At Long Last, Another New Train Is Rolling On the Red Line

Your odds of catching a new CRRC-manufactured Red Line train just doubled: three years after the first new Red Line train hit the tracks in December 2020, the MBTA started running a second set of new Red Line cars earlier this month.

Followers of the TransitMatters New Trains Tracker recently noticed two new trains running simultaneously on the line. MBTA spokesperson Joe Pesaturo confirmed that two new trains have been running together on the Red Line periodically since the start of this month.

To date, CRRC has now delivered 106 new Orange Line cars and 16 new Red Line cars, according to MBTA spokesperson Joe Pesaturo. All of the remaining 46 Orange Line cars, plus 28 new Red Line cars, are currently in production at the Springfield factory.

A year ago, at the January 26, 2023 MBTA board meeting, acting MBTA General Manager Jeff Gonneville informed board members that “we have 78 (Orange Line) cars that have been delivered to Wellington and 12 (Red Line) cars that have been delivered to Cabot… That number hasn’t changed in 7 months.”

In the MBTA’s original contract with CRRC, the Chinese state-owned company that’s manufacturing the new trains in Springfield, all 152 new Orange Line train cars were supposed to have been delivered to the T by January 2022, and all 252 new Red Line cars were supposed to have been finished by September 2023.