CRRC order for new MBTA cars falls farther behind schedule

BOSTON — Delivery of new rapid-transit cars by a local affiliate of Chinese manufacturer CRRC are falling farther behind schedule, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority board was told Thursday, and officials are expressing growing concerns about the quality of the cars being built.

CommonWealth Magazine reports CRRC says it will need to add several more months to a delivery schedule already a year behind the original completion date because of pandemic-related and labor issues. But Massachusetts Transportation Secretary Jamey Tesler said the MBTA has not yet accepted CRRC’s new schedule, while MBTA Deputy General Manager Jeff Gonneville said the agency could invoke a penalty clause under which CRRC could face damages of $500 per car per day for late delivery.

Involved are two orders placed in 2014 and worth a total of $880 million — for 152 Orange Line cars, originally to be delivered by January 2022, and 252 Red Line cars, to be completed by September 2023. Those timelines were revised two years ago, with the Orange Line order to be completed by April 2023 and the Red Line portion by September 2024 [see “MBTA subway car order falls a year behind schedule,” Trains News Wire, Oct. 6, 2020]; at the time, CRRC blamed pandemic-related issues and changes in technical specifications.

Now, CRRC says the Orange Line cars, being built in Springfield, Mass., using shells made in China, will not be completed until summer 2023, with the last Red Line cars complete in 2025. All the Orange Line shells have been produced, while only 32 for the Red Line are complete.

And Gonneville said the MBTA feels “as though CRRC does need to make some changes to their manufacturing” to even make those dates. He said that MBTA inspectors are finding quality issues as cars are built; as those are addressed, it disrupts production.

WGBH reports that Gonneville expressed concerns about the number and retention of workers at the CRRC plant, and that the agency is now actively managing and monitoring CRRC to improve production.

Thanks to preparations completed during the recent shutdown of the Orange line, 72 of the new CRRC cars are now in service on that line. Just 12 are operating on the Red Line.