MBTA’s Brand New Rail Cars Heading For a Retooling

(SOURCE:  Boston Globe – 1/29/14,  by Martine Powers,  martine.powers@globe.com )

A long-awaited fleet of MBTA commuter rail cars, delivered 2½ years late by the South Korean manufacturer, is now so plagued by mechanical, engineering, and software problems that it has to be shipped to a facility in Rhode Island to be fitted with new parts.

Even as a T spokesman described the problems with the cars as “standard operating procedure,” rail workers and their union representatives said the situation is unprecedented, and federal officials acknowledged they are “monitor[ing] the situation closely.”

“In my 40-some years of railroad experience, we’ve never seen problems like this,” said Tom Murray, president of the local chapter of the Transport Workers Union of America.

But Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority officials say the problems — including issues with doors, air-conditioning, brakes, and signal software — are a normal part of introducing new, more technologically advanced train cars into a transit system.

“Railroad coaches are not like new autos that a buyer drives off the lot,” MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said. “Modifications are made as necessary. . . . This is standard operating procedure throughout the transit industry.”

Harry King — spokesman for Hyundai Rotem, the South Korea-based contractor that delivered the new cars 2½ years behind schedule — said the company is working to fix the problems, investing significant resources and dispatching a full-time contingent of staff to the T’s Somerville maintenance facility to solve the problems.

“These problems have either been resolved or soon will be,” he said.

The MBTA’s $190 million purchase of 75 commuter rail cars from Hyundai Rotem USA was controversial from the start, as T officials in 2008 insisted that the lowest bidder would be able to deliver good-quality cars on time, even though the company had yet to open an assembly plant in the United States.

After T officials’ consternation over what they called “chronically unsatisfactory performance,” threats to cancel the order, and a visit to executives in South Korea, the first cars arrived last spring.

Since then, T officials have insisted publicly that the cars were delivered in fine working order, pleasing customers with nice interiors and comfortable seats. At least 56 of the cars have been delivered, with the rest set to arrive by this summer, and T officials say 32 of the cars have been put into service.

At a Massachusetts Department of Transportation board meeting in November, MBTA general manager Beverly A. Scott said she gave the cars “a 7.5 or an 8” out of 10 but said the problems — a minor toilet issue, for example — were few and fairly mundane.

“Probably the stuff wouldn’t be noticeable to anybody but us,” Scott told the MassDOT board of directors.

But employees who work on the commuter rail cars say they are rife with problems, ranging from faulty heating and air-conditioning units and door motors to poorly constructed undercarriages and problems with brakes and the software that controls signal communication in the cab of the train. Some of the problems have surfaced in tests, and some continued to exist after the cars were put in service, MBTA officials said.

The problems have required the attention of at least 15 Hyundai Rotem staff members who have been working on the cars full time at a T maintenance facility in Somerville — not an unusual part of the process of introducing new cars, transit experts say. But what is unusual is that the cars, even those that have already begun carrying passengers, will have to be taken out of service in coming months to receive new parts at a facility in Rhode Island.

Some of the mechanical problems have caused enough concern that the head of the local chapter of the Transport Workers Union sent a letter in December to state Transportation Secretary Richard A. Davey requesting a meeting to alert officials of “many operational problems [that] have been encountered with this equipment.”

Some of the problems center on the control cars, which are designed to be driven by engineers at the front of the train. The cars cannot be used on rail lines owned by Amtrak, which run south of Boston, because the car’s software is incompatible with the signal system. In some instances, signals inside the train indicate that the engineer has the OK to proceed when outside signals indicate that the train must wait. In those cases, engineers noticed that the signals did not match up and reported the problem.

As a result of the signal issues, on much of the commuter rail system, the new Hyundai Rotem control cars are being used behind the locomotive to carry passengers, rather than lead the train, the MBTA says.

“We’re of the opinion that these cars are really not to par,” Joe English, general chairman of the local Association of Railroad and Airline Supervisors, said in an interview. “These are problems that should have been straightened out before.”

The problems have caught the attention of the Federal Railroad Administration, and officials say they are keeping an eye on the T’s handling of the new cars.

“We are aware that concerns have been raised about the new Hyundai Rotem cars being introduced to the MTBA’s commuter rail operations,” Dickson Mercer, spokesman for the Federal Railroad Administration, said in a statement. “We are working very closely with the equipment manufacturer, [the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Co.], and the MBTA to resolve the issue and will continue to monitor the situation closely.”

In a phone call from the Hyundai Rotem assembly plant in Philadelphia, where he visits monthly to check the progress of the remainder of the T’s order, MBTA chief financial officer Jonathan R. Davis said he is aware of the mechanical problems, but is confident they will be resolved.

“I’m encouraged that Hyundai has identified the issues that need to be addressed,” he said Friday. “I don’t think that this is anything abnormal for any transit authority that is receiving new cars.”

The terms of the T’s contract with Hyundai Rotem say that the company is responsible for paying for all repairs and maintenance work in the first two years after the cars officially enter the T’s fleet. Though the T has the option of sending the cars back if they are deemed unfit for use on the rails, Davis said he has no intention of taking that step.

King, of Hyundai Rotem, said assertions that these cars are more problematic than others introduced to the T’s fleet in the past are because commuter rail cars, in general, contain more complicated technology.

“These modern commuter rail cars are complex and exacting machines,” King said.

Commuter rail workers acknowledge that the new cars are much more technologically advanced, but said that did not explain all of the problems they have seen.

“When a car is 35 years old, you’re going to have these kinds of things break down,” said a commuter rail electrical worker who asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to speak publicly. “You should not have that kind of issue on something that is 35 days old.”

Not everyone agrees that the issues are as serious as the rail workers say.

Alan G. Macdonald, a member of the MassDOT board, said the complaints from workers may be exaggerated.

“My understanding is that there is some work that still needs to be done, but it might not be unexpected that there will be problems with the cars,” Macdonald said. “I don’t believe they’re beyond being taken care of.”

But Jonathan H. Klein, a former chief mechanical officer at Amtrak and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, said taking the cars out of service to replace major parts at an out-of-state facility is a different order of magnitude.

“If cars have to be taken wholesale back to another factory site for reworking, it is a definite sign that the manufacturer has lost control of its quality, its configuration and safety management, and its delivery organization, or all three,” Klein said.

“The T made an obvious mistake in awarding a contract to Rotem,” Klein said.

In Philadelphia, officials at the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority have experienced similar problems with the 120 cars they received from Hyundai Rotem between 2009 to 2013. Six issues were flagged for unacceptable performance, spokeswoman Jerri Williams said: doors, the heating and air-conditioning system, propulsion, brakes, signals in control cars, and auxiliary power systems.

Now after extensive work with Hyundai Rotem, Williams said, almost all the issues have been resolved, except for the doors. On some trains, doors that malfunction must be locked, and passengers are told to enter and exit through adjacent cars.

“The only thing that’s left is the doors, and there continue to be efforts put in to do a design retrofit,” Williams said. “But we’re still not satisfied with them.”

For MBTA, Canceling Railcar Contract Last Resort

(source: Boston Globe)

Hyundai Rotem, the sluggish South Korean railcar builder, must feel it has the MBTA and its riders over a barrel. Sure, the company lags far behind its schedule for providing 75 badly needed double-decker coaches. Sure, the four test cars it finally did provide in 2012, more than two years late, have been rife with faulty workmanship. Sure, the original $190 million contract brought suspicion on the MBTA, after it became clear the company had hired a senior T official’s father to help win a contract in Philadelphia. But what’s the MBTA going to do about it now? Cancel the whole contract and start all over again?

That’s just what the T has threatened to do in a letter to Hyundai Rotem last month, but it’s unclear how realistic a threat that is. Canceling the contract outright should be the last resort. The T has declined to comment on what its Plan B is, or, indeed, if it even has one. According to public-transportation analysts, it can easily take five years between the day a contract is put out to bid and when the new coaches start carrying passengers. Five years? The desperate need for more reliable equipment — now — is one of the reasons the questionable Hyundai deal was rammed through so quickly in the first place. That was in 2008.

Speed is not the only consideration, of course. The T’s letter raised serious questions about the quality of the four test cars, which had chassis and wiring problems. If in the T’s estimation the cars are unsafe, or will create an ongoing maintenance nightmare for the agency, it must cancel the contract. But if those issues can be addressed, and the T has no clear backup plan to fill the need more quickly than waiting for Hyundai, the best course for T officials is to grit their teeth and stick with the plan. That is what the transit agency in Philadelphia did after similar problems arose with its Hyundai Rotem deal. Philadelphia’s cars were more than a year late, but more than 90 percent of them have now arrived, and more than 100 are in service.

Whatever the T decides, the clear lesson is that the agency must take a hard look at its flawed contracting process. This is not the first major rail contract that has gone sour, with direct consequences for riders. In 1993, bowing to backroom political interference, the agency purchased concrete ties that turned out to be faulty; passengers paid the price with cancellations as the ties were replaced in 2010 and 2011 at a cost of $91.5 million. A 1995 deal with Breda for new Green Line trolleys also turned into a fiasco.

Perhaps the lesson is that the T just isn’t very good at handling big equipment contracts. There is an alternative: Even as the T mulls what to do with the Hyundai Rotem deal, the agency is also considering a new contract to operate the commuter rail system itself. The existing model has been for the T to buy cars and locomotives for the operator, but giving the contractor a longer-term deal and the responsibility to buy equipment could save the T some headaches. The delayed Hyundai cars are a powerful argument for trying a different approach.

MBTA May Halt $190m Hyundai Rotem Rail Car Order

(from the Boston Globe newspaper, 1/11/13)

By Eric Moskowitz

Chronic delays and concerns about shoddy workmanship by the company building a fleet of double-decker coaches for the MBTA’s commuter rail line have prompted executives to threaten cancellation of the $190 million contract and possibly seek a new firm for the work.

In a letter obtained by the Globe, state transit officials express deep frustration with the South Korean company building the 75 rail cars, Hyundai Rotem, declaring that “this seriously troubled procurement is at a point of crisis.”

That letter, dated Dec. 21, details a litany of woes, including faulty chassis and wires damaged by errant drilling on 10 of the first coaches to be built.

“I am writing this letter to you to convey my profound disappointment for Hyundai Rotem’s seemingly lack of commitment to improve its chronically unsatisfactory performance,” Jonathan R. Davis, the T’s chief financial officer, wrote. He cited materials shortages and workmanship at plants in South Korea and Philadelphia that “has degraded at an alarming rate.”

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority declined to make officials available for interviews Thursday but confirmed the letter’s authenticity. In a brief statement, T spokesman Joe Pesaturo indicated that the letter caught the attention of Hyundai Rotem, with company leadership traveling to Boston this month to work out solutions short of termination.

“While some progress has been made, certain areas of concern remain,” Pesaturo said via e-mail. “It’s important that [Hyundai Rotem’s] leadership team not only understand the procurement’s ongoing issues, but also take the corrective actions necessary to address the shortfalls.”

A spokesman for the company said Thursday that Hyundai Rotem’s relationship with the T had improved markedly in the three weeks since the letter was sent.

“The communication now is much more positive, obviously, than the letter would point out,” said Andy Hyer, a US spokesman for the company. “They need their cars, and we want to give them to them. [But] it’s been a challenge to get them out quicker.”

In the December letter to Hyundai Rotem, T executives were explicit in what the consequences would be if the company doesn’t improve its performance. “Unfortunately, Hyundai Rotem inaction, inattentiveness, and generally poor performance have forced the MBTA to a final decision point relative to the declaration of default based on a material breach. Failing dramatic improvement and immediate corrective measures designed to remedy these defaults . . . the MBTA must consider terminating the contract for cause.”

When the T awarded the contract in early 2008, the first four cars were scheduled to arrive by October 2010, and all 75 were supposed to be carrying commuters in and out of Boston by the end of 2012. Instead, the first four coaches — currently going through extensive testing — did not reach the ­MBTA until two months ago.

Hyer said the company is addressing material shortages and is poised to hits its stride, with 24 Korean-built shells now being outfitted and finished for the T in Philadelphia. Four more empty shells should arrive next week, he said.

Hyundai Rotem made a bold entrance into the US market a decade ago with attractive promises, well-placed connections, and prices that beat experienced competitors.

Some in the industry considered it a risky bet, given that Hyundai Rotem had yet to open an assembly plant on American soil, a requirement under federal law, or demonstrate experience negotiating the stricter safety standards and other requirements that have bedeviled several large international corporations trying to break into the US transit and passenger rail market.

“North America is the most difficult market. It is the graveyard of car builders,” said Jonathan Klein, a global transportation consultant and former executive and chief mechanical officer at multiple large rail and transit agencies; he has not worked on the Hyundai Rotem deals but can see the company’s plant from his Philadelphia office.

Klein, who previously likened the T’s contract to Donald Rumsfeld’s wishful thinking on Iraq, said the MBTA now has two choices, neither of which would deliver coaches to riders as quickly or cheaply as originally planned. It can continue to try to coax Hyundai Rotem through cooperation or threat, or it can terminate the deal, seek damages, and begin the process of finding a contractor all over again.

Hyundai Rotem built its domestic assembly plant in Philadelphia because local job creation was part of the pitch to win its first major US deal, 120 coaches for Philadelphia’s transit authority. That order is finally nearing completion, though only after the company fell far behind amid materials shortages, quality-control problems, and labor strife.

“The T has dug a hole, and it’s going to be very expensive to fill that hole,” he said.

Hyundai Rotem sought the MBTA contract soon after it won the Philadelphia deal, bidding nearly 20 percent below industry veteran Kawasaki on price and receiving high technical marks from MBTA staff reviewing the bid.

T management glossed over Hyundai Rotem’s lack of US experience and encouraged the MBTA board to approve the contract quickly, given the needs of the T’s aging fleet, according to meeting minutes and materials prepared for the board.

Some members who approved the deal were livid when they later learned that a former high-ranking Boston and Philadelphia transit executive whose son remained a T manager had been hired to help Hyundai Rotem win the Pennsylvania contract. But the T said the father and son were not involved in the Boston bidding and that the son also informed the state Ethics Commission that he was recusing himself.

Though it soon became clear internally that Hyundai Rotem was falling far behind, MBTA and Department of Transportation management did not tell the board overseeing the T until a year ago — when they asked the board to approve $4 million more on top of $10 million already committed to an engineering firm hired to provide expertise and help the T ride herd on the increasingly complicated order.

Angry board members summoned Hyundai Rotem’s chief executive, M.H. Lee, to appear before them last June. He apologized for what he deemed a corporate embarrassment and said Hyundai Rotem would redouble its efforts, promising to make up lost time without compromising quality.

The T indicated in September and November that things seemed to be improving, but Lee died unexpectedly in mid-November. The letter from Davis suggests Hyundai Rotem once more put the T on the back burner after that.

Jim LaRusch, chief counsel and a vice president for the American Public Transportation Association, could not comment on the MBTA contract but acknowledged that equipment purchases are expensive, time-consuming, and potentially fraught with pitfalls.

They start with thousand-page technical specifications that incorporate federal standards and guidelines for safety and accessibility, as well as the unique needs of that transit agency, with its array of existing locomotives and coaches and varying types of stations. Bidders must be evaluated on price and ability. “Then the fun starts,” he said, meaning years of back and forth over development, production, and testing.

“It’s a pretty complex process,” LaRusch said. “It’s not like buying a Toyota.”

First New MBTA Double Decker Coaches Delivered to BET

The first four brand new Hyundai-Rotem double-deck coaches have arrived at Boston Engine Terminal.  The photo below was taken by David Hutchinson while off duty at BET. 

Photo by David Hutchinson