Train Trouble: CTA Sits New L Cars Over Safety Concerns

By JoshMogerman in News on Dec 17, 2011 9:00PM

The wheels on the bus go round and round, but not so much for the CTA’s new L cars. An irregularity in the wheel assembly has shelved new rail cars over safety concerns. All 52 of the factory-fresh, “New York style” cars from Bombardier Transit Corp have been pulled from service after CTA inspectors spotted flaws at the production facility. Even though the issue has only been observed at the factory, all of the cars received in Chicago will undergo additional thorough inspections.

Blemishes on wheel assembly castings were identified by CTA and replaced by the manufacturer. When the issue showed up again on the production floor this week with more cars being produced for Chicago, the existing cars here were pulled until the scope of the problem can be ascertained---according to the Trib:

[CTA Spokesperson Molly] Sullivan said it isn't yet known whether a small number of flaws found in the quality of castings used to make wheel bearing housings are more serious than to cause superficial blemishes, saying, "The flaws could be a potential defect in the component parts.''

The CTA does not expect any delays associated with pulling the cars temporarily. They have bunches of mothballed trains that can pick up the slack on the pink line where the newer cars had been running.

No doubt this will give CTA haters something else to rail about… But we think the City deserves props in this case. The issues were found by CTA inspectors at the production facility and clearly steps are being taken to ensure public safety. Aside from critiques of the trains’ new configuration (gasp, they may force us to hazard eye contact with other riders!), this is the first issue to pop up with the long-awaited billion-dollar upgrade of the trains on our elevated tracks. We just hope that this doesn’t turn into a significant delay that could jeopardize the modernization project. Some in Congress have declared war on public transit, as the folks at GRID Chicago note, the transition to a new fleet of trains is reliant on federal funding that could dry up as that body becomes more and more dysfunctional.

If you haven’t seen the new cars yet, fear not, Chicago’s train geeks enthusiasts have been excitedly documenting them.