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

Thanks! Too bad there's not a rail link (I know that but was hoping for a surprise).
Will this Orange line pair get a workout on the test track?

1426/1427 are have recently been accepted so that means we're gonna have a third trainset because 1412/1413 and 1414/1415 were also previously accepted but not in service yet.

I was on 1400/1401, 1402/1403 and 1405/1404 (A/B. A/B & B/A) this afternoon. So I made an inquiry if they intend to keep sets in sequence or crap luck. The response was crap. It would be novel if they do it.

There is no practical reason to do so and many practical reasons not to.

MBTA warns of 15-month delay for Springfield-built CRRC Orange Line cars
https://www.masslive.com/coronavirus/20 ... -cars.html

MBTA Deputy General Manager Jeff Gonneville said the Orange Line delivery is now projected to be 15 months late, arriving in April 2023, while the Red Line set is running a year late and is expected to be done in September 2024.

Gonneville said the T’s contract with CRRC allows the agency to seek damages for delays, and T officials intend to explore using that contract language.

CRRC entered the year 2020, before COVID-19, around 60 cars behind its production schedule for the MBTA. That’s before disruptions both in working at the plant and in the supply chain of parts and materials.

According to CRRC, 24 cars have been delivered to the MBTA’s Wellington car house for testing. The next two cars are expected to be delivered this month.

Three six-car trains have been accepted for passenger service. There would be 14 trains in operation during peak hours.

As for the Red Line, six pilot cars are continuing to undergo testing, and the first six-car train is expected to enter revenue service by end of the year.

I’d say that’s pretty accurate, so long as the hawkers hold up. They’re 41 years old on their original build and despite this setback the T isn’t going to want to initiate any type of rebuild program. From what I’ve been hearing the old cars are still more reliable than the new ones, so if I were calling the shots I’d do a stop-gap overhaul that would buy the hawkers at least 5-10 more years as insurance in case these unproven, delayed Chinese cars are a complete flop. The 01800s are going through that now and I see no reason the No. 1 and No. 2 cars can’t keep going as they are, despite the No. 1s briefly carrying the torch as the oldest active subway car fleet in the country (until NYCT’s R33s were unretired).

CRail wrote: ↑Thu Oct 08, 2020 1:18 am The 1s briefly carrying the torch as the oldest active subway car fleet in the country (until NYCT’s
R33s were unretired).

The PATCO cars are earlier (1968) than the 01500s which began delivery August 1969.

To note, the 01200s will long outlast the Blue Line cars a year or so earlier ('79-80 vs. '80-81).

Article on production problems in Springfield:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/10/25/ ... line-cars/

typesix wrote: ↑Tue Oct 27, 2020 2:14 pm Article on production problems in Springfield:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/10/25/ ... line-cars/

RRC argued that “the major contributor" to the delays were the effects of the coronavirus.

The “pandemic was outside of CRRC’s reasonable control and prevented the rail car manufacturer from performing its obligations under the existing contract,” spokeswoman Lydia Rivera said

CRRC is a wholly-owned Chinese government corporation. This will get interesting when Mass asks for damages.

There seems to be a trend involving almost all MBTA vehicle procurements.

New Flyer doesn't seem to have much trouble delivering stuff that works to the MBTA. Too bad it isn't so with almost everything on steel wheels.

New Flyer's website says they have been around since 1930, so they have a reputation to protect and probably stable manufacturing situation compared to steel wheel manufacturers.

Since they also make/made Trackless Trolleys I guess it is okay to talk about them, although OT for these subway cars. I bet they sell standard products to the MBTA, not customized.

BandA wrote: ↑Thu Oct 29, 2020 2:51 pm There seems to be a trend involving almost all MBTA vehicle procurements.

Yeah, didn't MBTA almost cancel the order for diesel passenger cars a few years back because of Hyundai-Rotem's poor build quality?

That was from the Silverliner V delays and the Factory rampart QC glitching