Dec. 21 Eyed as Possible Red Line Start Date : Transit: Early Metrolink opening depends on delivery of eight rail cars and resolution of a stubborn braking problem.

Local transit officials are scrambling to work out kinks in subway cars in order to open the first segment of the Metro Red Line on Dec. 21, three months ahead of schedule--and just in time for Christmas, it was disclosed Tuesday.

Speculation about the opening date has grown as officials prepare for the Oct. 26 start-up of the Metrolink commuter-rail system that will connect with the Red Line at Union Station. But Los Angeles County Transportation Commission officials have been reluctant to say when the Red Line will start unless they can be certain that date will not slip.

LACTC Executive Director Neil Peterson said the official opening date remains March 15, 1993, although he acknowledged that the commission is eager to open the line as soon as possible to accommodate Metrolink passengers.

RTD officials said that Dec. 7 and Dec. 21 were identified by the LACTC’s Rail Construction Corp. subsidiary as “work towards” dates for “possible early revenue operations.”

Arthur T. Leahy, the Southern California Rapid Transit District assistant general manager for operations, said that with the amount of simulations and tests still to be done, only Dec. 21 is still possible--and that depends on the delivery of eight working cars by Nov. 9.

Peterson said the opening date depends on more than just delivery of enough cars. He said a lot of work--such as emergency communications system testing, fire and safety inspections and driver training--remains to be done before the line can be put in service.

However, a readiness report by the RTD says those concerns are secondary to a stubborn problem with the Red Line’s state-of-the-art Italian-made cars. The report, prepared by Leahy and General Manager Alan F. Pegg, is scheduled to be presented to the RTD board at its regular meeting on Thursday.

Leahy said Monday that the Red Line cars’ main problem is their “dynamic brakes,” one of two braking systems on the vehicles. Leahy said he did not know why the brakes do not work. Peterson said key electrical components seem to get wet when the cars are washed, causing the components to short and fail when the dynamic brakes are applied. He said technicians are working on a way to make the vulnerable components watertight.

Dynamic brakes work on a principle similar to that seen when a motorist slows an automobile by simply taking his or her foot off the accelerator. Dynamic, or regenerative, brakes use the natural drag of the train’s motors to slow the subway car--in the process reversing the electric motors to generate electricity.

The cars’ other braking system, common friction brakes, work well and can slow and stop the cars, Leahy said.

Leahy and Pegg said in their report that local officials are considering whether to formally accept delivery of the cars on the condition that the dynamic brakes eventually be made to work. A conditional acceptance of the cars could start the clock running on their warranties but would at least give transit workers cars with which they could practice driving and learn maintenance.

In the interim, cars are being tested on the 4.4-mile first leg of the subway, using only the friction brakes. Leahy said the trains could be put into regular service with only the friction brakes, but under those conditions the brakes would wear out very quickly.

“I won’t say we wouldn’t ever do it, but it’s not something we would want to do,” he said. “You might have to change the brake pads every day. We would have to have some very serious discussions before we would agree to that.”

Leahy said the RTD would need at least eight cars to offer minimal service on the initial Red Line segment, which runs from Union Station through the Civic Center, Pershing Square and Financial District to MacArthur Park. The line eventually will extend more than 20 miles, to the Mid-City district, the Eastside, Hollywood and North Hollywood.

Technicians from the cars’ manufacturer, Breda Construzione Ferroviare, and officials at the LACTC’s Rail Construction Corp. subsidiary have been working on the braking problem for months. But what appeared at first to be an easily manageable problem has become intractable.

For example, Booz-Allen & Hamilton consultants predicted in a Sept. 8 memo that a certain pair of cars would be tested and ready for acceptance on Sept. 21. The date came and went with the cars still not working, so Booz-Allen said on Sept. 24 the cars would be ready by Nov. 13. Now the consultant expects the cars won’t be accepted before Dec. 23.

The car-delivery schedule is so muddy that Booz-Allen has stopped making predictions about the last 16 cars in the 30-car fleet.

The last two cars--the vehicles are permanently coupled in what are called “married pairs”--were supposed to arrive in Los Angeles from Breda’s factory in Pistoia, Italy, on Oct. 1, according to the company’s contract. The best estimate for delivery is now next April, six months late. As for when the cars might pass inspection and be accepted by the LACTC, Booz-Allen has marked on its schedule: “Don’t Know.”

Peterson said it is for just this sort of reason that the commission keeps insisting that the official start-up date for the Red Line will stay, for now, March 15, 1993.