New Coaches

those coaches were delivered last night, they pass through Secaucus under transit power about 10pm. It was a sight to see.

I saw 2 MN C5 cab cars being delivered today on the Center Street Branch. It was an interesting sight, the loco was in the middle of the two coaches.

The NJT employees who work the Midtown Direct Trains I've talked to absolutely hate the comet 5s with a passion. They are the worst they've ever had. They and I think NJT should've stayed with bombardier rather then go to the French. Hell it's too bad Pullman,and other railroad car companies from back i nthe glory days are no longer around otherwise they would've made a much better product then what Bombardier can build and the morons at Alstom cursed us with.

So far the rebuitl 2s are runnign smoothly but the Comets 5s are horrible. There is 0 reasons why the equipment is breakign down thsi frequelty. Even the Union leaders of the brotherhood of Engineers and Conductors despsie these cars!!!

As a NJ taxpayer who cares about NJT and the workforce and a 3 day a week rider on the Midtown Direct full Dover-NYP leg What in the hell was NJT smoking the day they went with Alstom!?!?!?!?! Bad enough NJT trains are slowing down but there should be 0 reason why equipment failure of this magnitude is slowing down NJT service and playing hell with the 1 hr and 15-20 min commute and makign it longer.

They had better get in shape if they ever plan to operate the cutoff. Bad enough that I'm stuck in a Comet 5 for an hour and 20 min but no way in hell would I be stuck in one for more then 3 hrs! (Thats if NJT does intend to run disel sets of the C 5s on cutoff and MOM).

NJT -

" The NJT employees who work the Midtown Direct Trains I've talked to absolutely hate the comet 5s with a passion. They are the worst they've ever had. They and I think NJT should've stayed with bombardier rather then go to the French. Hell it's too bad Pullman,and other railroad car companies from back i nthe glory days are no longer around otherwise they would've made a much better product then what Bombardier can build and the morons at Alstom cursed us with. "

Whoa....you may be pointing your finger at the wrong culprit !

Tell me, what changes/modifications did NJT insist on with these coaches ? How many times did NJT overrule the recommendations of the manufacturer ? Who's idea was it on the deviation from specs on the end doors ?

Who are Alstom's other major rail clients around the world ? Are they complaining as well ?

What in the hell was NJT smoking the day they went with Alstom!?!?!?!?!

I believe this was a 'lowest bidder' contract.

NJT could not insist on modifications or changes to an existing design because before this, Alstom had never built a passenger rail car,or at least that is the excuse they have used numerous times.

wow Alstom never built a passenger car ??
you are obvious not familiar with ALSTOM or as it was formerly nown as ALSTHOLM they provided several thousands of cars world wide and have produced more cars than the Budd corporation.

I didnt think it sounded right, but that is the excuse offered by Alstom for why the cars were late, and why they have so many problems. Their people have said, numerous times, that such bugs are to be expected as they had never before built heavy rail passenger cars. This is only one of their excuses, though, and Im sure they can pull out another one to explain the problems.

Also, the designers of these cars deviated from the requests of NJT numerous times, and NJT has, for some reason, refused to adress the issue with Alstom. They simply accept the cars as is, even though they are not supposed to be that way. For example, in the cab, all the switches are supposed to be backlit. None should be located above the engineers window. Rather than doing as requested, Alstom did as they saw fit, and so we have switches that are not backlit, and above the window. When NJT was made aware of this deviation by the engineers, they refused to adress the issue with Alstom, even while only the prototypes had been delivered and the others could be changed.

Somewhat off topic, my favorite Alstom story is still about the horns on the new diesels, also being built by Alstom and way behind schedule. We asked NJT, and NJT asked Alstom to move the horns from over the cab, to near the exhaust. This way there would be less noise in the cab, the horn would be less likely to fill with snow in winter, and even if it did, the heat from the exhaust would melt any snow. Alstom refused. Their reason? They had already cut the hole in the sheet metal of the air pipe for the horn. I guess Alstom doesnt have anyone on staff who can weld a piece of metal lover the hole and drill a new one.

This was posted over in the NJT Light Rail Forum, but I found it very interesting, so I'll post it here.

Our favorite company in the whole world, ALSTOM, built the Queen Mary II. Check out THIS LINK for information.

Sirsonic wrote:NJT could not insist on modifications or changes to an existing design because before this, Alstom had never built a passenger rail car,or at least that is the excuse they have used numerous times.

They (Alstom) are probably stretching the truth in that these are the first passenger rail cars they built/assembled in the US.

Tri State Tom, I'm blaming both of them. NJT should've known better but even if they did alstom is still guilty. This many problems has never occured with Bombardier. It's gets me to no end that thsi is a 21st Century and cars are supposed to be built better then the herritage fleets esp now. But I'm sadly mistaken when I see this crap going on.

As far as making a railfan go insane 383 try being crammed in a comet 5 from NYP-Dover 3 days a week. That was more then enough when the delays hit to actually have 8 of my friends leave NJT, take the car to Harrison or Newark and park the car there and take the Path to NYC or Jersey City.

Enough is enough! Warrington and the bigshots had better pay attention unless and get thsi mess straightened out unless if they want to be on the unemployment line.

If a conductor or an engineer was running NJT rather then some political appointee it wouldn't be anywhere near this bad but doing a hell of alot better and people would ride the trains instead of being on the verge of heading away from it.

I sympathize NJT cause I recall myself being crammed into cars and it being uncomfortable. But, the NEC can get far worse at times. I recall many instances about being crammed into vestibules on both MUs and Push Pulls.

NJT is trying to make it better but they need to do more because their efforts so far have only had minimal improvements.

Imagine how it feels for us to push our way through all those passengers to take tickets.

mb wrote:Imagine how it feels for us to push our way through all those passengers to take tickets.

Oh, I am sure it is a lot of fun. I've seen crewmembers who had to climb over bodies in the vestibules to get from car to car.

I sympathise with NJT only if it's problem that's too complicated to handle or beyond their control but when it's stupid crap like putting locals infront of expresses, using a 3 car train rather then the 6 across the platform and then havign that 3 car train go al lthe way to Dover while that 6 car is follwoing that 3 car packed with people that angers me to no end. If every NJ Governor appointed a NJT conductor or an engineer who is a senior employee then 90% of the problems plauging NJT wouldn't happen.

Gov McGreavy and all these polticians need to stop appointing suits with an MBA who've mastered the art of sittign on their asses and brown nosing while the system goes stright to hell.

I'm sick of poltical minded suits telling deidcated passengers and employees that it's doing well when in facts it's the total opposite.