I’m mad about our trains. Doesn’t help I tripped on messed up flooring this morning and twisted and bruised my ankle. I can just walk that off, but in the future, I might be better off walking?
For no good reason I looked at the specifications on the new AnsaldoBreda cars they’re getting for that line.
Right in the specs, it says “Maximum speed 75 Km/h”. This is 46.6 miles per hour. That’s just barely more than four tens. And that’s horrible.
The current fleet of old Budd UTV transit cars are capable of greater than 70 miles per hour. The ancient Westinghouse control system on them has a top speed of 65. If you look through the window at one of the cab panels you’ll see a row of colored lights corresponding to colored bands on the speedometer, this is the cab signal system that tells you how fast you can go or what the automatic train operation system will be set to in ATO mode. The speeds are 0 (red), 5 (blue), 15 (yellow), 35 (orange), 45 (green), 55 (orange), 65 (green).
The final green light was last seen lit just before September 11, 2001, when Miami-Dade Transit probably realized all their maintenance and parts funding was gonna be siphoned off for the Department of Homeland Stupidity so they cut back the operating speeds to save on maintenance. Ha ha, “maintenance”, that’s a good one. I’d slap my knee but it’s a little sore from hitting a row of seats when I went over.
Needless to say, further reducing the top speed to 45 will probably require timetable changes and break all of the ALREADY utterly broken bus connections throughout the system even worse.
Please remind me again why AnsaldoBreda was even considered in the running for the new Metrorail vehicle project? AnsaldoBreda has an unbroken, perfect track record of always, without fail, delivering railcars that are unsuitable to enter revenue service, requiring months of field rebuilding and reengineering before they’ll even reliably stay on the damn track let alone actually go anywhere.
The sad part? I get the feeling that even if we suffer through about two years of practically nonexistent Metrorail service due to Breda breakdowns, we’ll STILL be coming out better than this. UUUUGGGGHHHHH.
This is yet another reason Miami-Dade County can simply never be taken seriously as a world class…. anything.
MDX MAKES POLICY TO SUIT THEMSELVES.I got 5 uniform tfrafic citations dated 4/28/2011. I received the citationsapprx. august 10 2011. Now unless my math has gotten pretty bad,that is 4 month time frame.I paid the tickets along with the rest of my tolls.New invoice received sept. 19 2011/due date 10/4/2011.This a 15 day grace THANKS!! 1 toll 3.00 1 admin. charges 2.50. This is a one month time frame.RE: NOTICE OF TOLL PAYMENT DUEYou are receiving this invoice for toll transactions listed.Please pay the total amount due by the due date toprevent incurring additional fees, or potential citationsissued by the florida department of transportation.DO THEY HAVE TO FOLLOW SOME TYPE OF GUIDE LINES ???????IF I DON’T PAY THIS AM I GOING TWO TICKETS FROM FLORIDA??????IF I DON’T PAY THE I WILL GET FINED BUT HOW IS THAT ASSESSED ??????IF I DON’T PAY THIS AND THE NEXT ONE DO I GET FINES & TICKETS??????I WONDER IF MDX KNOWS THE ANSWER TO THESE QUESTIONSOR DO THEY JUST GO BY THEIR FINANCES THAT DAY!!!SERIOUSLY IF KNOWS WHERE I CAN FIND A PAGE FOR THESEGUIDLINES CAN YOU PLEAE POST IT.
[I’m unsure of whether this is spambot poop or not so I removed the links. This sort of seems to be a composite of two stories of MDX fail? Either way — if you receive UTCs for a toll violation, consult an attorney. There are quite a few, including those working with Ticket Clinic who have specialized in dealing with our special corrupt third-world traffic laws. If you simply receive an unpaid toll notice, that’s a bill, not a ticket – just pay it. – KG4CYX]