#14 Orange Line Cars 1400-1551 (From Red/Orange Procurement discussion)

CRRC Springfield will eventually either be sold off or shutdown. How much specialized rail equipment is in there, or is it basically a generic high-bay warehouse with reinforced flooring? Best case scenario would be CRRC either wants to partner with a non-sanctioned entity or some other company needs a US assembly plant and CRRC happily sells it to them.

Going of-topic, I still don't understand why the GLX wasn't attached to the Orange Line instead of the Green Line as the form-factor is better, but with overhead catenery like they have/had on the blue line. Long-term they should convert the Riverside-Highland Branch to Orange Line too. The form factor is more reliable, cars are cheaper, HP level boarding access is easier. This would make specifying trolleys for the B/C/E lines easier as they can have lower top speeds.

A route from the Orange Line at Community College - Sullivan Sq. to either branch of the GLX needs a complicated and expensive bridge over the eastern and NH routes. Diverting 1 in 2 or 1 in 3 trains to another route would significantly reduce capacity to Sullivan Sq, Wellington and Malden Center, the most heavily used north side stations. I didn't see the capacity studies of the Tufts branch, but I doubt projections would justify 6 car Orange Line trains. 6 car trains make stations a lot more expensive. And unless the bridge included a wye, in/out of service moves would be Wellington - Forest Hills - Cobble Hill.

Well for those complaining the new Governor is doing nothing , has actually ridden the T this week less than a month which took Chuck B over 4 years to do. She also did her research and is jumping into the mess with these new cars.
https://commonwealthmagazine.org/transp ... situation/

Good. She says she is just hearing about this which is actually plausible; didn't the MBTA ever ask for help from the attorney general when their contracts go bad? Didn't she look into transportation during the campaign? Also note in the article she blames ....Trump.

Not unlike a lot of businesses, Mass Pols love to throw consultants at problems they don’t want to actually deal with.

I get a real bad vibe from her on the transit issue. She lives in Porter Square but she hasn’t taken the T “for a little bit.”

I hope she proves me wrong on this.

Trump did sign the bill that banned the use of Chinese companies from selling transit vehicles to US transportation agencies. https://www.washingtonpost.com/transpor ... l-funding/

I have no problem with outsiders coming in. It sure looks like the insiders weren't doing much. Also as AG she wasn't going to come into the fold unless invited. And as we have all noticed the T wasn't saying anything over the last few years and that has changed in the last couple of weeks.

Please note that the Patrick administration is the one that chose CRRC specifically because it wanted a plant built in Mass. to give Mass. residents jobs. That's all fine and dandy, but it turned this into an economic development project and not a transit project. In hindsight it was doomed from Day 1 because of that. Was it worth all this chaos to get a couple hundred jobs in Springfield at a rail car factory that will surely close after this order is wrapped up because CRRC isn't going to get any future U.S. orders? No.

Maybe, maybe not. When the rail car factory was built, CRRC was not prohibited from seeking other U.S. orders, and there were a number of biddable projects on the books. The SEPTA cars were (are?) slated to built at Springfield when that deal was announced.

Al that said, there were other reasons not to work with CRRC, but the fact that a plant needed to built for this order is not one of them. (Put another way, every firm that builds something to order needed to build the factory first.)

They can even "derail" on the highway while they're being delivered:

https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/tra ... state-495/

jwhite07 wrote: ↑Wed Feb 22, 2023 6:45 am They can even "derail" on the highway while they're being delivered:

They should scrap it on the spot!

From: T-Alerts <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2023 4:51 PM
To: railroad.net
Subject: Route 495 delay

Affected direction: North, South, East, West, Inbound, Outbound, Up, Down, Left, Right, Forward, Reverse

Orange Line is operating 5-15 months behind schedule between Chelmsford and Wellington due to car and truck traffic. Crews are contacting all railroad museums in New England for advice on how to transport a de-roaded subway car safely.

Affected direction: Any and all.
Last Updated: Feb 21 2023 04:50 PM




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jwhite07 wrote: ↑Wed Feb 22, 2023 6:45 am They can even "derail" on the highway while they're being delivered:

...but on the plus side, one new car was actually delivered to the MBTA for the first time since... July?

The Herald reports that this was the 4th and last car to be delivered this month as stated by Joe Pesaturo:

https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/02/22 ... -on-i-495/

This begs the $64,000 question: Why are Rail cars being trucked 100 miles to Boston? Did they tear up the former B&A or B&M? Ive seen pictures of PCC cars built in Worcester being shipped by rail to Boston in the 1940's. The Commonwealth is supposedly pro rail freight, wants to reduce highway congestion and environmental costs. Classic "do as we say not as we do".