New Green Line Cars To Hit The Tracks In September: MBTA

NEWTON, MA — First it was the Orange Line cars, now it's the Green Line. They're heeere. Well, almost. On Wednesday at the MBTA's Riverside station Gov. Charlie Baker and a bevy of who's who toured the first of the Green Line cars slated to start hitting the tracks in September.

It's part of an multi-million dollar MBTA makeover "to improve reliability, capacity, maintainability, safety, and comfort," according to MassDOT.

“Our administration continues to make significant investments across the entire MTBA system to improve service for all customers, including ordering new cars for the Green, Red, and Orange Lines,” said Baker in a statement.

The new cars come as the MBTA works to upgrade signal and other core infrastructure for all branches of the T and has started construction on the 4.7 mile Green Line Extension project.

The idea is to insert 24 new Green Line cars into the existing fleet to improve travels, according to Lt. Governor Polito.

Under a $118 million contract with the MBTA, CAF USA is manufacturing and delivering 24 low-floor light rail vehicles for the Green Line. The cars will be coming from Spain to manufacture the shells and frames with final assembly and testing occurring at its manufacturing plant located in Elmira, New York.

How are they different from the current cars? They include better access to priority seating, fancy sliding doors to help boarding, LCD destination monitors, more and better speakers, and more room.

The new futuristic trains will look much like the current Green Line trains on the outside but they'll have video screens and special sensors to count passengers on the inside.

They'll also be outfitted with the U.S.’s first Crash Energy Management Structural Design on a light rail vehicle, better braking equipment, thicker wheels, and dual auxiliary power systems.

There will be bridge plates inside, more priority seating, door locator tones, LCD destination monitors, interior destination signage, and increased speakers. Safety enhancements also include CCTV monitors, yellow grab railings, push-button stop-request functionality, and rear-view mirror monitors for Green Line operators.

The first phase of the $963.7 million multi-phased Green Line Transformation Program will tackle track replacement and signal upgrades coming to the D branch starting this September.

Additional phases of the Green Line Transformation Program will focus on a strategic vision and KPIs for Green Line service and infrastructure for 2019 and beyond, according to MassDOT.

Previously:

Green Line Cars To Get A Futuristic Redesign: MBTA

New Green Line Train Hits The Track For Testing

New Orange Line Train Testing Underway: Next Stop Show

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Photo courtesy MBTA