October 16, 2026
THE MBTA’S campaign to replace the entire Red and Orange Line fleets with brand-new subway cars might be old enough to enroll in high school by the time it’s completed.
T officials on Thursday disclosed, again, that it will take longer than expected to receive all of the new Red Line cars outlined in a contract the Patrick administration first awarded to Chinese manufacturer CRRC back in 2014. The agency is in fact still not sure when it will hit the completion milestone, but they are confident at this point it will be later than the end-of-2027 target set in the prior round of delays.
The latest disruption comes amid massive trade upheaval with China and scrutiny by the Trump administration. Last year, federal customs officials detained train cars shipped to the Port of Philadelphia while verifying the Chinese company’s compliance with a US law prohibiting the import of goods produced using forced labor.
That action in turn prompted CRRC to furlough more than 160 workers at the Springfield factory where the trains are assembled. After about six months, workers began returning in July.
Officials said Thursday that the facility now has a full workforce and about 40 cars on location. CRRC is still developing an updated timeline to accommodate the newest delays, and it plans to open a second assembly line early next year.
“It’s unfortunate that actions by the federal government have further delayed the delivery of these new cars,” said MBTA spokersperson Joe Pesaturo. “But the MBTA remains fully committed to getting them into service as quickly as possible. We’re working closely with CRRC to get production back on track, accelerate deliveries, and ensure every new car meets our high standards for safety and reliability.”
But the federal review is far from the only speedbump the project has encountered. Both the budget and the timeline have swelled multiple times because of manufacturing problems, the COVID-19 pandemic, and supply chain disruption.
Under Gov. Deval Patrick, the MBTA in 2014 first awarded a $566 million contract to CRRC, which significantly underbid other competitors and the T’s own estimates. At the time, officials projected that all new trains would be in service by 2023.
A series of delays followed, as did reports of problems at the Springfield facility building the train cars.
At the start of her term, Gov. Maura Healey tapped a team of specialists to examine the state’s contract with CRRC. They concluded that, while the procurement was rife with issues, it was better for the T to stick with CRRC than to try to pivot to a new manufacturer so far into the process.
In 2024, the MBTA’s board voted to waive tens of millions of dollars in penalties and to pay CRRC $148 million to cover cost increases that had emerged since the contract was first rewarded. The contract “reset,” as it was called it at the time, set a new deadline that all vehicles would be delivered by the end of 2027 and increased the total value of the contract above $1 billion.
Now, that date appears no longer viable, T officials said Thursday.
All 152 of the new Orange Line cars outlined in the contract have already been delivered. As of July 15, the agency has “conditionally accepted” 68 of the 252 Red Line cars called for in the contract. Officials say, regardless of the delay, the vehicles are functioning well and overperforming the contract target for how long they should travel on average before experiencing any issues.
Chris Friend, interim executive director of the advocacy and watchdog group TransitMatters, said failures with train vehicles “are by far the number one cause of delay on the Red Line due to the age of the current set of cars.”
“We would like more clarity from the T on the new expected delivery timeline to provide more frequent and more reliable service to riders,” he said.
Brian Kane, executive director of the MBTA Advisory Board group that represents cities and towns who help fund the T, views the setback as the latest sign that the T inked a “bad deal.”
“The T doesn’t have a great track record of introducing new vehicle technologies and new vehicle manufacturers to the United States market,” he said. “This whole procurement has been done incorrectly from day one, and now we’re living with those consequences. It’s going to cost us an awful lot more money.”
News of the latest delay took an unusual route to the spotlight. At an MBTA board subcommittee meeting Thursday morning, Susan Woods, the agency’s deputy chief financial officer for capital finance, briefed a handful of T overseers about the agency’s recent major investments. One page of her presentation highlighted the Red and Orange Line procurement, and it included the line, “Project scheduled for completion of deliveries in FY32.”
None of the T board members in attendance asked questions about the CRRC section of the presentation. Later in the day, after several outlets including CommonWealth Beacon inquired about the apparent change, T officials said there had been a bit of a misunderstanding: FY32 is the projected end for the entire contract itself, including a warranty period and other closeout costs, not the date by which the agency expects to get the final cars.
But at the same time, MBTA officials acknowledged they will no longer meet the 2027 deadline. A new projection, they said, should be available this winter.
At some point Thursday, the T uploaded a revised version of the slideshow. The FY32 date now includes an asterisk and a message noting the prior error.
Courtesy of Commonwealth Beacon
