BOSTON – CAF USA has been awarded a $118.1 million contract to build 24 “Type 9” Light Rail vehicles for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Green Line. The cars are needed for the Green Line Extension expected to open in 2019 to Cambridge, Somerville, and Medford.
The new cars will include computer controlled lighting, heating, and cooling technologies. They will meet the latest ADA requirements with 70 percent of the car being low-floor, with four wheelchair/stroller locations as well as four seats in the center section.
CAF will utilize two locations to complete this order, using its facility in Spain to manufacture the shells and frames with final assembly and testing to occur at its manufacturing plant located in Elmira, N.Y. Approximately half of the funds for the cars is expected to come from a Federal Transit Administration New Start grant. The new Green Line cars will be delivered between the end of 2017 and the end 2018. Later this year, the MBTA Board is expected to award a contract for 74 new Red Line cars and 152 new Orange Line cars.
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation has started work on the Green Line Extension with bridge and roadway upgrades currently underway in Somerville and Medford. Major utility relocation and site preparation work is scheduled to begin later this year with full construction commencing in the spring of 2015. The entire project is expected to cost close to $1.2 billion.
In 2009, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation was created to unify the state’s various transportation agencies and now includes the Highway Division, the MBTA and Rail Transit Division, the Aeronautics Division, and the Registry of Motor Vehicles.
