After at least six derailments of the new MBTA Orange Line cars in late 2020 and early 2021, and several iterations of testing, the Orange Line cars returned to service earlier this year. The Red Line cars have been offline for even longer, since March, but the cars are expected to return to the tracks in the next few weeks.
“The MBTA expects to return new Red Line cars to service by the end of this month, following the completion of some infrastructure improvements along the Red Line right-of-way,” MBTA spokesperson Joe Pessaturo said in an email.
He added that the track work being completed was comparable to the Orange Line work earlier this year. An investigation into the Orange Line derailments the MBTA conducted this past spring revealed switch issues, including a “higher than industry standard” level of friction at the switch.
Pessaturo also said that the new Red Line cars were tested on the main tracks Thursday for the first time since March.
The MBTA first purchased new Red and Orange Line cars for $1 billion in 2015 as part of an $8 billion, five-year capital investment program that began in July 2018. The Red Line now counts 252 new cars among its fleet. The MBTA estimates that an additional 65,000 riders per day will be able to ride on the Red Line after the project is done, and that the entire fleet will be replaced by 2024.
Other projects included in the Red Line Transformation Program include signal upgrades, a new test track and maintenance in South Boston, and improved track crossing between Alewife and Davis stations.
