MBTA's Hopeful Vision Of The Future

BOSTON, MA — Everyone needs a hero. And if the image the MBTA tweeted out this morning says anything it may be that the much-criticized transit authority has has their hopes attached to the new Orange and Red line trains that are headed stateside soon.

The MBTA tweeted out an image of Boston's future with said new trains. The image is worthy of a superhero movie poster. Spokesperson Joe Pesaturo said not much is known about the person who created the image except that it was passed along to the MBTA by the China Railway Rolling Stock Corp, the company commissioned to build the trains from a fan.

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The fan seems to know Boston (and apparently anime). The image depicts a future where the new trains are operating in the city as a train conductor seems to point full steam ahead. Familiar Boston images and a fellow conductor sit behind her tapping on a computer. And what super hero movie poster would be complete without a lightening bolt? This one is in the shape of the MBTA train map.

This comes on the day the transit authority officially opened its facility in Springfield in the space formerly occupied by the Westinghouse building. There, more than 400 Orange and Red Line trains will be assembled and then tested before they're rolled out. The first six Orange Line cars will arrive by the end of the year for piloting, according to Pesaturo. The rest should be delivered by 2022, he said.

And a beacon of hope is, perhaps, just what the MBTA needs.

According to federal data, more MBTA trains broke down last year than any other comparable transit system. The Federal Transit Administration reported 338 mechanical failures on the T in 2016, well ahead of second- and third-worst finishers New Jersey Transit and the Long Island Railroad, which netted 236 and 132 breakdowns, respectively.

"Since the winter of 2015, we have prioritized creating a world-class transit system accountable to taxpayers and reliable for riders," said Gov. Charlie Baker in a tweet today from the opening of the Springfield facility. "We have prioritized the capital investments that strengthen the #MBTA’s reliability & core infrastructure, including $1.6B on new vehicles."

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Image courtesy of the MBTA