SEPTA’s Broad Street Subway Propulsion Control Box Retrofit – Post Installation, Realized, & Hidden Benefits

In 2001, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) Broad Street Line B-IV Vehicles were experiencing car availability issues due to declining propulsion system mean-distance-between-failure (MDBF) and increasing mean-time-to-repair (MTTR) figures. The major cause of the equipment reliability problem was the aging General Electric (GE) propulsion control box equipment that was no longer supported by the original equipment manufacturer (OEM). After thorough investigation and consultation with LTK Engineering Services into the increasing capital and operating expenditures along with decreasing fleet reliability, SEPTA decided to acquire a new propulsion control box instead of upgrading the existing one. SEPTA awarded the contract to a Germany-based company named Vossloh Kiepe in 2005 and completed installation on the 127 car fleet in 2011. In this paper the authors share some of the realized and hidden benefits of the retrofit. Expected benefits to the project were realized in that the MDBF has increased and the MTTR has decreased significantly along with cost savings from the new regeneration functionality. Some of the unexpected benefits were decreased failures of the DC traction motors due to the new processor controlled technology and additional energy cost saving due the Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) power conversion topology. These benefits will be expanded to inform Transit Agencies of the better than expected results of the conservatively budgeted project.

• Record URL:
  • http://www.apta.com/mc/rail/previous/2013/papers/Papers/BrownW_SEPTAsBroadStreetSubwayPropulsionControlBoxRetrofitPaper.pdf
• 
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Abstract used with permission from American Public Transportation Association.
• Corporate Authors:

  American Public Transportation Association

  1666 K Street, NW, Suite 1100
  Washington, DC  United States  20006
• Authors:
  • Brown Jr, William J
  • Williams, John R
• Conference:
  • 2013 Rail Conference
  • Location: Philadelphia PA, United States
  • Date: 2013-6-2 to 2013-6-5
• Publication Date: 2013

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 6p
• Monograph Title: 2013 Rail Conference

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Control devices; Cost effectiveness; Propulsion; Rapid transit cars; Retrofitting; Subways
• Identifier Terms: Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority
• Subject Areas: Design; Railroads; I90: Vehicles; I91: Vehicle Design and Safety;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01502560
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Dec 26 2013 3:10PM