New Red and Orange Line Cars

You see?!! They put them back in service, making people think that they're ok. The minute something goes wrong, they'll yanked them off again! This is just a damn tease!! They need to test them to make sure. :mad:
 
Jahvon09 said:
You see?!! They put them back in service, making people think that they're ok. The minute something goes wrong, they'll yanked them off again! This is just a damn tease!! They need to test them to make sure. :mad:
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I suggest they test them for no less than 40 years before placing them into revenue service, to ensure they really are as durable as we need them to be. (End Sarcasm.)

Seriously, it's not a tease, it's not a trick, it's not a conspiracy. It's a procurement. No one, literally no one, tests new vehicles in non-revenue service indefinitely, until every possible theoretical problem under the sun can be assessed for. Not the T, not the MTA, not Amtrak, and not even the people who make airplanes (and when those go wrong unexpectedly, it tends to be far more catastrophic than a subway car).

The first CRRC cars arrived on-property in December 2017, more than a year and a half of only testing before they first ran in revenue service in August 2019. They did test them, tested them for a year and half before they entered service, and it's not like they stopped collecting data on them once they were in revenue service. The actual, identified, specific physical problem that got them pulled this year was the side bearer pads wearing out faster than expected, something they would in all likelihood have no reason to suspect until something actually went wrong and, when it did, it was on an ancient, little-used switch that was already scheduled for replacement because of how old it was.

No transit operator in their right mind would ever decide that they are going to conduct an unlimited open-ended non-revenue testing period for new equipment just to see if anything crops up with them ever. If you're saying the cars need more testing, it obviously took years for the side bearer pads on these cars to wear down to the point where they contributed to the derailments. Would you prefer that they had gotten no revenue service at all, based on the possibility that something, someday might eventually go wrong? That seems to be the logical conclusion of what you're arguing, and I have a hard time thinking it'd be a popular one among the transit riders and taxpayers of Massachusetts.

EDIT: I apologize for the distinctly ranting tone of this post, but it's endlessly frustrating how often we seem to have this same conversation in this thread. I understand how frustrating it is to have the cars repeatedly pulled from service (the implications of my username notwithstanding, I'm primarily an Orange Line rider), but the level of hysteria (moreso in the comments on the Boston Globe or, worse, Facebook, but also at times in this thread) for a perfectly normal if not perfectly-smooth procurement is absolutely unwarranted, and trying to make that point sink in, repeatedly, gets a little exhausting, hence the ranting. Rant complete, we return you to our regularly-scheduled CRRC-cars programming already in progress.
 
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“I have many times in my life wanted the red line to go faster, but I don’t think I’ve ever wanted it to as badly as I do now,” Jonas-Silver tweeted as she neared the finish line...

boston.cbslocal.com

Boston Woman Breaks Record For Fastest Time Traveled To Every MBTA Station

A Boston woman made history on the T Friday.
boston.cbslocal.com boston.cbslocal.com

(Let's lighten up. You nerds could go faster, right? )
 
I apologise also, & I don't mean to sound nasty or upset, but even though they might have done some work on the new cars, there seems to be little or no reassurance from them that things were checked out & given a clean bill of health. If they did, then so much the better. As everyone knows, the present equipment is long overdue for retirement. Yes, the new equipment IS a welcome change & I surely hope that all of the new trains, for both the OL & RL, they can get them all without any more major problems or delays. :)
 
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Maybe they're still working on the tracks. They can't go faster until the welding sets. But you won't hear that clickety-clanking sound when they do. They really are stepping up their game in trying to redo stuff to make things a little better for the commuters. :)
 
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chrisbrat said:
i know next to nothing about this stuff, but doesn't the coupling link or whatever it's called on the front look busted? it's definitely sitting at an odd angle. also, is the digital sign already messed up? maybe it's "in motion" and scrolling in between messages?
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You're right that the coupler does look to be at an angle. No idea what's up with that.

I think the sign was probably working properly. I'm not sure exactly what the cause is, but in a lot of photos and videos of signs like that there are parts that don't show up (maybe something do do with screen refresh rates and shutter speeds?). It probably looked normal in person.
 
Brattle Loop said:
something do do with screen refresh rates and shutter speeds?). It probably looked normal in person.
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That's my guess: the scanning rate of the camera (or even an "anti-jitter" algorithm) catches different parts in different positions, resulting in the whole car looking tilted.
 
Jahvon09 said:
You see?!! They put them back in service, making people think that they're ok. The minute something goes wrong, they'll yanked them off again! This is just a damn tease!! They need to test them to make sure. :mad:
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They'll probably bring back all the ones that were in revenue service first. As for the rest of them, they'll be put through their paces & scrutinized. As more new trains come online, the old equipment will be weened out & put out to pasture, starting with the ones that are the least reliable. But if you wanna ask me, ALL of them are unreliable. Hah!!
:)
 
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Helps that we haven't seen pre pandemic rush hours volumes, makes the delay in new cars less bad.
 
tysmith95 said:
Helps that we haven't seen pre pandemic rush hours volumes, makes the delay in new cars less bad.
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For now, yeah. Hopefully, though, as ridership returns the MBTA can get towards having a reasonable critical mass of new rolling stock in service before it gets too bad again.
 
I heard that part of the Orange Line was closed because of flooding & heavy rain. Can anyone confirm that? :unsure:
 
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