Twenty of the 71 Azur trains of the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) are currently at a standstill due to “premature wear” of the wheel bearings, learned The Press. This forced pause does not affect the service at the moment, but the carrier cannot assure that no impact will be felt in the longer term.
“We already have mitigation plans ready if we ever had an impact on the service. That said, we currently have room for manoeuvre. Not only have we kept MR-73 trains [les anciens modèles] more, but ridership also remains at around 70% even though we deliver the same volume of service. However, I cannot tell you that zero risk does not exist,” admits the company’s general manager, Marie-Claude Léonard, in an interview with The Press.
His group says it noticed in 2019 an “anomaly” in the rolling stock of the trains – the equivalent of what is often called a bearing for cars – i.e. the part fixing the wheel to the vehicle and allowing it to turn. Essentially, a construction fault allows electrical current to pass through the bearings, subsequently creating arcs that destroy them.
At the time, the STM engineers had first found a “temporary solution” by removing the ground braids protecting the electrical cables, in order to avoid premature wear of the parts.
In the fall of 2022, a “permanent” and more durable solution was finally implemented to correct the problem. This involves installing on each of the hubs – the central part of the train wheel – a set of conductive crowns which redirect the electric current elsewhere than on the rolling stock, for example towards the rail which recovers the current by the following. It is the French multinational Alstom which set up this device.
They will all have to go
According to our information, all Azur trains are affected by this “anomaly” on the rolling stock. They will therefore eventually have to go through this upgrade, starting with the twenty or so trains that have just been taken out of service. “Depending on the protocol, we will withdraw the trains and put others into operation. We will always stay at around twenty trains, ”says Mme Leonardo.
“Currently, we are taking out a few more trains than we are putting them back into operation”, admits the DG, however, who wants to “double the rate” of replacing hubs in the coming weeks, in order to avoid any cut in services.
Currently, we are on a replacement rate of 30 hubs per week. There are about 72 on a train. We want to reach 60 per week.
Marie-Claude Léonard, Director General of the STM
For now, the STM is not yet able to determine how much it will cost to upgrade the hubs under its Azur trains. Everything would be “under analysis”. The company has 71 of these trains, mostly in service on the Orange and Green lines, as well as 40 MR-63 trains, which are seen mostly on the Blue and Yellow lines.
Service and Supply Challenges
To date, the situation has caused “no impact on the service” provided in the metro, assures Marie-Claude Léonard. “We follow this issue on a daily basis, we are very rigorous. If there were to be any impacts on the service, we would inform our customers at least two weeks in advance,” she insists.
Saying she is optimistic in the short term, the general manager nevertheless admits that nothing is guaranteed. “I can’t tell you never,” she agrees about a possible drop in services, in the event that the mechanical problems persist.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Azur train on the orange line
The other issue is supply chains, most of which have been severely disrupted in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to our information, some replacement parts for the trains are not yet available.
“The required documents, we have them, assures Marie-Claude Léonard. At the same time, everyone is aware of the issue of global supply. The good news is that we have secured a good number of parts, which tells us that we should be able to double the replacement rate,” she reiterates.
Not a first
This is not the first time that mechanical problems have been spotted on Azur trains. At the start of 2017, the STM had been forced to withdraw several trains from its network after shoes, pieces of equipment located under the body of the cars which are used to ensure the power supply, had been damaged on eight sets of Azur cars and one train of MR-73 cars.
At the time, this major event caused a complete interruption of service for 10 hours on part of the orange line of the metro, frustrating users and elected municipal officials. Damage had been caused in particular by defective shoes to the signaling equipment at Du Collège station.