Crusty image quality comes directly from the T. Information comes from 10/15 Audit & Finance Subcommittee meeting: https://cdn.mbta.com/sites/default/files/2026-10/2026-10-15-mbta-af-locomotive-procurement-presentation.pdf

Globe

The MBTA will not receive all of its new Red Line trains by 2027 as expected, adding yet another delay to a yearslong, protracted process that T officials say was further complicated by the prolonged federal seizure of new car shells.

T officials disclosed the setback Thursday in response to questions from the Globe. But the agency did not identify a new timeline for getting the 184 Red Line cars still due to the T under a roughly $1 billion contract with the China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation.

As of July, 68 of the 252 new Red Line cars had been delivered to the T, according to a presentation officials made Thursday to the MBTA’s audit and finance subcommittee.

Forty cars are currently at the CRRC Springfield factory, while another 10 on the way from China, said Joe Pesaturo, a T spokesperson. CRRC plans to open a second assembly line early next year to accelerate production.

About 40 percent of the more than 200 Red Line cars in service now are new, according to T officials.

The latest delay adds to the saga surrounding the T’s bid to replace decrepit Red Line cars with a sorely-needed fresh fleet.

Its original $567 million deal with CRRC in 2014 dictated that the agency would have all new Red Line cars in hand within a decade. But the contract has been dogged by persistent setbacks and hundreds of millions in cost overruns. In the past, the delivery schedule for both new Orange and Red Line trains has shifted time and time again, because of mishaps inside the CRRC manufacturing facility in Springfield, the COVID pandemic, shipping delays of equipment from China, and tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.

US Customs and Border Protection then detained CRRC’s train car shells in Philadelphia for 10 months starting May 2025 under suspicion they were built using forced labor. They were released in March, perhaps in part because of a nudge from Springfield US Representative Richard Neal.

The development was supposed to mark a return to the norm. Most CRRC factory workers furloughed during the impound returned to the job, and Governor Maura Healey feted the progress in a tour of the facility this summer.

Before the federal government intervened, CRRC was preparing to deliver eight cars per month to the T, according to the agency.

As of now, 152 new Orange Line trains made by CRRC are all in service. The last batch was delivered in December. The T said the line’s new trains average 148,000 miles between failures, as much as five times longer than the previous fleet.

The Orange Line also once again hit its maximum speed of 55 miles per hour last year.

But the T’s troubled partnership with CRRC is a frequent point of scrutiny.

The Beijing-based company, the world’s largest rolling stock and rail transit equipment manufacturer, came into the 2014 bidding process having never done business in the United States. It bid $200 million below the T’s own cost estimate for the work back and lured the support of elected officials with the prospect of providing hundreds of stable jobs in western Massachusetts.

The Globe reported in 2023 that the Springfield CRRC factory was plagued by mishaps, and the early train releases were faulty and repeatedly pulled out of service.

Eventually, seeing delay after delay, T leaders considered scrapping the CRRC deal. But the agency instead chose instead to pay CRRC another $148 million in 2024 for 404 total Orange and Red Line trains, pulling up the total cost of the contract to more than $1 billion.

MBTA general manager Phil Eng said at the time that the T would not receive the last car until 2029 at the earliest if the T had not made a new deal.

The complete delivery timeline for the new trains is now unclear. The project end date for the full CRRC contract is fiscal year 2032, though T officials said Thursday that is not the expected timeline for delivering all the remaining Red Line cars.

Red Line service in general has bounced back from 2023 and 2024, according to data collected by transit advocacy group TransitMatters. The line is facing fewer headline-making accidents, and federal transit officials returned oversight of safety on the T to state regulators in September, ending years of heightened scrutiny.

That said, some Red Line cars built around 1970 are still in use across the T.

In a sprawling agency analysis in 2023, the T estimated that half its vehicles need repair or replacement.

So I finally did something I've wanted to do for over 20 years, and that was ride the classic cars on the Ashmont–Mattapan High-Speed Line.

I wish the foliage had been a little further along, but it was still pretty. Glad I finally got to ride on them while they're still in service.

I’m so over it. My commute home 2 days ago took 2 hours because of some issue at Alewife, and when I dragged myself off the train at Harvard every bus home was packed and just going right by stops, so I walked. It was a nice walk overall, but like, it’s still a hike home from Harvard.

And now I am on my way in to get some work done early, and I am now going to most likely be late for my normal start. Like, idk.

Waited 15 minutes for train, moved 1 stop, now standing by. Its working though

Website and MBTA Go app had a track change alert to “board all Franklin/Foxboro Line trains on the outbound platform (Track 1) at Endicott through Norwood Central until further notice today.” We waited on the outbound side at Dedham Corporate Center. The outbound train pulled up on outbound tracks, which confirmed the inbound wasn’t gonna be on the outbound tracks. Glad we had time to cross and get to the correct side.

I can live with the 20+ minute delay because I would have just been walking to pass the time before my timed entry if it were on time. It’s false alerts, or lack of further notice to disregard that alert, or failure to remove the track change alert that got me to send my first complaint through the MBTA site, and post this to alert other Franklin/Foxboro riders. I should have taken the 34E, which was less than ten minutes away when I could have been dropped off there instead of Dedham Corporate Center.

I don’t know any regular Silver Line users. How reliable is it? I’d be picking it up at South Station. I’m not super familiar with it and how well it runs.

Anyone else notice that literally every banner/flag/wall advertisement in South Station is now for some software called "Blitzy"? Literally nothing else

Hi all. I have an unused Interzone 5 ticket.

In need to travel from Zone 4 to South Station next week. Is there any way I can use the Interzone ticket as part of my fare? I unfortunately will not be back in the area until after my Interzone 5 has expired.

Thanks.