New Red and Orange Line Cars

nbcoram said:
At long last, Red Line cars 1912/13 have just been delivered this week to Cabot, breaking a drought of over a year (June 2022 was the prior delivery, iirc).
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Third mnew Red Line trainset..jpg

Here it is!! Found it on Facebook. Looks like this train has been sitting in Springfield for a while because it appears to have dust on top of it!! Could stand some soap & water!! Hah!!! :(
 
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North Shore said:
Do you ever question the quality of your news sources in the first place?
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I was questioning the time phase of that, but in reality, it probably IS true, since we never got all of the new cars made yet because there were countless & needless delays all the time. One thing after the other. Then, we finally learned why the T kept on pulling the trains out of service, mainly because inspections were done half-assed. But by me checking the date of this, it was ill-timed & out of line. :eek:
 
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Jahvon09 said:
I was questioning the time phase of that, but in reality, it probably IS true, since we never got all of the new cars made yet because there were countless & needless delays all the time. One thing after the other. Then, we finally learned why the T kept on pulling the trains out of service, mainly because inspections were done half-assed. But by me checking the date of this, it was ill-timed & out of line. :eek:
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So now, we should have 3 sets of new trains on the property, right? :)
 
MBTA DMA said:
1500/1501 arrived which from a vehicle numbering stand point is a milestone.
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If they're arriving consecutively, that's only the 6th car in 3 months. Or 1 pair per month, which has been the average pace since Spring and is far, far off any sort of "recovery" pace the state and CRRC were promising.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
If they're arriving consecutively, that's only the 6th car in 3 months. Or 1 pair per month, which has been the average pace since Spring and is far, far off any sort of "recovery" pace the state and CRRC were promising.
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F-Line, I'm willing to bet that the T won't ever look to CRRC for new equipment again in the future!!! Hah!!!! :unsure:
 
www.masslive.com

Mass. factory repairs its MBTA rift with deliveries of Orange and Red line cars

But after CRRC completes transit cars for Boston, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, the $95 million Chinese-owned rail car plant’s future is in question.
www.masslive.com www.masslive.com

With help from American rail-car experts and senior leaders from China, better subway cars are now rolling out of CRRC’s Springfield plant at a quicker pace, improving the company’s troubled relationship with the MBTA.

Also, executives with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority are often in Springfield, overseeing production along with permanent on-site inspections, said Jackie Jiang, project manager at the Chinese-owned rail car manufacturer.
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“We look to reset this contract for the delivery of very important rolling stock to us,” Phillip Eng, general manager and CEO of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority told the T’s Board of Directors last month. “The quality and the safety of the cars that we are receiving continue to exceed expectations.”
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In a December 2022 letter first reported by a Boston Globe columnist, MBTA deputy director Mark DeVitto laid out a list of quality and inspection lapses.

“Given the breadth, number and age of chronic quality issues that have remained unresolved, it becomes abundantly clear that CRRC MA’s management has completely abandoned its core responsibilities and commitment to lead, monitor and support quality management,” he wrote.

That’s quite a contrast with Eng’s comments last week.

“We really have turned a corner with the MBTA,” said CRRC spokeswoman Lydia Rivera.
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Let's see if this "reset" of relationships has an impact locally. Perhaps it already happened
 
It feels like it’s been a long time since there was a train-related issue impacting Orange Line service. Signal problems are somewhat regular but not a “mechanical issue” like the Red Line has been plagued with for a while now. That’s some positive reliability progress on the vehicles themselves.
 
Teban54 said:
www.masslive.com

Mass. factory repairs its MBTA rift with deliveries of Orange and Red line cars

But after CRRC completes transit cars for Boston, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, the $95 million Chinese-owned rail car plant’s future is in question.
www.masslive.com www.masslive.com
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At long last!! Hopefully, the MBTA will get the help that it needs to be used in getting these issues resolved with the CRRC!! It's been a long time coming. Too long!! At least the Orange Line has 90 new cars out of the 152 cars that they were supposed to get, but the Red Line still has a lot of catching up to do before we will even HEAR about some of those old rust buckets being put out to pasture!! Something that had once seemed so easy got so screwed up in a matter of months & kept on manifesting itself into a monster! :eek:
 
Missed the opportunity to get a screenshot earlier but during the rush hour periods the Orange Line has been running 13 trains with 12 in the off peak to accommodate the Green Line central subway closure load.
IMG_4348.jpeg

I took a look cause someone posted this image on twitter from yesterday evening’s rush and I noticed the headways on the boards. Trains were spaced about 6-8min this morning when I was sitting at Ruggles.
The T just took delivery of a few new OL cars and 2 RL ones so I hope this 12-13 running persists beyond this week.
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Koopzilla24 said:
Missed the opportunity to get a screenshot earlier but during the rush hour periods the Orange Line has been running 13 trains with 12 in the off peak to accommodate the Green Line central subway closure load.
View attachment 45125
I took a look cause someone posted this image on twitter from yesterday evening’s rush and I noticed the headways on the boards. Trains were spaced about 6-8min this morning when I was sitting at Ruggles.
The T just took delivery of a few new OL cars and 2 RL ones so I hope this 12-13 running persists beyond this week.
View attachment 45126
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It's too bad there's no real good way to take advantage of the third track to boost headways on the core/southern portion of the line.
 
737900er said:
It's too bad there's no real good way to take advantage of the third track to boost headways on the core/southern portion of the line.
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My understanding is that the limitation for headways is vehicles and personnel. The goal of the Orange Line Transformation was for 4.5-minute headways, so I believe the infrastructure can theoretically support at least that.
 
bigeman312 said:
My understanding is that the limitation for headways is vehicles and personnel. The goal of the Orange Line Transformation was for 4.5-minute headways, so I believe the infrastructure can theoretically support at least that.
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That was also with the full new signal system rollout which seems to be just as stalled as the rolling stock order. But, yes, from my understanding it is still the number of dispatchers that limit headways on the Orange + Red, unless anyone has heard updates on that.
 
bakgwailo said:
That was also with the full new signal system rollout which seems to be just as stalled as the rolling stock order. But, yes, from my understanding it is still the number of dispatchers that limit headways on the Orange + Red, unless anyone has heard updates on that.
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If personnel (either operators or dispatchers) are still an issue, that makes it a bit less likely for 13 OL trains to keep running once the GL shutdown ends, if some of the GL personnel were temporarily moved over to OL for a temporary boost in capacity. Hopefully that's not the case.
 
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