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.
May as well reinstate the Watertown Green Line while the expansion is taking place.
My understanding is that the Boeing cars were inadequate as Boeing did not understand the pounding that rail vehicles take in daily service. Since that time the Boeing plant that manufactured the cars has had enough copter and Osprey work to stick to there core "core competency"
I remember when the boeings came into service in the late 70s. They were heralded as the latest and greatest, and the biggest problem they had was the doors. They were sliding as opposed to folding and they were a nightmare to keep functional. eventually all were all retrofit with folding doors. The new trolleys look way too modern for our old and clunky green line, but all that matters is that they work and are reliable.
The Boeing-Vertol LRV's were so bad that MBTA replaced them with the PCC's they intended to supercede.
Appears that the cars have a small front door. Will the Green Line (finally) start relying on proof-of-payment fare collection?
Yes but they are locked into doing it as the expansion was part of a legal agreement to approve the enviromental impact plan for the Central Artery Project. They tried to get out if it but were sued and the courts said they had to fulfill the agreement.
considering the last two classes of Green line equipment, they need to be much more reliable and last longer than their immediate predecessors. The Boeing-Vertol (sic) cars were awful. The current cars are inadequate for Red Sox game day traffic, and they are falling apart. The whole line needs serious investment to get it put right. But, there is no money to pay for it all. This talk of expansion conveniently ignores this harsh reality.