On Saturday, September 12, 2015 at 8:08:15 PM UTC-4, danny burstein wrote:   
      
   > Metro's new 7000-series railcars have been billed as much better than    
   > the oldest 1000-series railcars and a huge leap towards a safer and more    
   > reliable system. But the railcars are suffering from software problems.   
      
   Service quality on the DC Metro has become very bad.  Slow trains.  Frequent   
   breakdowns.  Cancelled trains, overcrowding.  Deep stations with broken   
   escalators.  I think it's more than just the cars, but bad management and a   
   bad design.   
      
   While this is bad, it seems every new railcar order has very serious delays.    
   PATCO's rebuilding is _years_ late due to 'software delays'.  Note that the 45   
   y/o cars ran just fine without any 'software' and off-the-shelf parts.  (And   
   they're not even    
   bothering to rebuild the traction motors or trucks, which are wear items and   
   probably in need of it.  They use LIRR M-1 parts).   
      
   PATCO used to have excellent management, but the current administration is   
   terrible.   
      
      
   Today, onboard railcar computers crash and need rebooting, delaying the   
   train.  If electric trains managed to run for 100 years, I don't know why they   
   need computers on them*.  What value do they add?   
      
   In NYC, they said they gonna keep the 50 y/o R-32's around for a few more   
   years.  I think they have a lousy MTBF, but apparently another rehab job will   
   be cheap and the cars will keep on going.  A tribute to the Budd Co**.   
      
      
   *I have a 35 y/o Touch Tone phone that works just fine (and a 1948 rotary set   
   that works fine), but a modern cellular phone lasts only a few years before   
   dying.   
      
      
   **However, their Phila Mkt-Fkd cars were crap.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)