Posted on 03/17/2016 9:06:36 PM PDT by BenLurkin
BART service between the Pittsburg-Bay Point and North Concord stations will be shut down indefinitely — and overall service will suffer for months — as the transit agency tries to get to the bottom of a baffling track problem crippling trains by the dozens, officials said Thursday.
Transit officials warned passengers Thursday afternoon that for the foreseeable future, riders who want to travel between the Contra Costa County stations will have to use a “bus bridge” arranged by the transit agency through four bus agencies. Those buses will travel on freeways that are sure to be more packed as they deliver riders to train cars that are sure to be more crowded.
BART mechanics said Thursday that they were closer to pinning down the problem. They said 50 train cars that failed Wednesday were hit with a power spike as they moved through a track crossover north of the North Concord station. On that stretch of track the power is reaching up to 2,000 volts — twice what BART expects for normal operations.
On each of the broken-down cars, the surge caused a semiconductor device called a thyristor to fail. BART said the parts — which are critical to each car’s propulsion system — cost $1,000 to replace and must be specially manufactured. That will take months, and riders should expect delays and shorter, more crowded trains in the meantime.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
train car flux capacitors on the fritz again?
“BART has 669 total train cars and is supposed to be running 570 at any given time. But it is now down 58 cars.”
Pathetic. And the media speaks of it like it’s fine. That’s some Turd World BS
90% of trains down in one of our greatest cities “indefinitely” while they’re building indoor rainforests in Asia.
Trump is right. We’ve been robbed and it’s time to be great again!
“BART mechanics said Thursday that they were closer to pinning down the problem. They said 50 train cars that failed Wednesday were hit with a power spike as they moved through a track crossover north of the North Concord station. On that stretch of track the power is reaching up to 2,000 volts — twice what BART expects for normal operations.
On each of the broken-down cars, the surge caused a semiconductor device called a thyristor to fail. BART said the parts — which are critical to each car’s propulsion system — cost $1,000 to replace and must be specially manufactured.
“
Ummm. Silicon Valley is full of people that could solve this over a couple of Anchor Steam beers.
Ha.....someone snick into their substation and rewired the main transformer.
58 are down, 10%.
Oops. Thought it said down TO 58 cars
They should change the name from BART to Bay Area Slow Transit And Regular Delays. ;-)
Every single time we’ve visited people there trying to make use of b a r t — they had long delays and stall- outs — plus they’ve got their own police force that’s invisible whenever bums, beggars, derelicts, drugged out addicts, and drunks get in your face. Plus “on board customer service” in the form of rap musicians ( none of whom had any talent) who enter the train cars blasting g their boom boxes at full volume in your ear. If you want quiet, they will take a few dollars -—”. All this the taxpayers have paid Billions for
This is one of the “new” stretches that they are going to close down. Hopefully it will allow them to get the rest of the system running smoothly again. Sucks for people who rely on BART to get to this area, though.
The North Concord Bart had numerous car break ins and other crimes with no Bart Police insight.
More fuel for the fire in the “Summer of Love”.
Bullet buses.
I think their control software has been, well, you know...HACKED!
Try the donut shop
Dicey area. Wouldn’t be surprised if it were sabotage.
Calling Dr Bill Wattenberg
The bad news is that they recently hiked the ticket prices, supposedly to keep up the maintenance on things breaking down, maintenance that was deferred.
The good news is that they recently announced a series of beautification projects on stations, where millions will be spent on redecorating with new artwork.
Ain't bureaucracy wonderful?
Bureaucracy? Close, but it’s better spelled bureaucrappy. Or bureaucrazy. Take your choice.
It is probably a high power thyristor. that is an power device, not a digital device.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.