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Radios Don't Work In Metro's New Cars
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Jackie Jeter, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, which represents roughly 7,000 employees, including train operators, said she was not aware of safety issues related to the inoperable radios in the new cars. If a handheld radio is not working, rail personnel have access to phones in station kiosks and in emergency call-boxes located every 800 feet along the track, Jeter said.
In emergencies, the control center can shut off power to a portion of the track, said Dan Epps, who is in charge of daily rail operations.
Metro's rail chief, Dave Kubicek, said the problem is with the troubled $73 million radio system that Metro bought from Motorola in 2000. "There's nothing wrong with the radios," he said. "The infrastructure is incapable of receiving at this time."
Kubicek said Metro and Motorola have been repositioning underground cables and antennas to improve reception. Reception around the Green Line stations near the new ballpark is much improved, officials said. Kubicek said he is "targeting" the underground work to be completed and the overall system to be working by the end of the year.
Kubicek said dead spots affect console radios and handhelds the same way, so if a handheld radio can't get reception, the console radio can't, either. As an additional precaution, he said, the control center will not implement a command unless it receives an acknowledgment from the train operator.
But train operators said they can hear better on a console radio because "it's right in front of you," according to another operator who spoke on the condition of anonymity. A handset can be damaged if dropped, its batteries can run down, or it can slip off the train console. If someone falls on the tracks and central control is trying to tell an operator to stop the train, an operator with only a handset might not hear the communication, operators said.
Kubicek, who took over as rail chief last fall, said officials knew since "day one" that the radios on the new rail cars would not be compatible with the existing system.
To compensate, Kubicek said, he issued a memo directing employees operating new cars to carry two handhelds instead of the required one. Operators said they never received two handsets, and other Metro officials said they were not aware of the two radio-requirement.
