BOSTON — A second trainset of equipment built by China’s CRRC has begun running on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s Red Line — three years after the first such train entered operation, the website Streetsblog Mass reports.
The second trainset entered service earlier this month, an MBTA spokesman confirmed to the website. The first had entered operation in December 2020.
The long-delayed CRRC order for 152 Orange Line cars and 252 Red Line cars was supposed to have been completed by September 2023. Currently, spokesman Joe Pesaturo said, 106 of the Orange Lines cars and 16 of the Red Line cars have been delivered; the final 46 Orange Line cars and 28 more Red Line cars are under construction at the Springfield, Mass., factory of CRRC’s affiliate CRRC MA.
The orders for the equipment date to 2014 and 2016; the most recent estimate aimed for the last cars to be delivered by September 2026, but even when that figure was announced a year ago, then-acting MBTA general manager Jeffery Gonneville said the manufacturer would not be able to meet it. As of August 2023, there was still no new schedule to complete the order [see “Dates still to be determined for CRRC delivery …,” Trains News Wire, Aug. 26, 2023].
Thanks for this update, do any Trains readers know how many Orange Line trainsets of CRRC cars are typically active. Also on the topic of Boston rail expansion, has any opening date been set (or rumored) for the new MBTA Commuter Rail line to New Bedford/Fall River. – Thanks again for any info!
WALT —– There’s a website for the project (search MBTA south coast rail). The website has a lot of info but seems rather light on scheduled completion dates.
According to the website, the project includes (on whatever schedule) restoration of Stoughton – Taunton. Meaning that when all is said and done, the South Coast will be connected both to the Providence Line via Back Bay, Route 128 and Canton Junction, and to the Old Colony line through Quincy.
While trolling MBTA, I found two other encouraging things: (1) Commuter rail ridership is back up to 90% pre-COVID. (2) The pilot project of commuter rail to Foxborough will become a permanent route. I didn’t have too much hope for that, seeing that the pilot project ran into the plummeting of ridership counts in COVID’s aftermath.
Currently all equipment on the orange line are crrc cars, all of the previous orange line cars where taken out of service after the month long shutdown. I do not know currently the amount of equipment at use at once but I can say that it isn’t that max since most of headway is about 8-10 minutes weekdays no where near pre-covid times of 5-4 minutes between trains.