center For G.W. Basketball Game
Devendra Banhart @ 9:30 Club
Saturday Thanks Don't End At Thanksgiving Photo: November 28, 2009
The news coming out of this morning's Metro Board meeting is that WMATA agreed to move all the older model, 1000-series rail cars to the middle of its trains. General Manager John Catoe announced the change, in addition to reiterating that all trains will continue operating manually until all of the system's track sensors are inspected. The board today also made a big show of declaring the total replacement of all the 1000-series rail cars as a "top priority." The passengers who died on Monday were riding in a 1000-series car that struck a newer model car from behind at a high rate of speed. The NTSB has already pointed the finger at Metro for the 1000-series car being responsible for making this crash more deadly than it might otherwise have been.
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We went to the Macy's at 12th & G this morning for the Black Friday morning specials. There was a sh
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That's the most reasonable, cost effective thing I can imagine them doing. I'm impressed.
So people are avoiding the first and last cars and learned how to avoid a 1000-series cars (which will be in the middle). Does this mean I can always get a seat?
was there a reason they didnt do this before?
WMATA lives in a constant state of denial. Moving the cars to the middle of the train would have meant admitting that they were, in fact, a safety concern.
And who's to say that if the same thing happened again with the 1000-series cars in the middle instead of at the end that the train wouldn't accordian in the middle? Do they really know for sure that that won't happen? I'm not saying it to imply that we shouldn't ride Metro because of the slim chance of an accident, I'm genuinely wondering if the cars could still accordian.
@glasswindow - Seriously. I mean, it IS reasonable and cost-effective. Why the hell didn't this get done when the NTSB told them that the 1000-series trains would telescope in an impact back in 2006? I understand (somewhat) not being able to afford replacing them or retrofitting them with safety features back then, but they kept sticking them at the ends of trains??? Seriously?
Is it possible that doing this really does not improve safety, but now that people associate older cars on the ends of trains being a possible concern they want to take quick action to look like they're addressing a major problem and restore confidence so ridership stays high? The old cars still have to be used until they can replace them, but this sure does make good PR, huh? People can say at least they're doing SOMEthing..
I don't know about you guys, but I will be taking a zeppelin airship to work from now on.
Monorail!
I just bought a '71 Jefferson Starship off some dude on Craigslist.
And on a vaguely more serious note, Greater Greater Washington has a post today about how the telescoping problem is likely just as bad on all but the newest Metro cars. It made for interesting if sobering reading.
Interestingly enough (or not), I'd mused before about how the DC Metro cars look more like the kinds of cars you see on airport skytrains, given that the walls are virtually all glass. I even remember thinking they looked a lot less sturdier than NYC subway cars, which seem to be made of more and thicker metal. I guess we see the consequences of that now.
Why does WMATA keep buying the same crap cars from the same crap Italian manufacturing company? These things have been nothing but trouble for decades: they've had brake problems, software problems, telescoping problems. Why don't you hear about these problems in German or French or Japanese rail cars? Maybe because those people know WTF they're doing when it comes to building subway cars. Now, I'm not saying the Italians are a bunch of lazy, garlic-chewing whoremongers who can't build a subway care to save their lives, but I am saying that for the most part, the whores in France are well-read and polite and those in Japan will dress up in pretty much anything you give them, including full body casts and live octopi.
6000 series cars were built by Alstom, a French cheese-eating surrender monkey company.
(But technically built by a siesta-loving Spanish division)
Well that explains a lot. So you've got the Nazi collaborators and the Franco's fascists working together to build a subway car that doubles as a telescoping accordion and is worse than Hitler. Tell me again about how we won the war?
So, if you have a train with rigid cars on the ends and a car that can crunch like an accordion in the middle, wouldn't it still crunch like an accordion?
There's some basic physics here... in a collision, whatever the weakest part is will absorb the blow. If nothing does, and the train stops dead, then all the passengers will continue to move at the same speed as they were moving when the collision happened.. you can imagine the rest.
In reality, it is probably actually be a good thing to have a car that will collapse at the ends of the train. While the passengers in those cars will fare the worst, the rest of the train will fare much better. Kind of like a bumper.
Maybe they should put some dummy cars at each end that are designed, basically, as bumpers. They wouldn't have to be as big as a regular car and would be specifically designed to absorb impact.
"So, if you have a train with rigid cars on the ends and a car that can crunch like an accordion in the middle, wouldn't it still crunch like an accordion?"
It gets complex, since the rigid cars could derail and then pivot at the connectors (which may not always be good, see 2005 Glendale, and may not always occur due to tunnel walls and platforms). We're also simplifying things, since the "rigid" cars would still absorb a lot of energy.
A "crumple car" is an interesting idea.
Crumple car? Sounds expensive. Can't we just buy a some hilariously oversized springs and install them on the front and rear cars? Plus, if the springs go boing when there's a life-threatening collision, it'll be easier to laugh about it afterwords.
WMATA should just used those cowcatchers they used to have on old-timey locomotives. Except make them out of Flubber®.
Oh great so that totally invalidates my current survival strategy by sitting in the middle cars, lol... now I'll have to sit in the end cars and hope they fare better! I am sorry to make this a light-hearted statement but I could totally see a train turning into an accordian in the event it gets struck from either end with the weaker cars in the middle... On the serious side though, probably a wise choice for Metro and hopefully they can replace the older cars with some help of their MD ally in the House.
I would like to see Metro consider future car designs with less windows... I know they did it for the touristy value and enjoyment, but I have no doubt that doing so weakens the structural integrity of the design, no matter how it's reinforced. I also wonder if they couldn't start going with a standard right angle construction instead of this odd angular bottom heavy design... Perhaps a box would be more sound than the coffin shape...
The windows have little to do with the accordion problem, and can actually be helpful in some types of accidents. To know what design is best, you have to know what kind of emergency you will have. Will it be another train-train? Will it be something falling onto a train? Will it be a fire? Will it be a side impact, possibly from a freight train?
Replacing the existing cars with ones that do not have sloping sides would probably require reconstruction of some of the tunnels. True tunnels (as opposed to cut-and-cover passageways) are round, so the cars have to slope to avoid the corners of the cars strike the walls of the tunnels.
Putting the 1000-series cars in the middle of the trains was more publicity stunt than safety measure. The truth is that none of the cars will survive a hard collision. The newest ones may do a better job, but even if thee had all been 7000-series cars, there likely would have been deaths.
Riding to work in a 1000-series car at the end of a train is still far safer than driving, and I will continue to ride the Red Line to work. Single-tracking around cracked rails is beginning to drive me crazy, though.
The big problem here is not the telescoping of the cars. That's a problem, of course, but what about the fact that we have TRAINS RUNNING INTO OTHER TRAINS!
How many other systems have hot "train on train" action every five years?
I'm sure the notion of having a computer drive the whole system will be re-examined after this. Makes you wonder what would happen if SkyNet took over the WMATA control room.
I'm sure the notion of having a computer drive the whole system will be re-examined after this. Makes you wonder what would happen if SkyNet took over the WMATA control room.
If you have a company make you a bunch of sensors and then realize that they're all f*@#ed, would you simply ask them to replace them?
What good is putting the 1000 series in the middle going to do because it looks like the 2000 and 3000 series also have the same telescoping problem.
3000 series - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WMATA_Shady_Grove_accident_-_Final_positions.jpg
The problem is all these illegal immigrant trains jobs away from American trains. I mean, if we had any American trains. Also, Dear Mr. President, There are too many states nowadays. Please eliminate three. P.S. I am not a crackpot.
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