Bag problems still plague Denver airport; S&P meeting set.

DENVER -- Tests flopped again last week on Denver International Airport's $193 million automated baggage system, as engineers scratched their heads after basic components of the system failed.

On Wednesday and Thursday, engineers attempted to run a complete "sub-system" check of the baggage system, meaning that they would operate one complete loop that would include all the necessary functions, including loading, unloading, and transferring from one gate to another.

On Thursday, tests were halted after six hours of intermittent operation. The test was called off Friday after about four hours of testing and repeated jams and malfunctions. No new tests have been scheduled.

"We were not able to sustain any operations. In that sense, I'm sure we were all very disappointed," said Denver aviation director Jim DeLong.

City officials are scheduled today to talk with Standard & Poor's Corp. about the tests and the airport's upcoming financing plans, said Todd Whitestone, an airline analyst with the rating agency. Denver wants to refinance $180 million in debt and may tap the markets to pay for costs caused by the delay in opening the airport. Denver revenue manager Patricia Schwartzberg could not be reached for an update on the finance plan.

The airport's opening was delayed for a third time on May 15 and no fourth date has been set, as Denver runs up a $500,000 per day bill in interest costs.

Whitestone remains concerned about the bag system and says his agency's BB rating on $3 billion in outstanding revenue debt is warranted. Moody's Investor's Service, which could not be reached for comment, rates the credit investment grade at conditional Baa1.

"We haven't gotten any indication they have any kind of schedule or if they have a plan for opening day," Whitestone said. "This [baggage situation] is viewed as kind of this problem that won't go away.

"They need to come out and say, 'Here's the plan,'" Whitestone said. "If we could start marking off some key points, they could build some credibility. Just to say, 'We'll get back to you guys,' it doesn't build a lot of faith."

Meanwhile, airport officials continue to try to figure out how to get the kinks out of the baggage system at Denver International.

The system operates with 4,200 carts that travel along tracks beneath the $4 billion airport. The carts each carry a bag, and are routed by radiocontrolled sensors operated by several central computers. Each self-contained "loop," depending on the concourse it serves, has a computer. Scanners along the track feed information back to the computer, which radios back signals telling the cart where to go.

The system is designed to bring bags from the concourse to the terminal building in 10 minutes. Since testing began in April, the best arrival times have been 30 minutes.

In the past, the system jammed and carts derailed because of software problems with the central computers. Those systems have been improved, but Wednesday's tests exposed more mundane problems, such as bags jamming on conveyer belts and photoelectric eyes which were unable to read coded bag tags, according to airport officials.

In an attempt to let bags on conveyer belts take corners without jamming, workers on Wednesday night installed steel plates along corners. That problem apparently fixed, Thursday's test halted after three minutes when a series of jams developed after motors weren't calibrated correctly and switches hadn't been set, city officials said.

Thursday's planned 10-hour testing was cut short after the laser code readers didn't do the job. In addition, empty hard-sided luggage bags were bouncing around in the cars when they hit each other and the bags were thrown onto the tracks, causing more jams.

City officials say they'll quit using empty bags for the tests, which should solve the latter problem.

Denver has hired Logplan, a German firm, to serve as a troubleshooter on the baggage system. Logplan wants to get one entire loop running before moving on to a full system test, but last week's hangups did not allow Logplan to gather enough information to see if other problems developed.

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