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Touring a new multi-bendi Green Line trolley

By adamg on Tue, 10/29/2024 - 2:32pm
New Green Line mock-up on City Hall Plaza

Eric the Half a T on City Hall Plaza.

Nick Schmidt moseyed onto the mock-up of a proposed next-gen Green Line trolley, the one that will have multi-segments, on City Hall Plaza today. He reports:

Cautiously optimistic about the new GL cars. Critical new features: 100% low floor, contoured seats, dynamic digital line maps at doors and windows, and no more exterior ads or interior printed ads. Data feeds and digital ads on interior screens.

If you miss it today (it's open until 7), the half-a-trolley will be back on the plaza tomorrow, between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.

In 2022, the MBTA approved an $811-million deal with Spanish train maker CAF, which built the trolleys the T added for the Green Line Extension, for 100 of the new trolleys, which will be 40-feet longer than current Green Line cars.

Interior view, by Schmidt:

Interior of the new trolley
Neighborhoods: 
Downtown
Topics: 
The T
Free tagging: 
Green Line
City Hall Plaza


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Comments

By cybah on Tue, 10/29/2024 - 3:44pm.

oh boy I know what I am doing tomorrow. And telling them not to put those awful LCD displays there. What are they thinking?

I get it, they want to display information similar to the orange line trains but these LCD displays aren't in a good location. I can see them being hit, smashed, spooged on, or whatever.

But other than that they look like the other CAF Type 9's or the Breda's minus the hot dog double dare-esque 1980s wallpaper.

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By BostonDog on Tue, 10/29/2024 - 3:56pm.

Glad I'm not the only one who thinks the screens are just going to get in the way where they are currently positioned. They also block helpful sight lines and hand holding positions.

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By cybah on Wed, 10/30/2024 - 9:21am.

Thats what I was thinking also. The hand holding position. Some of those smaller spots where there's a gap between the bar and the plexiglass they put in are accidents waiting to happen. Imagine a small handed child holding on but sticks their hand thru.. the train jolts to a stop and the kid goes flying around, injuring their wrist.

By Plen-T-Pak on Tue, 10/29/2024 - 4:44pm.

Beantown? More like Creamtown, am I right? We're always coming... and going... to show myself out now.

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By blues_lead on Tue, 10/29/2024 - 4:07pm.

Why they gotta have such ugly fronts? Here's a recent tram from the same manufacturer, .

There's a bigger, friendly windshield, the design integrates into the rest of the vehicle, the operator has nice large side windows, all the corners are much more rounded.

(Edit, link isn't showing: https://www.alamy.com/a-caf-urbos-3-tram-running-on-line-19-in-budapest-...)

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By Plen-T-Pak on Tue, 10/29/2024 - 4:39pm.

Nevermind drivers who can't stay in their lane. Our train drivers can't even stay on their track.

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By BostonDog on Tue, 10/29/2024 - 4:41pm.

There might be a requirement that the train meet a higher crash rating than the European counterparts and that requires more metal on the front.

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By Cleary Squared on Wed, 10/30/2024 - 5:48am.

American safety standards require trains be modified to withstand crashes, lest the front end doesn't crumple up like a sardine can and causes more injuries. While it might be nice to get the CAF trolley in Budapest as-is, it would not be acceptable for revenue service until CAF makes modifications to bring it to US safety standards.

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By Phillip on Tue, 10/29/2024 - 4:42pm.

Unlike Budapest our vehicles like to pretend they are bumper cars. While the Budapest fronts would be nice they just wouldn't survive a crash without the ugly bumper . . .

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By Zhu Hengpeng on Tue, 10/29/2024 - 6:27pm.

It is running in a semi-fascist state. Is it what you want here?

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By anon on Tue, 10/29/2024 - 6:46pm.

The anti-climbers (the ridged contacts at the front) and the folding-coupler hidden behind the rubber bumper have to be the same height and be compatible with the older legacy Type 7/8/9 cars since they will overlap in service for several years and they need to be able to couple together in case a new car has to push (or be pushed) by one of the older cars if something breaks down.

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By Zhu Hengpeng on Tue, 10/29/2024 - 6:52pm.

It is running in a semi-fascist state. Is it what you want here?

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By anon on Tue, 10/29/2024 - 6:56pm.

So great to hear they wont have exterior ads. Theres a double standard where expensive road projects like the Big Dig or the upcoming 90 redo and the new cape cod bridges are designed/ and paid for without needing wall to wall ads, where public transit here in MA is plastered with ugly ads that really reflect how little respect our state has for its users. Ad free trains and buses are much nicer to ride (like those Ive ridden in Europe) and make the cities transit (and the city itself) seem much more attractive.
If the state can do the multibillion dollar cape bridge project without billboards (or any tolls) ad free buses and trains are doable as well.

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By anon on Wed, 10/30/2024 - 1:39pm.

I don't mind ads on buses and trains as long as they aren't those goddamned window-blocking dots.

By Nowy Liberté on Wed, 10/30/2024 - 9:42pm.

States pay for Bridges and Tunnels by borrowing in the municipal bond market -- ostensibly paying back the lenders over a 50 year term

As a city or state -- you can't pay for operating costs by borrowing -- only the Federal gov't has the authority to run an operating deficit and borrowing -- currently over 35Trillion dollars and counting

By Frelmont on Thu, 10/31/2024 - 1:21am.

I take heart we’re improving our infrastructure with a Western capital purchase. I would take ten more years of the old OL trains over the sad fact of our “it takes a [totalitarian] village” demoralizing deal with our adversary the CCP.

In the photo the guys are sitting sideways lest their knees touch, is it that way down the whole of the train of cars?

By Bob Leponge on Thu, 10/31/2024 - 8:44am.

We can’t buy standard light rail cars, and instead need to pay extra for custom made, in order to maintain compatibility with existing rolling stock and other systems. Of course buying custom means that down the road, next time around, we will again be boxed into buying custom.

Is there an argument for ripping the band-aid off and converting the entire green line to a system that can use generic light rail cars such as are used widely throughout the world?

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By Oxenfree on Thu, 10/31/2024 - 10:47am.

You're proposing a project that involves the total overhaul of a system with hundreds and hundreds of miles of track (including yards). It's the line with the second-highest ridership in the system, serving three of the biggest universities in the area. Bringing the T to a place where off-the-shelf vehicles can fit would require massive amounts of construction as curves get straightened out, right of ways get wider, etc etc.

There is /an/ argument to be made for a great big overhaul, but not one that outweighs the cost (both monetary and intangible) of shutting down such a system for multiple years.

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