BOSTON — Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey is assembling a group of independent experts to assess ways to address the problems with manufacture of new rapid-transit railcars for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, the Boston Globe reports.
Healey said she was moving to address the problems with manufacturer CRRC during a visit Thursday to the MBTA’s operations control center. Spokeswoman Karissa Hand said the governor has put together a group including experts from LTK Engineering, other consultants, and lawyers to determine how to expedite the delivery of the 404 cars on order for the Red and Orange lines.
“We have instructed this team to take a deep dive into these existing challenges and think through our long-term needs and how we prioritize and make good on the expediting of the delivery of cars,” Healey said, according to the Globe. “We are already underway on this effort since we became aware of it just a couple of weeks ago.”
MassLive.com reports that Healey said the team will examining manufacturing processes, management operations, and contract terms between the state and CRRC, among other issues.
Just 90 cars have been delivered so far; the order was originally to have been completed this year, but the latest schedule has completion in 2026, and the MBTA’s acting general manager said last week that even that schedule is likely to be optimistic [see “CRRC won’t be able to meet schedule …,” Trains News Wire, Jan. 26, 2023].
CRRC spokeswoman Lydia Rivera told MassLive.com that the company “remains committed to delivering safe and reliable vehicles to the MBTA and continues to work cooperatively with T project staff to optimize performance and identify processes to accelerate delivery of Orange and Red line vehicles.”
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