The Red Line's aging fleet of trains is struggling to cope with the cold and the snow, leading to reduced service and grueling delays this week on the MBTA's busiest subway line.
On Tuesday morning, the MBTA issued an alert to Red Line riders to expect delays of up to 30 minutes after "multiple disabled trains were removed from service."
More problems came Wednesday morning: a train broke down at Ashmont station, limiting the entire Ashmont branch to single-track operation south of JFK/UMass for most of the morning rush. At noon, the T alerted riders that another train had broken down at JFK/UMass station. At 4:30, just before the evening rush hour, another train got stuck at Davis Square.
"Some of the Red Line's oldest cars have been struggling as a result of single digit temperatures and snow," an MBTA spokesperson told StreetsblogMASS.
As of Wednesday evening, the T only had 9 trains in service on the entire Red Line, according to real-time train location data from TransitMatters.
In a typical rush hour, there are 20 trains running.
The Red Line already has the oldest trains in the MBTA's rapid transit network. Some of its subway cars were manufactured at the end of the 1960s.
Under its troubled contract with CRRC, the Chinese state-owned company that's been manufacturing new subway cars for the T in Springfield, the T was supposed to have 252 new Red Line cars finished and in service by the end of 2023.
As of today, though, the T only has 6 of those new CRRC Red Line trains (with 36 cars) in service. Deliveries of additional trains have stalled as the Trump administration ties up imports of subway car shells from Chinese suppliers.
"Maximizing the use of available Red Line cars (both old and new) that are ready for service, the MBTA has deployed a strategy of putting some 4-car trains in service in order to maintain a service delivery schedule of 15 minutes between trains," the spokesperson said.
"The MBTA thanks its frontline workforce for its exceptional work over the past couple of days to keep riders safe and the system moving, even through the intense weather conditions," the spokesperson added. "We appreciate our riders’ patience during any of the delays they may have experienced."
