Winter Is Coming, And So Are The New Orange Line Trains

JAMAICA PLAIN, MA — The Orange Line trains are about to get a makeover. On Tuesday, MBTA released a video on Twitter that showed a couple of their new trains on a test track —in China, where they were built.

So far four cars have been built for a pilot Orange Line Train, and the plan is that they should be shipped to the US later this year, said MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo in an email.

"The delivery of the pilot cars represents an important milestone in the procurement of an entirely new Orange Line fleet. After the pilot cars arrive, they will be subjected to months of rigorous testing and inspection procedures," said MBTA GM Luis Ramirez in a statement sent to Patch.

Watch: Winter Is Coming, And So Are The New Orange Line Trains

The MBTA said after the first six trains arrive in the US fully assembled by cargo ship in late December they will still be subjected to "months of rigorous testing." The remaining 146 Orange Line cars will be assembled in Springfield.

But it will be a while before we'll see them near Boston on the tracks. New will start to go into service on the Orange Line in 2019 and the Red line in 2020, according to Pesaturo.

China Railroad Rolling Stock Corp., the Chinese government-owned rail firm that won the $566 million contract bid in 2014 to make new MBTA Orange and Red line trains built a factory in Springfield to do the work.

READ MORE from Patch: Orange Line Mockup Debuts in Boston