New Red and Orange Line Cars

[stick n move]

Whats going to happen to the crrc plant after they deliver the remainder of the cars? I think I remember they had a few other orders like commuter rail cars for philly and a couple others but theyre not getting any more orders so id imagine its going to close down?

 

[bakgwailo]

Whats going to happen to the crrc after they deliver the remainder of the cars? I think I remember they had a few other orders like commuter rail cars for philly and a couple others but theyre not getting any more orders so id imagine its going to close down?

Yes, especially given the current political climate and administration, the Springfield plant is dead after they wrap up the MBTA order, which is probably why their level of caring at all about it is basically none.

 

[Stlin]

Controversial take: The state should consider options for taking over ownership and operations at the plant. Maybe not as a end-to-end builder of new cars, since I believe CRRC's management design & engineering team isn't in Springfield, but the Commonwealth can 'contract' that responsibility back to CRRC for the Red Line fleet - (I'm reasonably sure that Buy America only applies to the physical article and doesn't apply to design/ engineering/ professional services), but the plant itself should operate as a quasi governmental "contractor" facility to build and overhaul transit vehicles for the T and other transit agencies, the plant could have a future - here, think Rochester shops 2.0 or the (now former) Maine Military Authority, or the current state of operations of Kinki Sharyo in both NJ and California.

The T has said that midlife overhauling it's CNG fleet in-house at Everett instead of sending them out to out of state contractors saved $73 million. Soon, the Siemens BL fleet will need mid-life overhauls itself, the early rotem bilevels, and while the HSP46s are planned, MPI has such a massive backlog that I'm pretty sure there's some opportunities there. Like MMA historically, they could be set up to compete for transit rebuild business generally from across the region, to include all the regional RTAs who might otherwise send their buses to places like Midwest. Meanwhile, Kinki Sharyo who hasn't been particularly successful in selling vehicles, has been keeping its plants alive as maintenance shops, or in the case of its LA plant, sub-contracted to Hyundai Rotem to assemble Rotem's LA Metro order.

 

[themissinglink]

MBTA's Red Line fleet replacement might not be finished until the 2030s​

Replacing all of the MBTA's Red Line train cars could now take until at least the early 2030s, according to its latest spending plan.
Why it matters: Supply chain problems, international economic winds and other tensions with the Chinese manufacturer have delayed the replacement cars that were originally expected to be in place by the end of the 2010s.
State of play: The MBTA's FY2026 capital plan now puts the completion date within FY2032, meaning the T doesn't expect to close out the contract until 2031 at the earliest.
New cars could be put in service before then, but the T is admitting the current deadline for an all-new Red Line by the end of 2027 is no longer achievable.

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

At least there's 40 shells in-assembly at Springfield, so there's *some* hope that deliveries can resume before the end of the year. After their (non-)performance last winter, the 01500/01600's absolutely have to go before their air compressors get murdered again by the cold temps.

But...yeah...this nightmare isn't going to end until the contract is a full 18-20 years old and a full 10 years has passed since the original projected completion date. And it may even take longer to finish than the entire base order of Green Line Type 10's, ordered eight years later.

 

[Jahvon09]

This is so ridiculous!!!!!!!!

 

[Delvin4519]

At least there's 40 shells in-assembly at Springfield, so there's *some* hope that deliveries can resume before the end of the year. After their (non-)performance last winter, the 01500/01600's absolutely have to go before their air compressors get murdered again by the cold temps.

But...yeah...this nightmare isn't going to end until the contract is a full 18-20 years old and a full 10 years has passed since the original projected completion date. And it may even take longer to finish than the entire base order of Green Line Type 10's, ordered eight years later.

After the 15s and 16s go; which of the remaining old trains (post-after the 15s/16s are scrapped) would be scrapped next first. Would the MBTA scrap the 17s first and the 18s wait? Or would it be the other way around?

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

After the 15s and 16s go; which of the remaining old trains (post-after the 15s/16s are scrapped) would be scrapped next first. Would the MBTA scrap the 17s first and the 18s wait? Or would it be the other way around?

The 17's are next to go. They *had* a set retirement schedule all plotted out right to the end, but that got blown to shreds by the CRRC delivery delays and the fleet availability of the new cars taking a hit due to warranty repairs.

 

[Jahvon09]

Meanwhile, the Orange Line trains have been given a 2nd run of 55mph from Assembly Station to North Station.