Why is there so much subway car breakdowns

[R62ACAR2151]

the amount of breakdowns that happens every time car doors fail or the term MDBF mean distances between failure when a subway car is traveling the number of miles suddenly when you reach a station subway car door start given trouble or the truck looses power having a disabled train ahead the amout of subway car breakdowns in 2005 was 178,085 in that year with 180,000 miles in a year.

[Riv]

I think moving a train at 10-15 mph when that train was designed to operate at full speed might contribute to the early breakdown of a train. Is the city wealthy enough to keep paying for constant track repair? Can't a track be repaired once a year or less if its repaired correctly and with the best material? Is the city wealthy enough to afford to keep replacing expensive subway trains?

I may be wrong about the act of constantly slowing a train up (due to constant track work) wearing out that train since that train drags when it was intended to run at a good speed. What do others have to say?

[fordhamkid7721]

The subway is a day-to-day constant operation, just one of our lines, the Lexington avenue line carries more people than Boston, Washington D.C. and San Francisco combined. In my eyes it seems that constant operation and frequency of trains would lead to quick wear and tear of the tracks and equipment and requires frequent maintenance, The city most likely sets aside money for transportation upkeep and can therefore afford to do all these G/O's and what knot....Usually with good upkeep the trains are supposed to keep faithful to their MDBFs and only breakdown after they have traveled those amounts of miles....I'm not sure if running them at low speed for extended periods of time contributes to their breakdowns...

[RearOfSignal]

I think moving a train at 10-15 mph when that train was designed to operate at full speed might contribute to the early breakdown of a train...
I may be wrong about the act of constantly slowing a train up (due to constant track work) wearing out that train since that train drags when it was intended to run at a good speed. What do others have to say?

I doubt that it has any effect on MDBF.

[Jeff Smith]

Not to mention that it's a 24-hour operation. It's hard to fit maintenance in the schedule.

Hey, it could be worse; remember the 80"s?

[RearOfSignal]

Even in the NYC Subway, a 24-hour operation, during the middle of the night the majority of equipment in laying-up somewhere. Keep in mind almost all delays are because of congestion or trackwork, not equipment failures.

[fordhamkid7721]

I beg to differ, I've been on quite a few trains that have had to either sit at the station or in the tunnel, get diverged or go completely OOS due to trains with mechanical failures ahead of the train I was on. In a few cases the train breaks down in a bad spot and completely shuts down service in one direction( or in one special case on the 4 line, where a redbird broke down crossing from one track over all 3 main tracks to the yard lead) both directions, and even sometimes screws with the operations of other lines( i.e a 2 or a 4 train breaks down somewhere it could backlash on most of the interconnected IRT lines)

Trains are machinery, as with all other machinery it's bound to break down at one point. It depends on how the equipment is maintained which would lead to many or next to no breakdowns...

[Radioguy]

I think moving a train at 10-15 mph when that train was designed to operate at full speed might contribute to the early breakdown of a train. Is the city wealthy enough to keep paying for constant track repair? Can't a track be repaired once a year or less if its repaired correctly and with the best material? Is the city wealthy enough to afford to keep replacing expensive subway trains?

I may be wrong about the act of constantly slowing a train up (due to constant track work) wearing out that train since that train drags when it was intended to run at a good speed. What do others have to say?

I'd never had thought that a resting, or slow, train would do more damage than one traveling fast.

[RearOfSignal]

I think moving a train at 10-15 mph when that train was designed to operate at full speed might contribute to the early breakdown of a train. Is the city wealthy enough to keep paying for constant track repair? Can't a track be repaired once a year or less if its repaired correctly and with the best material? Is the city wealthy enough to afford to keep replacing expensive subway trains?

I may be wrong about the act of constantly slowing a train up (due to constant track work) wearing out that train since that train drags when it was intended to run at a good speed. What do others have to say?

I'd never had thought that a resting, or slow, train would do more damage than one traveling fast.

It wouldn't. Maintaining tracks has nothing to do with MDBF. Two separate things. What would be nice though is CWR in the subway, a much quieter ride.