PUBLISHED: 13 Oct 2024 at 05: 22
In an effort to reduce duplicate failures, the operators of the Yellow and Red lines are now testing redesigned manual wheel and conductor rail systems.
Following new incidents where a guide vehicle fell from a running Golden Line train and caused similar harm to a lengthy section of the Pink Line’s conductor rail, the roll-out follows these incidents.
Following these incidents, the concessionaires of the Yellow and Pink Lines, respectively, Eastern Bangkok Monorail Co ( EBM ) and Northern Bangkok Monorail Co ( NBM ), have been working with Alstom, the French manufacturer of the monorail guide wheel and conductor rail systems.
They want to avoid any relapse of these shortcomings, Surapong Laoha-Unya, senior director of BTS Group Holdings Plc, told the media on Saturday. He was speaking as a producer of both EBM and NBM.
According to Alstom, Alstom has conducted internal screening of the updated manual wheel system, which has been put on two Yellow Series trains and one Pink Line train for further testing. The project will take about three months to complete, he said.
Quick next year, he said, EBM and NBM may start replacing all of their 42 Pink Line and 30 Golden Series trains.
Now, the Yellow Line trains are using an intact link vehicle style after a health examination, he said, adding the consistency of inspections has been raised following the accidents.
Alstom has even redesigned the wire bridge method for both rail lines, but he said the company is also looking into the benefits and drawbacks of the new design.
He said EBM and NBM have both requested that each part of the wire rail, which is currently about 5 to 6 kilometers huge, be divided into smaller sections to minimize the damage if any section encounters issues in the future.