Bangkok rail systems undergo tests after accidents
published : 14 Oct 2024 at 07:11
writer: Gary Boyle
ORIGINAL SOURCE/WRITER: Onnucha Hutasingh
The operators of both the Yellow and Pink lines are currently testing redesigned wheel and rail systems to prevent more accidents.
The roll-out follows recent incidents in which a guide wheel fell from a running Yellow Line train, damaging vehicles below, while a long section of the Pink Line's conductor rail also fell, causing similar damage.
Following these incidents, the Eastern Bangkok Monorail Co (EBM) and Northern Bangkok Monorail Co (NBM), concessionaires of the Yellow and Pink Lines respectively, have been working together with Alstom, the French producer of the monorail guide wheel and conductor rail systems.
Alstom has tested the redesigned guide wheel system in-house and has now fitted it on one Yellow Line train and one Pink Line train for further testing, a process which requires about three months to finish.
EBM and NBM will then begin replacing all the guide wheels on their 42 Pink Line trains and 30 Yellow Line trains early next year.
Currently, the Yellow Line trains are using an unchanged guide wheel design after a safety inspection, and the frequency of inspections has been raised following the accidents.
Alstom has also redesigned the conductor rail system for both monorail lines, but it is still assessing the pros and cons of the new design.
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Vocabulary
- concessionaire: a person or company that has the legal right given by a business or government to sell things - ผู้ได้รับสัมปทาน
- damage (noun): physical harm caused to something which makes it less attractive, useful or valuable - ความเสียหาย
- frequency: the number of times something happens within a particular period - ความบ่อย
- guide: to help somebody to move in a particular direction; to move something in a particular direction; to direct or influence somebody's behaviour - นำทาง, นำไป
- in-house (adj.): internal; within a company or organization - ซึ่งเกิดภายในองค์กร, ภายในองค์กร
- incidents: events which are either unpleasant or unusual - เหตุการณ์
- pros and cons: advantages and disadvantages - ข้อดีและข้อเสีย
- rail line: a track with rails on which trains run; a system of tracks, together with the trains that run on them - เส้นทางของรถไฟ, ระบบทางรถไฟ, รางรถไฟ
- respectively: in the order in which they were mentioned - ตามลำดับ
- roll-out (noun): an occasion when a company introduces or starts to use a new product - การนำ(สินค้า ฯลฯ) ออกส่สายตาประชาชนเป็นครั้งแรก
- undergo: to experience a process of change - เผชิญกับ, ประสบ
