Bus officials said on Wednesday that the new hybrid bus manufacturer bought by the Metro last year will repair some vehicles because they can have short circuits in the battery system. Forty-
Dan Stessel, Metro's chief spokesman, said seven buses would be repaired because "there is a potential power shortage in the energy storage system ".
He said the new US flyer based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, informed Metro of the defect last week.
Stessel said the Metro plans to continue operating buses that serve the routes of Montgomery County and the region.
Metro, he said, has been "certified" by new flyers and BAE Systems companies that provide electric propulsion systems for buses that are safe to use.
Stessel said that the New Flyer and the BAE System Company are working to resolve the issue, and the BAE System company paid for the work.
He had no idea how much it would cost.
The subway costs $89.
Sign a 3 million contract with the New Flyer to buy 152 of the bus.
The subway has received 147 so far.
Only 47 of these buses have energy storage systems provided by the BAE System;
New Flyer officials say the rest have systems provided by Alison transmission.
Stessel said the Metro is expected to receive five more buses from New Flyers later this year, which plan to fix battery problems before the transport authorities deliver them.
New flyers and BAE officials say 10 incidents involving these parts have taken place in North America over the past 15 months.
They said the shortage of electricity occurred on Daimler-made Orion buses.
BAE spokesman Kristin Gossel said the issue concerns debris found in the energy storage system at the top of the bus.
"Debris and moisture can cause an interruption in the electrical isolation of the battery pack," she said . ".
When this happens, there is smoke, the battery pack melts, but there is no flame, she said.
Smoke did not penetrate the passenger area, she said.
Paul Soubry, chief executive of New Flyer, said that when Orion encountered a problem with the energy system manufactured by BAE in the fall, the problem was first noticed.
At that time, he said that the New Flyer had the same components on the bus, "think it's not a problem" because the system was installed differently.
He said the computer
An alert has been generated to notify the bus driver of the problem.
But Soubry said after a recent investigation that the company "thinks we should correct the situation ".
He said 37 buses were also affected by six other customers.
He won't say who the other troubled buses are.
Last year, while visiting the new bus, Jack Reka, assistant general manager of Metrobus services, called the New Flyer Xcelsior XDE40 "bus Prius ".
Metro has replaced 401 old buses using diesel with hybrid, and the new order will bring the hybrid fleet to 553.
There are about 600 diesel buses in the subway, with a total of 1,492 buses.