Cable that broke in Lisbon rail crash was uncertified, report shows

Lisbon Rail Crash: Uncertified Cable Linked to Fatal Incident

By Sergio Goncalves

LISBON (Reuters) -The cable that snapped and caused a Lisbon funicular railcar to hurtle down a hill in September, killing 16 people, was not certified for use in passenger transport, according to a preliminary report that also pointed to maintenance flaws.

Portugal's Office for Air and Rail Accident Investigations (GPIAAF) said in the report late on Monday it was still impossible to say whether the use of an inadequate cable had caused the crash, as other factors were also at play.

GPIAAF's final report is due by next September.

The yellow tram-like carriage, which carries people up and down a steep hillside in the Portuguese capital, hit a building after leaving the track on September 3.

Gloria, which opened in 1885, is one of three old funiculars operated by the municipal public transport company Carris, which suspended their use after the incident. The line carried around 3 million tourists and locals a year. 

GPIAAF said the maintenance procedures, designed by Carris, have not been updated for many years and "the use of cables that did not comply with the specifications and usage restrictions was due to several accumulated failures in the process of acquiring, accepting, and using them by Carris".

Carris' internal control mechanisms "were not sufficient or adequate to prevent and detect such failures."

Carris has outsourced maintenance of the elevator since 2007 and the GPIAAF also identified deficiencies in this area.

"There is evidence that maintenance tasks recorded as completed do not always correspond to the tasks actually performed," it said.

Carris said in a statement "it is not possible at this stage to say whether the nonconformities in the use of the cable are relevant to the accident or not."

(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves; Editing by Andrei Khalip)