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Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Issues Bus Alert, Will Test Steering

Posted on: Sunday, 17 July 2005, 15:00 CDT

Jul. 17--The MBTA announced yesterday that it will conduct daily inspections of more than 150 of its newest buses, and it warned drivers to be careful after an investigation into two crashes Friday found a steering problem. It is the second significant defect this year with the handling of the $300,000 buses; another faulty part was fixed after a federal safety recall.

After the T pulled the buses off the road Friday, mechanics discovered that five, including the two that wrecked, had axle rods that were split, said Joe Pesaturo, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority spokesman. Those rods control the vehicles' suspension, and suspension problems can make them difficult to steer. On another 16 buses, the rods were scraped, Pesaturo said.

In March, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued a recall notice for the buses after its manufacturer reported that it had discovered a defect with other axle rods that control steering. Pesaturo said that the company had notified the T of the problem, which he said is "completely unrelated" to the new defect, and that all of the rods had been fixed.

John Russell, chief executive officer of the manufacturer, Neoplan USA Corp. of Denver, said yesterday that the problems with the T buses "immediately became the number-one priority."

"We will fix this," he said. "This is a very unusual problem, and we are dealing with it very quickly."

The T has 175 of the new Transliner AN440LF buses, which are 40 feet long, and have 38 seats, as well as a low floor for easier boarding. The MBTA was one of the first US transit agencies to buy the model, production for which began last year. The T ordered 85 more in February, just before the federal recall.

The 175 buses are among the T's total fleet of about 1,000, and carry thousands of passengers each workday. They are based in Charlestown, Lynn, Medford, and Quincy, but travel across the MBTA system.

The vehicles that passed inspection returned to the streets yesterday, and bus service returned to normal, Pesaturo said. The T is using substitute buses, in other models, to cover for the 21 awaiting repair.

"That will have absolutely no effect on our ability to deliver rush-hour levels of service Monday morning," Pesaturo said.

The buses back on the roads will be examined every day after they return to garages until the cause of the problems has been determined.

In addition, drivers are being instructed to report the slightest problem they encounter, and T inspectors are out this weekend driving the routes these buses follow to look for potholes or other pavement problems that might be causing the damage.

Starting tomorrow, engineers from the T, Neoplan, rod manufacturer ZF Trading, and consultant Booz Allen Hamilton plan to meet to figure out what is causing the damage, and whether those buses put back on the road might experience problems. Metallurgical tests will be done on the torque rods.

"We are also asking the engineers to try to develop some system that offers more protection to the torque rods so they're less vulnerable to road conditions," Pesaturo said. The inspections indicated that the rods could have been damaged by potholes, he said.

The latest problem with the buses delayed the ride home Friday for thousands of passengers. Buses were ordered off the streets after a bus driver lost control and crashed head-on into a car in Swampscott, injuring the driver and two others. Another bus of the same model grazed a wall hours earlier in the Callahan Tunnel in Boston. That operator also described trouble with the steering; no one was injured.

Neoplan's latest 40-foot version is not much different from other models produced since 1999, said Russell, its CEO. He said that about 1,000 of them are making runs at several US transit agencies.

"There was nothing in the specifications of this Boston bus that was meaningfully different from a steering point of view from our previous buses," he said.

Neoplan is a new vendor for the T, which is replacing hundreds of its older buses, some of which dated to 1984. The company is supplying Boston with 364 buses, more than a third of the T's fleet. In addition to the 260 40-foot models under scrutiny, Neoplan is providing 32 electric-diesel buses for the Silver Line waterfront routes; 44 articulated compressed natural-gas buses for the Silver Line's Washington Street segment and a route that parallels a portion of the Green Line; and 28 electric "trackless trolleys" in Belmont, Cambridge, and Watertown.

Pesaturo said the T had selected Neoplan, which builds about 300 buses per year in Lamar, Colo., because of its technical expertise and its ability to design and manufacture vehicles to the authority's specifications. Many of the Neoplan buses have come in behind schedule.

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Source: The Boston Globe

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