The quality of newly-delivered Red and Orange Line cars has “gotten better” in recent months after MBTA officials “reset” their contract with Chinese manufacturer CRRC, T General Manager Phil Eng said Thursday.
Eng told the agency’s board of directors that new vehicles continue to arrive on schedule nine months after parties announced a renegotiated contract due to extensive delays in the original plan.
“They continue to deliver on the schedule that we’ve set, and the quality has not shifted. Quality, in fact, has gotten better,” Eng said. “All of the learning curve that took place during the Orange Line [car delivery] prior to myself getting here is being factored in, so now the Red Line cars are performing right off the bat.”
The contract terms set a minimum standard of 90,000 miles between service failures, and CRRC’s Red and Orange Line vehicles are now achieving more than 200,000 miles between incidents, according to Eng.
One especially helpful change, Eng said, is that T leaders have been meeting directly with CRRC’s vendors as well as the manufacturer itself to ensure that all needs are met to keep production running smoothly.
Officials stretching across multiple gubernatorial administrations have eyed brand-new Red and Orange Line fleets as key to improving the T’s performance, but the road there has been dotted with upheaval.
The total cost is now expected to exceed $1 billion under the renegotiated terms, which account for higher-than-forecast costs as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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