Another rail crack at Tiong Bahru MRT station

[makapaaa]

Take the 'world-class' MRT at your own risk!

http://www.straitstimes.com/breakin...r-rail-crack-tiong-bahru-mrt-station-20130531

[h=1]Another rail crack at Tiong Bahru MRT station[/h]
Published on May 31, 2013
11:45 PM

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By Royston Sim










There has been another rail crack between Tiong Bahru and Outram MRT stations, with trains slowing to a crawl late on Friday night.
Train operator SMRT tweeted at about 11.20pm that commuters should expect an estimated 30 minutes of additional travel time from Jurong East to Outram Park towards Pasir Ris.
Engineers have been deployed on site to investigate, it said on its Facebook page, and have confirmed that the rail crack is not at a welded portion of the rail.
The company had, earlier in the day, explained the cause of the most recent rail crack incident. It said it was corrosion that caused a rail crack on the North-South Line on Thursday, which delayed train services for up to 40 minutes.

 

[streetsmart73]

some world-crass transport network :p:p:p

 

[Leongsam]

Cracked rails are part and parcel of operating a train service. The only way to keep the rails in perfect condition would be to keep them under wraps, polish them once a week and never run any trains on them.

Print Back to story​

Crack in Metro-North Tracks Repaired at Train Derailment

<cite class="byline" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 11px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(111, 111, 111); display: block; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.3em; width: 350px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">By Alan Levin - May 24, 2013</cite>
The rails where a Metro-North Railroad train derailed May 17 in Connecticut had been repaired a month before the accident that snarled commuters and injured at least 75 people.

Maintenance records showed that a cracked rail was discovered in April at the spot where one train jumped the track and was struck by a second train on an adjacent rail in the city of Bridgeport, the National Transportation Safety Board said in an e-mail statement.
Metro-North is inspecting all the “joint bars” on its main line tracks, the NTSB said. The joint bar, which connects two sections of rail together, was the piece that work crews discovered cracked last month.

After the accident, the rail was found cracked at the joint, the NTSB said in a Twitter posting May 18. The NTSB has taken that section to its lab for evaluation.
Broken rail can cause a derailment, though a train going off the rails can also damage track, Allan Zarembski, director of the railroad engineering and safety program at the University of Delaware, said in an interview.

The engineer of the train that derailed, which was traveling eastbound, told investigators he saw “what he described as an unusual condition on the track” just before the accident, the investigative agency said. The NTSB didn’t describe what the engineer had spotted.

Choked Commute

The eastbound train came to a stop before a second westbound trail struck it and slid alongside the rail cars, the NTSB said. The engineer on the second train had applied the brakes before the collision.

Adam Lisberg, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees the railroad, declined to comment on the report in an e-mail.
Metro-North resumed limited runs on the tracks between New York and New Haven, Connecticut, on May 21. Regular service returned the next day after crews repaired 2,000 feet (610 meters) of destroyed track and removed the 16 cars involved in the accident.

As many as 30,000 Metro-North users had to find alternatives during their commutes and Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy urged people to stay home.
The same lines are used by Amtrak, which halted service between New York and New Haven. The U.S. national railroad lost $5 million in revenue during the closing, Joseph Boardman, chief executive officer of Amtrak, said in an interview May 21 after testifying at a congressional hearing.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alan Levin in Washington at [email protected]

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bernard Kohn at [email protected]

 

[watchman8]

Cracked rails are part and parcel of operating a train service. The only way to keep the rails in perfect condition would be to keep them under wraps, polish them once a week and never run any trains on them.

Don't comment if you know nothing about engineering.

It's obvious that the mrt lines are over strained under significantly more train load and frequencies, which is a direct result of greedy ministers wanting a lot more immigrants.

Under normal operating situation that the mrt is originally designed for, the overhaul should have been at a later date, one which lta should know of from the designer of the original smrt system.

 

[HTOLAS]

Exactly my thoughts. While wear and tear is normal, they should not have resulted in the unexpected outcomes like the ones we are seeing on the MRT system. These breakdowns and cracks could mean, as you've said, overuse, lack of maintenance, being shortchanged by building contractors because of the savage bidding system, or a combination of the above.

Especially worrying is the fact that many of the cracks have been found in newer parts of the system, e.g. Circle Line, etc. I would like to see Mr Leong defend the PAPzis on that one.

Don't comment if you know nothing about engineering.

It's obvious that the mrt lines are over strained under significantly more train load and frequencies, which is a direct result of greedy ministers wanting a lot more immigrants.

Under normal operating situation that the mrt is originally designed for, the overhaul should have been at a later date, one which lta should know of from the designer of the original smrt system.

 

[Troll]

Over 10 years of budget cuts on maintenance plus heavier load and usage, thats the result.

 

[Leongsam]

It's obvious that the mrt lines are over strained under significantly more train load and frequencies, which is a direct result of greedy ministers wanting a lot more immigrants.

A far more likely reason is the doubling of obesity levels amongst Singaporeans. This has put a greater strain on the tracks.

Back in the 80s when the MRT was being designed, the engineers did not factor in the astronomical rise in prosperity thanks to the PAP. The downside of this surge in wealth levels is that Singaporeans now have more time for leisure, more money for food and more creature comforts that make for a sedentary lifestyle.

.............................................

Obesity and its effect on Singaporeans

Obesity in Singapore is on a dangerous rise -- measuring at 10.8% among the local population right now, as compared to half that amount five years ago. Should the alarm bell be ringing or is this just a faze that will blow off eventually?

Taking a 360 degrees look at the big O
We take a look at the potential reasons behind the gain in weight, the effectiveness of counteractive measures and two people who found the strength and determination to shed a big fraction of their weight.


1.5-metre woman weighed 126kg (Obese Singapore Pt 1)
Obesity rates have nearly doubled to 10.8% over six years from 2004 to 2010, a disease 33-year-old Melissa Lee has had to battle with her whole life.

She lets us in on her dramatic transformation after undergoing surgery to reduce the size of her stomach.



Are Singaporeans really getting fatter? (Obese Singapore Pt 2)
More Singaporeans today are obese, according to the National Health Survey which found that obesity rates in Singapore have doubled.

So what lies behind this trend of expanding waistlines?



How "Fatty Ng" lost 40kg in 6 months (Obese Singapore Pt 3)
It wasn't a pleasant experience growing up for 21-year-old Ng Zheng Jie, as he had to endure teasing and name-calling by his peers for his sheer weight.

Little did he expect that a National Service officer would inspire him to turn his life around.

 

[watchman8]

Exactly my thoughts. While wear and tear is normal, they should not have resulted in the unexpected outcomes like the ones we are seeing on the MRT system. These breakdowns and cracks could mean, as you've said, overuse, lack of maintenance, being shortchanged by building contractors because of the savage bidding system, or a combination of the above.

Especially worrying is the fact that many of the cracks have been found in newer parts of the system, e.g. Circle Line, etc. I would like to see Mr Leong defend the PAPzis on that one.

The mrt system was working fine for many years with occasional breakdowns within tolerance.

But after 2007 when the immigrant numbers start to be felt all over, smrt was forced to gradually increased frequency and the trains are definitely more packed than it was before. The extra strain start to hit the mrt system by 2009, and become a national issue in 2011 due to a massive Christmas period breakdown.

In a normal system like passenger airplane, the life of the airframe is fixed from day one by design. After a certain amount of usage and loading, the airframe must be overhauled. I believe the same was for mrt system in which an overhaul is required after a certain amount of usage and loading. By over straining and overloading the mrt system, singapore has effectively brought forward the overhaul requirement, and LTA did not foresee this since they did not design the system.

Now if the old mrt lines need to be overhauled, how much down time will that entail? The economic impact could be significant as there is no redundancy in rush hour transport capacity. In normal planning, LTa would have planned for sufficient redundencies before the old mrt line needs to be overhauled.

 

[sickpuppy]

Cracked rails are part and parcel of operating a train service. The only way to keep the rails in perfect condition would be to keep them under wraps, polish them once a week and never run any trains on them.

I agree rail cracks are part and parcel of any rail service but its up to the train operators to ensure it does not affect the smooth running of the system. As each of the trains that run along the metal rail in SMRT the 1st sign to detect is there is a rail crack is LOTS ( Lost of track signal ). 90% of the time is just a false alarm but if more than 2 trains have LOTS at that location then alarm bells should be ringing telling the maint. dept ( rolling stock and signal ) something is not right and attention should be focus on that affected area. After traffic hours an inspection crew should be dispatched to that area for a visual inspection. Sometimes the crack is too small to be seen at that stage then a speed reduction command would be imposed at that tract block till a MFV ( Multi Function Vch) can be arranged to that area to do a water sonic test to confirm. FYI in all my years of working rail cracks do not happen overnight and there are a few spots along the N/S line that is always encountering such problems sorry but can't specify about the E/W line as I am not well verse in that sector. For a crack to affect the running of a system it can mean only 2 things.

 

[Leongsam]

The rails probably cracked when this woman got on the train.... It was the straw that broke the camel's back.

 

[zhihau]

It was the straw that broke the camel's back.

whoa... reminds me of a beached whale... :o:o:o

 

[I_Hate_Pappies]

The rails probably cracked when this woman got on the train.... It was the straw that broke the camel's back.

And now she trying to break her record by crumbling the Great Wall?

 

[GoldenDragon]

Failing to plan, is planning to fail. Period.

 

[ZorrorroZ]

Perhaps should suspend all train operations and make obese Singaporeans walk to work. This has the double advantage of getting people fit, as well as giving sufficient time and space for the train operator to repair all the tracks. After which, they can gazette the MRT tracks as a national heritage line, and only use it on commemorative occasions.
This should prevent further wear and tear, and save the public millions. Of course, the transport minister should then be given a hefty salary increase for saving the public all this money. And this saved money can be put to good use, in letting Temasick invest further millions in ailing banks. And any leftover cash can be used to help residents committees, especially those in Aljunied and Hougang, to promote integration efforts for all the new Singaporeans, and their cousins, the Permanent Residents.
What a win-win scenario! Damn, I should be given a PBM for this idea!

 

[goldenmonkey]

The rails probably cracked when this woman got on the train.... It was the straw that broke the camel's back.

I can't argue with you on this - no camel in this world can take a straw such as this!

 

[Leckmichamarsch]

If properly made the rolling stock shud never crack!
There are traditional manufacturing processes n QC in place........... are we screwed by supplier? The elites are too busy counting their money to be bothered or even understand how rolling stocks are made....

 

[Leckmichamarsch]

Failing to plan, is planning to fail. Period.

At least there is a plan? LOL

 

[sickpuppy]

If properly made the rolling stock shud never crack!
There are traditional manufacturing processes n QC in place........... are we screwed by supplier? The elites are too busy counting their money to be bothered or even understand how rolling stocks are made....

believe me it will crack no matter how good the QC is. I can say nearly 80% of the cracks are due to flat spots from the metal wheels. It can be as big as a 10cent coin but when it constantly hit against the running track no matter how good the metal of the track is it will crack

 

[sickpuppy]

At least there is a plan? LOL

There was a plan and a good 1 too left down by the Japs and Koreans when they handed over the system to us and tweek by the locals. But...... along the way due to manpower constrain, cost cutting and multi-tasking the plan fell apart. When I left it was fire-fighting most of the time and preventive maint. as and when time permits. For those who praise Ms Saw when she reported fantastic profits I hope u all understand where she took the $ from to make such a nice spread sheet to the investors, shareholders and general public.

 

[taxidriver]

There was a plan and a good 1 too left down by the Japs and Koreans when they handed over the system to us and tweek by the locals. But...... along the way due to manpower constrain, cost cutting and multi-tasking the plan fell apart. When I left it was fire-fighting most of the time and preventive maint. as and when time permits. For those who praise Ms Saw when she reported fantastic profits I hope u all understand where she took the $ from to make such a nice spread sheet to the investors, shareholders and general public.

this is serious, inconvenience, misery to the public. possible to have a case against SMRT or Ms. Saw?