CommonWealth reports Gov. Healey said she would rather work with CRRC than fight it, but that something has to be done about the fact that the company's Springfield plant hasn't shipped a new Red or Orange Line car here in more than seven months.
The MBTA is reporting delays of up to 15 minutes on the Orange Line due to a signal problem near North Station.
The outbound Red Line, meanwhile, is delayed as Transit Police swarm Harvard station to confront a large group of rowdy kids.
The Globe reports the T hasn't gotten a single new subway car in seven months now. CommonWealth reports on some of the numbers - and says the Chinese company the T hired wants it to pay for the added costs of Trump-era tariffs on Chinese goods, which the T could balance by implementing the $500-a-day penalties the contract allows for late deliveries.
Yeah, about that. The T announced today the Orange Line would be shut between Ruggles and North Station because of the ongoing Government Center Garage demolition, but a Globe reporter got curious and asked why Ruggles and the T acknowledged it was also to do more work to eliminate the slow zones that it had earlier said it would eliminate during the shutdown, except it turns out they didn't.
As it did this morning, the T is advising Orange Line riders to expect 15 minute delays because despite the alleged infusion of new trains from Springfield, it simply doesn't have enough trains to run even the limited service it began running a few months ago after the feds came down on them for working its dispatchers way too hard. Read more.
The MBTA says the Orange Line is experiencing delays of up to 15 minutes due to, no, not just because they don't have enough trains, but also due to "track maintenance" in Malden. Some riders, though, wish it were just 15 minutes.
No, don't worry, leaking roofs are not (yet, anyway) a problem on the new trains. But riders carrying beer and Gatorade are, Transit Police report. Read more.
The Globe talks to former workers at the CRRC plant in Springfield about why they're former workers, notes that the T has not gotten a single new Orange or Red Line car from there since September.
Power flows as red light stays on.
The other day, one of the new Orange Line trains was parked on the tracks that continue for a bit past Forest Hills surrounded by a flotilla of the older cars, even some of the OG 1200 series. Read more.
Chris Ferry surveys the remains of somebody's dinner on the Orange Line tonight: Corn pops, milk, a couple of cans of Natty Daddy beer-like liquid and some tuna in a foil pouch, maybe?
Fire up the eight-track, Mabel, let's party!
The MBTA reports it's replaced all those nasty old, um, new power cables on Orange Line cars that might have started arcing at a moment's notice, so there are now nine trains hurtling along the tracks, or almost the ten that is now considered normal, well, except when something else goes wrong. Read more.
One of the new Orange Line trains is just sitting at Back Bay, immobile, with passengers wishing it could get up and go already so they can get home. Josh Levinger tweets at the T, which replies, it knows, oh, Lord it knows, or more specifically: Read more.
Here's some video of the recalcitrant man just standing there, around 5:30 p.m. or so.
The Globe got a hold of a letter from a T official to the head of the CRRC plant in Springfield that lists more than a dozen critical problems with the way the company is ever so slowly manufacturing new Orange Line and Red Line cars that are arriving here with critical problems - some of which the T says it's been complaining about for years - and accuses the company of "completely abandoning" any concept of quality control.
In addition to the fewer-trains issue last night, there were signal problems at Wellington and then something caught fire on the tracks near Green Street, to the point that the T tried bustitution.
At least nine of the new Orange Line cars have a problem where electrical current could flow from a power cable to a wheel axle, which the T advises is not a good thing, and so they've taken the cars out of service - which means the amount of time between Orange Line trains is now up to 15 minutes. Read more.
Lauren Picone on the Orange Line and David Weininger on the Red Line filed photos this morning showing their situations trying to get into town during Boston's new normal slow hour on the T.
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
