Green Line Type 9 Thread

[Type7trolley]

The Type 9 has cameras on both sides which I believe are displayed in the cab, so the mirror seems somewhat redundant.

Even if the mirror could be eliminated, the door cycle time will always be slower than other cars. Aside from the obvious factor of the single panel doors covering more distance to close, the end doors also travel at a slower speed than most two part sliding doors. They cannot simply be sped up to decrease dwell times, as APTA specifies maximum door closing force and a larger single piece door, having more mass, must move more slowly to impart the same amount of force as a smaller, lighter door panel. I wonder if the tiny windows on the front doors are an attempt by CAF to mitigate this. Glass is heavy.

I am sure that when Boston ordered all of its rapid transit equipment with single panel sliding doors in the 1910s & 20s, this was not a consideration.

[jwhite07]

According to NETransit, 3901 has been accepted for service. Hopefully they'll see more use in rush hours now that there is a 2 car train available.

[diburning]

I spotted the pair yesterday testing on the Cleveland Circle branch. 3901 was leading outbound, with the skirts removed, and 3900 was trailing, with skirts installed.

[diburning]

According to NETransit, 3901 has been accepted for service. Hopefully they'll see more use in rush hours now that there is a 2 car train available.

3900/3901 debuted in rush hour service on the Riverside line on Monday Mar 25. Both cars had their truck skirts installed. 3902 is in testing and is roaming around without the truck skirts.

[daybeers]

I'm not often in Boston but THANK YOU for taking actual steps to advocate for better transit! I applaud you, Yellowspoon!

[Disney Guy]

(snip) the door cycle time will always be slower than other cars. Aside from the obvious factor of the single panel doors covering more distance to close, the end doors also travel at a slower speed than most two part sliding doors. They cannot simply be sped up to decrease dwell times, as APTA specifies maximum door closing force and a larger single piece door, having more mass, must move more slowly to impart the same amount of force as a smaller, lighter door panel.(snip)

I am sure that when Boston ordered all of its rapid transit equipment with single panel sliding doors in the 1910s & 20s, this was not a consideration.

I suspect that the first reason for going to double panel center parting doors was limits on the space to the side for the door panel to slide to. The space limitation was surmounted (not completely on the Type 9 where the front door can hit the coupler) by the LRV plug door sliding track that came out from the car body and telescoped to the side and also provided all of the support for the door panel without door tracks on the body side.

Did a cursory check on line and the earliest instance of double panel sliding doors on transit equipment I found was the Boston home grown "two rooms and a bath" articulated streetcar! Various center entrance streetcars including Boston's had two panel sliding doors where the overall door width was somewhat greater than a typical rapid transit car doorway. While the weight of a single panel that wide might have been considered as too much for the door opener, the Boston center entrance cars (and perhaps others) had the two door panels linked so one door opener moved both.

The Orange Line 01100's (perhaps many other models worldwide) had one panel of a double panel door set halting when half closed and then closing the rest of the way more slowly. This prevented crushing someone but the door half that closed at full speed could hit someone quite hard.

The various pre-1920 rapid transit cars for Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York City had single panel doors, suggesting that double panel door sets had not become popular yet.

[MBTA DMA]

3902-delivered in December is the third car. 3903-delivered in February is 4th car, 3904-delivered in March is 5th car, 3905-delivered in March is 6th car. 3907-delivered in June is 7th car. 8th car number is unknown.
As of July, they're 4 active Type 9s since 2 more cars have been accepted. All others that have been delivered are in testing. The rest of the cars are still being built and yet to be delivered. Take a note of these two things: that since 4/24 type 9's have been put into service, that means 16.666+% of the fleet is active and since 8/24 cars have been delivered, that means that 33.333+% of the fleet has been delivered and on MBTA property.
Active fleet: 3900, 3901, 3902, & 3904.

[MBTA DMA]

Update: Appearently, the 8th car is 3908. Note: I've been using the newtrains.today to track everyday since March so I can tell which is the #th of a car if you know what I mean. If you read this right now, 3908 is testing on the D-branch.

[jwhite07]

According to Transsee, none of the accepted cars have been out yet this month. Not that I can run out at any time to chase them, the one and only time I've ever seen a Type 9 was 3900's inaugural trip back in December. Seems the acceptance and revenue operation progress is crawling along extremely slowly. Especially with the recent fare increase I would have hoped the T would have these things out and running in revenue service every opportunity they could, just to show progress. Anyone know what's the holdup?

[MBTA1052]

I have noticed that too the 3900s entering service seems pretty slow compared to previous Type 7 and Type deliveries. My guess is with the Type 7 and 7.5 rebuilds completed they may not feel desperate to push the cars in service.

[Bramdeisroberts]

That, and they were ordered to handle the extra rolling stock demands of an extension that won't be in service for years. Better to run the rebuilt 7s and 8s into the ground and have some nearly-new type 9s in reserve for when the GLX opens and they're actually needed. One look at the central subway's congestion issues will tell you that rolling stock availability is the last thing that the Green Line needs to worry about.

[MBTA DMA]

The inventory page on the new green line section shows the numbers of the cars of when they have arrived. Appearently, I was wrong about 3907 and 3908. The 7th car is 3906, the 8th is 3907 (I never saw 3906 testing on the newtrains site tracker) which bothed arrived in June, and 3908 is the ninth car that arrived this month.

[StefanW]

For what it's worth... my mapping app right now (2019-07-18 7:48PM) has a 2-car train of 3900 and 3903 arriving at Waban, outbound to Riverside. I haven't been watching closely for Type 9s lately, but I find it interesting that they would be out this late in the day... especially on a Sox home-game night.

[bostontrainguy]

For what it's worth... my mapping app right now (2019-07-18 7:48PM) has a 2-car train of 3900 and 3903 arriving at Waban, outbound to Riverside. I haven't been watching closely for Type 9s lately, but I find it interesting that they would be out this late in the day... especially on a Sox home-game night.

Sox played at 1:00 today.

[StefanW]

For what it's worth... earlier today 3900-3904 were out doing Riverside --> GC --> Riverside, and right now 3908 is running alone at Fenway outbound. I can't help but think it's a tie-in with the new Orange Line cars' debut today. Might be an attempt to get as many new cars as possible out at the same time for the media coverage.