May 3, 2007 9:36 pm US/Eastern
Exclusive: MIA Announces To Fix People-Mover
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MIAMI (CBS4) ―
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The automated rail cars that take you to and from Terminal E at M.I.A. have been shut down.
CBS
Miami International Airport officials announced that they came up with a temporary solution to the people-mover system that was shut down this week because of wear and tear to the system.
Officials said they would tap into money in their maintenance repairs fund to fix the system until they can find a permanent solution. The service is still expected to be out of commission for two months. The critical part of the system moving people from the main concourses of Miami International Airport to a major international terminal was abruptly shut down earlier this week after it was found to be so unsafe passengers could no longer use it. The Train to the Plane has been replaced by buses and delays.
The "people-mover" connecting Concourse E to the main terminal building, gateway to travel for hundreds of thousands of people a year, was shut down Tuesday night after the manufacturer of the train cars found them to be unsafe, just one day after the company's maintenance contract with the Airport expired.
A hairline crack was found on the automated train cars.
"The train, the flooring of it, would actually collapse unto itself," Max Fajardo, Assistant Director of Miami International Airport told
CBS4's Brian Andrews in an exclusive interview. "People could get hurt. The train could go off its track,"
The problem will affect passengers of American, Avianca, and other airlines among others. Now, instead of stepping on a train to be whisked quickly to the airside gates, passengers must take an elevator to the runway level, board a bus, take a short trip under the tracks of the train, and then, take a second elevator to the concourse level.
MIA officials told
CBS4's Brian Andrews Thursday morning that they intended to use $10 million from their maintenance reserves to temporarily repair the system. MIA's Assistant Director of Aviation Max Fajardo said they plan to work with Bombardier to come up with a quick solution.
Even so, Fajardo expects the "people-mover" system to be shutdown for at least the next 60 days and passengers will continue to be bussed to Concourse E. This couldn't have happened at a worse time for MIA as the airport is about to shut down Concourse A and move all of American's flights to the E Satellite so that construction on the new North Terminal can be fast tracked.
American was to move their flights over to Concourse E on June 1. If that happens, roughly 2-thousand passengers an hour will need to come and go from the E Satellite, which is currently serviced by bus only.
Airport officials admit passengers will likely face delays.
"When there is a safety concern here, we want passengers to have a good experience, but number one, their safety is our priority:, said Lauren Stover, head of security at MIA.
Word of the shutdown caught many in Miami-Dade government by surprise. Commissioner Pepe Diaz, chair of the Aviation Committee, said the abrupt shutdown merits a full investigation. Some critics have claimed that past county administrations had deliberately reduced the money intended for maintenance, clearing the way for the train system to eventually fail
"Of course, I'm going to engage and make sure that things from the past don't come to haunt us now, and if they do, we find a way to solve them as quickly as possible," he said.
Bombardier, the Canadian company which built and maintained the system, defended the "people-mover" saying the system exceeded its design life by 7 years, and in a statement, told CBS4 that the Airport had received good value from the system
After the quick fix is implemented, it will be up to airport and county officials to develop a permanent solution, and find the money to pay for it even as the Airport struggles with renovation and expansion project which is years behind schedule and hundreds of millions of dollars over budget.
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