There is no real point in these big complaints, there is nothing to do at this point, beyond just learning for the next contracts. Also, I find the “in service” % sort of misleading. Besides those 2 OL cars, basically every delivered car is in service, or will be very soon. A better (and would probably strengthen their argument) wording would be saying % delivered.
China to Springfield: The MBTA's 11-year struggle to get new Red and Orange Line cars
The MBTA is 11 years into a contract to replace its aging Orange and Red Line train cars. The project is up to a billion dollars and has been riddled with delays and challenges. Now, delivery of the cars is in sight – but Trump’s tariffs could cause new problems.www.wbur.org
New Red and Orange Line Cars
- Thread starter bostoneophyte
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big if true?
scottvanvoorhis.substack.com
Breaking News | Chinese rail giant building T's new Orange and Red Line cars warns of production shutdown as parts held up at the U.S. border
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scottvanvoorhis.substack.com
I'm almost willing to bet that there will still be another long-ass delay with the new railcars. Seems as though there are delays after delays in getting the new trains made. This is so damn ridiculous!!!!!!
"Still be another"? Implying you're getting mad on the hypothetical that it would get delayed anyways? Or are you not able to recognize that link is saying that right now parts for assembly is all held up at the border. That's not just risking another delay, it's risking a complete halt - and I don't it's an unreasonable speculation a possible total end to the order.
The MBTA would have to face stretching out the Red Line rolling stock for roughly a decade. Maybe more (and possibly less but history has not been kind to pulling that off). And that assuming a new order (or the implied but speculated fallback plan) can be pulled off in the current political environment (well a non-zero chance, but it should be completely absurd).
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The same article quotes a T source confirming that Springfield has enough China-delivered shells and parts onhand to continue the production line and deliveries for at least the rest of the year (longer than that, in fact, given that the article also says that there are at least 22 Red cars in active production at Springfield right now). So while these component shipping delays are no doubt a problem if not resolved soon enough, they're very much a future-tense problem when it comes to outright stopping the order. Breathe, please.
EDIT: Doing some math, NETransit is showing 38 Red cars in-service, with 10 unaccepteds delivered and in-testing. To go along with the at least 22 confirmed in-assembly in Springfield, so there's likely no way the order could stop before we hit 70 cars. There are only 4 01600 cars left in-service, and 22 01500's, so we only have to hit about 64-66 total CRRC cars before those antiques are completely gone. Getting the entire 1969-70 #1 fleet retired is a big milestone, because those are far and away the most decrepit cars on the whole system and the ones that are failing all the freaking time out there. The #2/01700 series was rebuilt in the last 9 years and are holding up well, and the #3/01800 series while 31 years old without a rebuild are so far not failing at too abnormally high a rate. There'd obviously be concern if the contract were hit with any major delay once the shipped components supply ran dry, but it probably wouldn't be catastrophic because we'd have succeeded at getting the most-dire concern #1 cars completely expunged before any supply-chain interruptions start affecting deliveries.
And they have time to troubleshoot this before there's an actual impact on the assembly line, so the shipping delays are not close to impacting Springfield.
EDIT: Doing some math, NETransit is showing 38 Red cars in-service, with 10 unaccepteds delivered and in-testing. To go along with the at least 22 confirmed in-assembly in Springfield, so there's likely no way the order could stop before we hit 70 cars. There are only 4 01600 cars left in-service, and 22 01500's, so we only have to hit about 64-66 total CRRC cars before those antiques are completely gone. Getting the entire 1969-70 #1 fleet retired is a big milestone, because those are far and away the most decrepit cars on the whole system and the ones that are failing all the freaking time out there. The #2/01700 series was rebuilt in the last 9 years and are holding up well, and the #3/01800 series while 31 years old without a rebuild are so far not failing at too abnormally high a rate. There'd obviously be concern if the contract were hit with any major delay once the shipped components supply ran dry, but it probably wouldn't be catastrophic because we'd have succeeded at getting the most-dire concern #1 cars completely expunged before any supply-chain interruptions start affecting deliveries.
And they have time to troubleshoot this before there's an actual impact on the assembly line, so the shipping delays are not close to impacting Springfield.
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