The latest delivery of subway cars to Washington's Metro were
not put together properly.
According to a review conducted by Metro’s Quality Assurance, Internal Compliance & Oversight office, the wire crimping on the cars was not correctly completed. The flawed wiring has and has been a factor in issues with the rail cars and can lead to major delays.
As a result, all of the 548 new rail cars currently in service must undergo repairs that are likely to take a full year to complete. The review determined that Metro did not demand Kawasaki, who was manufacturing the rail cars, to conduct relevant quality checks.
Why is it that there's never enough time to get it right in the first place, but plenty of time to do it over?
Metro vowed to ask Kawasaki for information each week until the rail cars manufacturing is finished in 2019 and will modify future contracts to reflect the concerns outlined in the recent report.
Yes, I understand the logic of free trade, and the difficulties domestic electric rail car producers face. And yet, the knowledge of the people who set up Niles and Hicks and Jewett and Kuhlman and Laconia and Cincinnati and Standard and St. Louis Car cannot have died with them.
1 comment:
"The review determined that Metro did not demand Kawasaki, who was manufacturing the rail cars, to conduct relevant quality checks."
They shouldn't have had to demand that: rather, they should have written into the contract what the expected quality was to be upon delivery, and the consequences/remedies if it was not.
Post a Comment