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IT IS BEGINNING to believe that the MBTA may never identify the cause of the March 16 derailment of one of its new trains on the Orange Line.
At a meeting of the Fiscal and Controlling Council on Monday, deputy managing director Jeffrey Gonneville said the T and the Chinese train maker disagree on the root cause and that a series of Contributing factors can ultimately be blamed for the derailment.
The stakes are high in this investigation into the derailment because all the vehicles of the Ts 252 Red and 152 Orange lines are replaced by CRRC Mass., The Chinese manufacturer. The relatively few new vehicles delivered to the T so far have been on hold since the derailment and it’s still unclear when they will return.
The new Orange Line train was moving from track to track at low speed in a work area near Wellington Yard in Medford when it derailed. Initial concerns were with aging infrastructure, a common problem at T since the train moved between tracks using a 46-year-old switch.
The switch was replaced with the track in the area, but Gonneville said on March 29 that it was not clear whether the switch was the cause of the derailment. He declined to say whether 46 years was beyond the useful life of the switch, noting that it would depend on how heavily it has been used over the years. The newer the better, he conceded at the time.
On May 10, Gonneville said he suspected the problem was with the vehicles themselves, especially the skids attached to trucks that allow vehicles to turn. He said tests indicated the pads were wearing out faster than expected. When that happens, he said, the pads tend to stick harder, increasing the rotational force which makes it harder for the vehicle to turn.
On Monday, Gonneville described a handful of other infrastructure issues that may have played a role. He said the switch, in addition to being old, lacked a guardrail that helps keep a train on track through tight bends. He also pointed out two other issues with the track itself that could have been contributing factors.
There was no single point of failure that caused the derailment, Gonneville said.
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About Bruce Mohl
Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions spanning business and politics. He covered Massachusetts State House and was Bureau Chief of Globes State House in the late 1980s. He also worked for the Globes Spotlight team, winning a Loeb Award in 1992 for covering conflict of interest in the state pension system. He was political editor of the Globes in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine website and wrote on a wide range of issues with a particular focus on politics, tax policy, energy and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.
About Bruce Mohl
Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions spanning business and politics. He covered Massachusetts State House and was Bureau Chief of Globes State House in the late 1980s. He also worked for the Globes Spotlight team, winning a Loeb Award in 1992 for covering conflict of interest in the state pension system. He was political editor of the Globes in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine website and wrote on a wide range of issues with a particular focus on politics, tax policy, energy and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.
The MBTA is currently convinced that the guardrail itself on the switch and the excessive rotational force were more than likely the main contributing forces that led to this incident, he said. But in fairness, the CRRC is of the opinion that the infrastructure elements I have described here played a more or more significant role in influencing the derailment itself.
Gonneville said the T and CRRC both agree that the rotational forces caused by pad wear exceeded design limits. He also said the T was closing a section of the Orange Line from June 26 to July 1 to replace several other switches, including one that is heavily used near the Wellington yard – which is similar in shape to where the derailment took place. is produced. He said the new switches will all have guardrails.
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