New Orange Line Train Testing Underway: Next Stop Show And Tell

BOSTON, MA — It's going to have a new security system, new style seating, and digital signs. The new Orange Line Trains will also arrive at stations every 4 to 4 and a half minutes, according to officials. And we're edging toward that future as the first new Orange Lines make it to the test track at the Wellington Station.

Today Governor Charlie Baker, MassDOT Secretary Stephanie Pollack, MBTA General Manager Luis Manuel Ramírez, CRRC Officials, and others will get a tour of the first new Orange Line cars at Wellington Station.

If you recall a tour and the governor giving a speech last year, you would be correct (see video below), but that was a tour of an Orange Line mock car. It wasn't the real deal. And it was a bit smaller than the real thing.

So does this mean the MBTA is ready? Well, the pilot trains won't be ready for passengers til the end of the year, but Baker and the MBTA are showing them off as they undergo track testing.

In 2014, the MBTA awarded CRRC MA Corporation a contract to design and manufacture 152 new Orange Line and 252 new Red Line subway cars, which will completely replace and increase the number of the MBTA’s current fleet of 120 Orange Line and 218 Red Line cars. The MBTA has spent $1.5 million so far on the $1.9 million project, according to an MBTA press release.

The new trains will include features like levers at doors that will roll out a bridge so that users in wheelchairs or those with baby carriages don't have to worry about the gap. There will be more emergency intercoms for passengers, wider door openings, LED lighting, automatic passenger counters and closed circuit surveillance cameras.

CRRC MA’s first North American rail car manufacturing facility in Springfield was just finished last month. The 204,000 square foot facility is equipped with a 2,240-foot test track and staging and storage areas to accommodate the assembly of 404 railcars for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.

Four additional pilot cars were recently inspected at CRRC’s facility in Changchun, China on a dedicated test track before they're shipped to Boston. And 30 car shells are at various phases of construction in Changchun. Meanwhile at the Rail Car Facility in Springfield, crews are working on assembling the Orange Line cars that arrived in April. By the end of December the first cars should be ready, according to the MBTA.

MBTA staff traveled to Changchun in March to review the Red Line mock-up car. As the Red Line car approaches its final design, the unveiling of the mock-up is scheduled for this summer with Red Line car assembly slated to begin summer 2019.

Orange and Red Line signal upgrades are slated to begin in mid-2018 and expected to be finished by 2021 and 2022. These $350.95-million signal upgrades include a complete upgrade to the signaling and train control systems for both the Red and Orange Lines as well as work at Columbia Junction on the Red Line and wayside signal replacement work along the southwest corridor of the Orange Line.

The cost of the Red and Orange Line improvement program? $1.982.03 million, including vehicle procurement, infrastructure improvements, signal upgrades, and state of good repair projects.

The last time there was such a significant change in MBTA history may have been the late '80s when the Orange Line's Elevated Rail (folks used to call it the El) was taken down.

Previously on Patch:

• Green Line Cars To Get A Futuristic Redesign: MBTA (May 7, 2018)
• New Orange Line Trains Arrive, Testing To Begin ( Dec. 20, 2017)
• Winter Is Coming, And So Are The New Orange Line Trains (Oct 10, 2017)
• Orange Line Mockup Debuts at Boston City Hall (April 3, 2017)

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Photo at top screen grab from the YouTube coverage of the governor's last visit to the Orange Line set up.