New MBTA trains pulled again
The MBTA has pulled its new Orange and Red Line trains out of service again and one of its escalators malfunctioned this week, as the agency works to comply with safety directives issued by federal transit officials.
T spokesperson Lisa Battiston said the trains were pulled — for a fifth time— after an out- of- service car experienced a battery failure in the Wellington Yard Monday morning.
“With safety being the top priority, the MBTA has decided to keep all of the new Orange Line and Red Line cars out of service while vehicle engineers and technicians work to determine the root cause of the failure and implement whatever corrective actions may be necessary,” she said.
Battiston said the T will provide an update on the status of Red and Orange cars when the engineering team completes its inspection.
On Sunday evening, a Chinatown escalator malfunctioned and “reversed direction from up to down,” Battiston said. The downtown station services the Orange Line. “Approximately 10-11 passengers on the escalator safely stepped off at the bottom, and no injuries were reported,” Battiston said. “The escalator was immediately taken out of services, and remains out of service while the cause of the malfunction is investigated and ultimately fixed.”
Nine people were injured when a similar malfunction occurred last September. In that instance, the escalator from the platform up to the street level lobby at the Back
Bay station also appeared to reverse direction, flattening out and turning into what witnesses described as “a slide.”
This week marks at least the fifth time the new Orange and Red trains have been pulled from service, due to various issues. In late May, MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak said an inspection of the T’s new Orange and Red Line fleet revealed bolts had been improperly installed in the brakes of eight train cars.
The inspection began after a braking issue caused a new Orange Line train to become disabled on May 19, which prompted the MBTA to temporarily take all of its new Orange and Red Line trains out of service.
The T is paying Chineseowned firm CRRC approximately $1 billion to replace the outdated Orange and Red Line fleet; the plan would eventually deliver 152 Orange Line cars and 252 Red Line cars over the next few years.
The two latest issues at the MBTA occurred days after the Federal Transit Administration concluded a three-month safety management inspection of the embattled agency. The FTA plans to release its final report in August.
A new video also came to light this week showing an unmanned Red Line train breaking loose at the Braintree station on May 30. This was one of five runaway train incidents that has occurred at the MBTA since January 2021; a December incident injured three workers.
As part of its effort to comply with federal directives around addressing its dispatcher staffing shortage, the T responded by cutting back subway service on Monday.
The Legislature has also increased pressure on the T, deciding Tuesday it will conduct a hearing, in an effort to “better understand the agency’s shortcomings and help restore public confidence.”