Pensyfan19 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 30, 2021 10:31 pm
As the REM subways have stated testing on the one route where the MR-90s used to run, many of them have been stored at St. Jerome and are now being ferried to the EXO yard in Pointe St-Charles. Anyone know what might happen to these interesting EMUs, ro if anyone might be interested in buying them (possibly for a cheap price)?
See the previous page. It seems unlikely really anyone would be interested in buying them - they're too slow for PennDOT, CTDOT, or MARC, too old for Caltrain, RTD, or Mexico City (older than any electric trains currently running on those systems), and too old for SEPTA or NJT (though these systems currently run older electric trains, all older trains will be replaced by on-order units). Furthermore, as noted above, they're electrically incompatible with MARC, SEPTA/PennDOT, and most of NJT. (My post on the previous page stated MARC was 12.5 kV 60 Hz incorrectly - they are 12.5 kV 25 Hz. It also predated NJT and SEPTA's announcement of their intent to purchase BBD MLV III EMUs to replace all their older EMUs.)
If you must hold out hope, consider that the MBTA a) is chronically short on budget b) has stated an intent to electrify the Franklin, P-S, and inner N-R lines (and future South Coast Rail) and c) is chronically short on rolling stock. Just like METRA has swept up old gallery cars from a variety of other operators over time, I could imagine MBTA buying up the MR90s if they decided to move forward with electrification, or just to run them on the Providence route to alleviate rolling stock shortages - they'd run as-is there. They'd be operationally inconvenient, since their top speed is quite limited and the Providence line runs 150MPH trains, but the MBTA diesel top speed is 79 mph so it would not be too different to run the MR-90s at their 75MPH design speed. Honestly, I started out this paragraph not believing in the MBTA as a possible location for re-use, but I've managed to halfway convince myself here. I still expect that, no matter how sensible it would seem, the MBTA is very unlikely to acquire the MR-90s and they will likely be scrapped.