Cleaning Metro Railcars [First post!]

Hi All - I've been reading the forum for about four months now, and waiting for about two months for my registration to go through. Seems there is some computer hiccup that just yesterday was resolved.

So, to keep my account active I'll be posting quite a bit in the coming days/weeks, lest my account get deleted. I've got a long list of posts that I've been writing down on notes, and I'll start with this one.

Metro has published a solicitation, seeking a bidder to perform heavy cleaning of the outside of Metro's railcars. (see http://www.wmata.com/business/procureme ... rvices.pdf) The bid is for 1106 cars for the first year, with 2 cleanings per year, with several option years. So, that is not quite the full fleet, but I wonder if built into it is either no cleaning for 5000 and 6000 cars, OR if it is no cleaning for some 1000 series cars because those will be the first cars to be replaced by 7000 series in the coming months (we can only hope). The bid strongly suggests potential bidders visit the washing facility on Aug. 28th, and the bid requires between 6-10 cars cleaned each day.

My question is, why is this a bid? I thought Metro did its own cleaning using its own crews and facilities. Is this not so? Regardless, something needs to be done - the cars are looking very bad, even the newest ones.

Happy to be here!

JDC wrote: My question is, why is this a bid? I thought Metro did its own cleaning using its own crews and facilities. Is this not so? Regardless, something needs to be done - the cars are looking very bad, even the newest ones.

Two thoughts:

1. The general obsession with contracting out everything. You know it's bad when you outsource the contracting....al-la USCG Deepwater.
2. This line:
   WMATA has to assure that Offerors’ rinse effluents can be safely disposed of with existing pretreatment in the existing waste water system. A suggested list of chemical manufacturers is identified in the RFP- Scope of Work.

As ISTM WMATA got into EPA troubles on wash water a few years back.

Metro has had contractors performing this exterior "hand wash" at the Branch Ave Yard for at least a few years now. Not sure whether this is just a new round of bidding for that contract or if they are planning on adding a second location to this wash operation. I've always figured this was an outsourced operation because WMATA doesn't want to deal with the liabilities and safety considerations associated with the nasty chemicals they are using to wash the cars.

Metro has been slowly painting the 5000 fleet with a clear coat product that is supposed to maintain a clean appearance, reduce corrosion, and be very resistant to graffiti. I believe this is supposed to eventually roll out fleet-wide but that would of course take many years given the amount of effort required and the availability of only a single paint bay at Greenbelt.

As dcmike said the removal of heavy soil and oxides from the aluminum car bodies has been contracted out for years. The cleaning of the exteriors under this contract is far more extensive then the normal running of a train through the car wash. In the 1990s it was done in the New Carrollton car wash.

"dcmike"
Metro has been slowly painting the 5000 fleet with a clear coat product that is supposed to maintain a clean appearance, reduce corrosion, and be very resistant to graffiti. I believe this is supposed to eventually roll out fleet-wide but that would of course take many years given the amount of effort required and the availability of only a single paint bay at Greenbelt.

The RFP drawings for Dulles Yard show a "Heavy Damage and Paint Shop" building (2 tracks rough 110' long each inside the building) attached to the main shop building. The addition of the facility will increase WMATA's capability of clear coating the cars by 100%. There also is the possibility of converting the old shop building in New Carrollton yard to this purpose.

That was what I was wondering, namely, whether this was not just a 'run through the train car wash' or even a 'scrub down' but rather a heavy duty cleaning and restoration to an almost 'near new' outside appearance.

On a side note, my posts are still being reviewed by moderators (is that because I am new?), so if there seems to be a long delay in my posts appearing, sorry! That also explains why it looks like I posted the Red line tunnel closure post after one already existed - it just took longer for mine to be approved.

At today's Board meeting, a presentation mentioned that Metro railcars are now receiving a "clear coat" in order to help keep the exteriors clean. See pg 25 of this pdf http://www.wmata.com/about_metro/board_ ... 130912.pdf.

Which is probably grafitti resistant material