Talking Transportation: New rail cars’ delivery getting later and later

Written by Jim Cameron
Wednesday, 04 November 2009 06:07

It’s the question I am asked almost every day: “When are the new rail cars coming?” The answer: “Later than we’d thought.”

Yes, the new M8 rail cars, which lawmakers authorized in 2005 and we hoped would be in service late this year, won’t be in service until late 2010 — a year later than planned.

We on the Connecticut Rail Commuter Council (a state-appointed watchdog group) have been tracking the progress of the M8s from engineering design to focus groups on the interiors to initial “crush tests” (which they failed). Every month we ask if there are any delays, and the state Department of Transportation says, “No, we’re right on track.”

Initially the plan was to have a set of prototype “pilot” cars delivered by “late 2008.” (Look it up. It’s still on the transportation department’s Web site!) Those cars would then undergo testing for four to six months while production continued on the “revenue” cars, which would be held out of service until the tests were complete. That probably meant we’d be able to ride in the new M8s by April or May of 2010 — about 16 or 17 months later than planned.

But the timeline is now slipping further.

At our September Commuter Council meeting, the transportation commissioner said that the M8s manufacturer, Kawasaki, had been having problems with suppliers delivering steel later than planned. And their sub-contractors (who account for 60 percent of the cars) were also delayed.

Commissioner Marie also said that the planned delivery schedule of 10 cars per month was extremely ambitious as railcar makers have a “deplorable record” of keeping their production promises. Marie should know, having worked for Bombardier in years past.

But wait — it gets even worse. By the time the Commuter Council met in October, this time with Metro-North President Howard Permut, the delays had been stretched. Permut said it would be months before even the test cars arrive, meaning the four to six months of testing would delay putting the cars in service until “late 2010”.

And that assumes that everything goes well and no serious problems are found during the testing!

Those tests are crucial as we’re spending $713 million on the first 300 cars. These cars should last 30 years, if they live up to their warranty. That’s why the first prototypes have to be run into the ground until something breaks.

And if some component does fail, Kawasaki will have to go back to retrofit a “fix” onto all the cars in production, both in Kobe, Japan, and Lincoln, Neb.

Mind you, there is some good news in all of this mess:

First, Kawasaki is paying millions of dollars in penalties for the delays. And second, the plans for a fare hike to pay for the new cars is also delayed.

We commuters are a patient bunch. We’ve waited a decade beyond when our old fleet should have been retired, and I guess we can wait a few more months.

But what we cannot wait for any longer is candor and honesty from the DOT, an agency whose credibility is in tatters.

The long needed New Haven Railyard facility morphed from a $300-million project in 2005 to $1.2-billion in 2008. Governor Rell was incredulous and ordered a $630,000 study of the ballooning costs.

A rework of the plan brought the cost down to $850 million. But just opened bids for phase one of the project, expected to cost $261 million, came in at $125 million!

It’s a long way from $300 million to $1.3 billion and from $261 million to $125 million. And along the way people start wondering if anyone has a clue about estimating costs.

All we need are honest answers, not excuses. Get the new M8 prototypes, start testing them and please, be honest about any further delays.

Jim Cameron has been a Darien resident for 18 years. He is chairman of the Metro-North Commuter Council, a member of the Coastal Corridor Transportation Investment Area and the Darien Representative Town Meeting, but the opinions expressed here are his own. You can reach him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or trainweb.org/ct.

Discuss this issue on The Ridgefield Forum.