LRTA seeks copy of 2013 system audit report

MANILA, Philippines - The Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) will ask the former interim maintenance contractor of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) for the 2013 system audit report which contains a list of the numerous system problems they found upon taking over the rail line maintenance in October 2012.

Lawyer Hernan Cabrera, LRTA corporate secretary and LRT-MRT spokesman, said that they have yet to see a copy of the report made by Comm Builders & Technology Philippines on the system assessment and audit it conducted from October 2012 to February 2013.

“We have not yet seen a copy of the report,” Cabrera told The STAR in a phone interview.

LRTA Administrator Honorito “Joy” Chaneco has been appointed concurrent MRT general manager upon the relief of controversial erstwhile MRT manager, lawyer Al Vitangcol III late last month.

Lawyer Migs Sagcal, DOTC spokesperson, earlier said that Chaneco has been tasked by DOTC Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya to check the claims of CB&T president Roehl “Boyett” Bacar that there were numerous existing system problems that was left behind by former long-time MRT maintenance provider Sumitomo-TES Philippines.

Bacar, a Mandaluyong City councilor, said the current persistent glitches should not be blamed on CB&T or their maintenance of the rail line during their interim maintenance contract, and even the current Filipino maintenance contractor, Aure Porte Technique (APT) Global.

Bacar said the DOTC can easily ascertain the state or condiution of the MRT’s various systems if it will just look for the systems assessment report submitted by the DOTC’s expensive long time operations and maintenance consultant, Systra, retained by the MRTC in the 2000s.

Bacar said the location of the report would likely be known by MRT director for operations Renato San Jose.

CB&T Philippines is the current maintenance contractor of the LRT Line 1.

Bacar said that right after their assumption as interim maintenance contractor on Oct. 20, 2012, CB&T had conducted an exhaustive five-month system assessment and audit of the MRT systems that gave a detailed list of the problems they had discovered which resulted in a  2-inch thick report that was compiled and given to DOTC and MRT Corp. (MRTC).

Bacar had earlier furnished the STAR a copy of the report.

Bacar said that from their assessment, TESP (TES Philippines) had committed numerous questionable maintenance actions during their tenure, chief of which was their use of already deteriorated parts or equipment; and their failure to use original equipment manufacturer (OEM) parts for various systems or components of the MRT trains such as traction motors, air-conditioning units, and wheel and axle assembly.

The audit, Bacar said, had also discovered the design flaw on the electrical systems of the MRT, particularly on the line controller circuit. 

Even the MRT’s rail tracks maintenance were also found to be questionable.

“It is suspected that the composition of the rail is not of European origin and standards. 

To distinguish whether there is a rail or track defect, it is suggested that a thorough and detailed third party assessment be commissioned by the owner.

This will determine whether there is a rail defect due to initial manufacturing imperfections of the rail or track defects that are exclusively a result of train traffic or poor track maintenance of the previous maintenance provider,” the audit report said on the assessment of the railtracks.

The audit also described as deficient the installation of windshields on the MRT trains.

“Upon turnover of the warehouse inventory to the interim contractor, the number of windshield in stock and the frequency of withdrawal due to breakage of windshields was found to be highly irregular,” the report said.

“In house investigation and evaluation found that the breakage was due to the wrong methodology of installing the windshields coupled with the factors of vibration due to poor tracks and impact while vehicles are shunting,” the report revealed.

The audit also found the continued use of deteriorated parts especially the traction motors.

“All of the traction motors are beyond their useful life having logged more than one (1) million kilometers. This is based on the assessment of the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) Gerken, that rail industry standard requires all of the traction motors be replaced for this model of trains. The actual average mileage of the traction motor in MRT3 is 1,500,000 km,” the assessment and audit summary report of CB&T Philippines said.