Okay, theory time.
MBTA's board overwelmingly commits to electrification as of Nov 4th, which means MBTA's going to be in the market for electric engines. (per
WBUR Public Radio report)
Someone at PMCC catches wind of this, and gets inspired. They do a superficial check and find the HHP-8 lease. They dig in, and find that they're being stored, not running. Then they get the lawyers shifting through the paperwork and find enough to file a lawsuit. Why? Because they want the HHP-8's to sell to MBTA, and they want to cancel the lease agreement (which looks bad on their books). And they want 'em in original working order (aka broken from the factory) -- which looks to be impossible from Amtrak's standards, and that parts were being stolen "under the books".
Meanwhile, MARC and Bombardier are reworking the MARC-owned HHP-8's with more standard equipment and better cooling. PMCC likely won't want to do that, preferring to have whoever they sell it too (read: MBTA) to pay for all that rehab. Amtrak is also smarting because they got the equipment "as is" and Bombardier/Alstom sold them a lemon of a hippo with no recourse.
Ugh. The only way out I see is that Amtrak's forced to rehab all the HHP-8's on their dime to match what MARC did and start using them again, on their dime. PMCC loses out because they won't have equipment to sell and they're stuck on the lease. MBTA keeps looking (and there's alternatives if they can get past the regulatory paperwork).
The only winners I'm seeing is MARC for not doing the sell/lease-back in the first place.