CRRC MA held a celebratory event on Dec. 18 at its manufacturing facility in Springfield, Mass., to mark the on-time completion of the first pair of Orange Line vehicles to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA).
The two vehicles completed this month are the first of a 404-subway car order from the MBTA, which includes 152 new Orange Line and 252 Red Line vehicles. The new vehicles incorporate designs that accommodate improved passenger comfort, new technology that provides important customer-facing information and accessibility features, such as platform gap mitigation devices.
“The production of new rail cars based on state-of-the-art designs gives the Authority the opportunity to bring the MBTA into a new era of service reliability that our customers deserve,” said MBTA Interim General Manager Jeffrey Gonneville. “While we acknowledge we still have a ways to go before our fleets are completely replaced, today marks the start of that process that will lead to major improvements for our customers.”
All production vehicles will be assembled and tested in the CRRC MA Rail Car Assembly Facility. CRRC MA says the approximately 200 people who work at the facility receive instruction and training on state-of-the-art tools and equipment necessary to build the next generation of new rail cars. The cars' safety and customer amenities include stainless steel vehicles car shells that incorporate laser-welding technology for better exterior finish, crash energy management for enhanced customer and operator safety, LCD monitors for customer information and train-to-wayside communications via a wireless network for monitoring and detection of potential maintenance needs. All production vehicles will be manufactured and tested in the CRRC MA Rail Car Assembly Facility.
“We’re pleased that this milestone has been reached for these new subway cars,” said Massachusetts Department of Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack. “A major focus to improve service has been to accelerate the pace of spending on the core infrastructure and our spending will be continuing at an aggressive pace. The Baker-Polito Administration is spending a total of $8 billion during the next 5 fiscal years which began this past July, most of it on state-of-good-repair and reliability-improvement projects that will significantly improve our riders’ experience.”
The cars to be completed at the Dec. 18 event were Orange Line cars, but stakeholders received a sneak-peek of the new Red Line cars with a celebration in August, which revealed the Red Line vehicle mock-up.
Mischa Wanek-Libman | Group Editorial Director
Mischa Wanek-Libman is director of communications with Transdev North America. She has more than 20 years of experience working in the transportation industry covering construction projects, engineering challenges, transit and rail operations and best practices.
Wanek-Libman has held top editorial positions at freight rail and public transportation business-to-business publications including as editor-in-chief and editorial director of Mass Transit from 2018-2024. She has been recognized for editorial excellence through her individual work, as well as for collaborative content.
She is an active member of the American Public Transportation Association's Marketing and Communications Committee and served 14 years as a Board Observer on the National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association (NRC) Board of Directors.
She is a graduate of Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and Mass Communication.
