New Red and Orange Line Cars

bigeman312 said:
You're right! It's out there now, so I wonder if today will be its first PM rush. I am, admittedly, way too excited and following this far too closely.
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The one out right now is 1411, which I don't believe is revenue service just purely testing the new vehicles.
 
Well, hopefully that means that there will be more than a single train in service soon.
 
Awesome photo^. Love the I-93 elevated structures above. The civil engineer in me, plus I think they look great.
 
These trains went from complete crap and horrible looking, to in my opinion the best looking subway cars in the US. Cant wait for the new red cars. So many new style subways usually have that kinda cheap look like Seattle for example. These have a nod to the classic subway look with the stainless steel, but the black front and sleek lights with the 3 dashes look phenomenal.
 
Charlie_mta said:
Awesome photo^. Love the I-93 elevated structures above. The civil engineer in me, plus I think they look great.
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Yes, I love the way the Orange Line viaduct weaves it's way through all that spaghetti of bridge ramps and commuter rail tracks. It is a great example of creating more space by stacking.
 
stick n move said:
These trains went from complete crap and horrible looking, to in my opinion the best looking subway cars in the US. Cant wait for the new red cars. So many new style subways usually have that kinda cheap look like Seattle for example. These have a nod to the classic subway look with the stainless steel, but the black front and sleek lights with the 3 dashes look phenomenal.
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I rode the new train for the first time today at rush hour (about 8:15) from Sullivan with my girlfriend who is not even remotely a transit enthusiast. I think she was more impressed than I was - largely due to the fact that I've been reading, researching, and anticipating this while she's paid no attention. I've been telling her for a while that the new fleet will not only be nicer, but when it's fully launched, it'll mean more frequent trains and less crowding. She's been politely skeptical until today. They're bright, they feel roomier, the displays are great, and nothing feels "cheap" about them. We just spent this past weekend in Toronto and enjoyed the relatively new rollings stock on the light rail and subway. Apart from the entirely open front-to-back aspect of Toronto's transit, this is on par with anything there or else where I've ridden in North America recently. I'm very impressed and I think entire fleets of these on the Red/Orange lines will go a long way to improve the tarnished image of the T. These are world class vehicles.

Three small observations:
  1. There was a "Price is Right" style announcement as the train was approaching Sullivan - something to the tune of "The Next Train is the Braaand New Orange Line Train." - is that at every station?
  2. The displays and announcements were off by a stop. The announcements and displays had us at Community College while we were at Sullivan, and announced/displayed North Station as we pulled into Community. It announced/displayed Haymarket after Community, but reset and was accurately announcing/displaying North Station as we pulled in.
  3. The displays with the transfer info are enormously helpful. Especially the bus numbers. As someone who admittedly doesn't ride the bus often simply because I don't have the time (am too lazy) to learn key bus routes outside of my immediate area, I learned about a lot of key bus transfers today. Maybe they'll be useful in the future?
 
Lrfox said:
They're bright, they feel roomier, the displays are great, and nothing feels "cheap" about them.
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Was lucky to catch it this morning--this is exactly what I thought as well. You don't understand the difference until you actually ride it! I'd say my first thought was just how bright they are, quite a difference from the old fleet.
@datadyne007 please tell Preston thanks for the website--I checked it before getting into Downtown Crossing, and it showed the train coming right after the one pulling in when I got there.
 
I got to ride it on my commute this morning too! (Was the first time I got to ride it for my commute rather than just railfanning on the first trip)

The announcement that a "brand new train!" was arriving caught everyone off guard and people started getting excited. When it pulled it at Malden, some people were cheering.

The OL was having a rough morning this morning and the additional capacity in the new cars helped, but we still reached total crush load by Sullivan. Can't get more new trains into service fast enough to get rid of the old unreliable rolling stock.
 
The south side OL cars have been out in Cabot Yard the past couple of mornings. I could see some people in them today, so hopefully they are starting to do some kind of training. The end of the test track looks like it has a long way to go though.
 
They are there because the T wants to train some of the Red Line drivers in preparation for driving the new Red Line trains when they go into revenue service. :)
 
Jahvon09 said:
They are there because the T wants to train some of the Red Line drivers in preparation for driving the new Red Line trains when they go into revenue service. :)
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No. It's way too early for staff training. The OL pilots are there for signal compatibility tests and to break in the test track (if they ever finish it in time). The two cars in question are only being borrowed because they're early pilots that have to go back to Springfield to get all their modifications to be re-delivered as production cars, not get modded onsite in Wellington like the later deliveries. They're now far enough into Orange production deliveries that these two unmodded pilots are basically useless for further OL testing until they get brought up to full production spec.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
No. It's way too early for staff training. The OL pilots are there for signal compatibility tests and to break in the test track (if they ever finish it in time). The two cars in question are only being borrowed because they're early pilots that have to go back to Springfield to get all their modifications to be re-delivered as production cars, not get modded onsite in Wellington like the later deliveries. They're now far enough into Orange production deliveries that these two unmodded pilots are basically useless for further OL testing until they get brought up to full production spec.
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That is not what I was told.
 
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