The new B23 trains used on the Docklands Light Railway have been withdrawn from service due to a braking issue in wet weather.
An investigation into the braking performance is now being completed to understand the issue and return the trains to service.
Transport for London says that only one isolated incident has occurred with a single train, but says that all three trains have been withdrawn.
Engineering teams from Transport for London, KeolisAmey Docklands and CAF (who manufacture the trains) are working to resolve the issue that caused a train to not stop in the planned position at a platform because of low adhesion – an issue that is not apparent in the existing fleet of trains.
There is no return date for the new trains whilst investigations are complete.
TfL says that service levels will remain unchanged and journeys will not be affected, but a review will be made into whether the issue will affect the delivery timescale for the new trains.
“I’m sorry that we’ve had to withdraw the new DLR trains from service, but safety is always our top priority and we need to understand what happened before returning them to service. Introducing new trains is never without challenges and until our engineering teams complete their investigations, we will continue to operate DLR services using our existing fleet. I know customers are keen to see these new trains on the network, but we must get this right to deliver the safe reliable service that Londoners expect.”
Stuart Harvey, Chief Capital Officer at TfL
Responses
Reminds me of the “horizontal” snow problems with Eurostar sets, some years ago.
I thought new trains were always fully tested BEFORE they went into service to avoid issues like this?
It is physically impossible to test every single circumstance. If it was, there’d never be any issues or errors in engineering, software, medicine etc.