New subway cars from a U.S. plant of Chinese manufacturer CRRC will be delayed by at least a year, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority officials said Monday. MassLive.com reports the cars for the MBTA’s Orange Line are now expected to be delivered by April 2023. The agency has received 24 cars from a 152-car contract awarded in 2014, with three six-car trains accepted for service.
CRRC blamed the delays on the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as changes to technical specifications. MBTA Deputy General Manager Jeff Gonneville told the news site that the contract with the manufacturer allows it to seek damages for delays, and the agency intends to explore that option.
“At the heart of the issue has been production output from CRRC Springfield facility,” Gonneville told MassLive. “The most recent delays from the pandemic have only compounded some earlier issues CRRC was experiencing in pre-pandemic times.”
CRRC also holds a contract for 372 cars for MBTA’s Red Line; six cars from that order are undergoing testing. The Red Line order is now not expected to be completed until September 2024.
The cars are being built at the CRRC MA plant in Springfield, Mass. That plant also holds an order for 45 bilevel coaches for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority; SEPTA also has an option for 10 more cars. That order fell behind schedule in mid-2019 [see “New SEPTA cars from CRRC to be delayed,” Trains News Wire, July 1, 2019]; the pilot car in the order was expected last month.
