Upgrades Rolling In For T’s Orange Line

Gov. Charlie Baker, MBTA General Manager Luis Ramirez, state Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack and others got a tour of new Orange Line cars at the T’s Wellington Station yesterday.

The T has contracted for 152 new Orange Line cars and 252 Red Line cars to be rolled out in the coming years.

Assembly of Orange Line cars is underway with the first production cars having arrived at Chinese contractor CRRC’s Rail Car Assembly Facility in Springfield in April and completion slated for this December.

The new vehicles will incorporate a variety of new features to improve reliability, accessibility, communications, safety and comfort that include wider door openings, four access locations per car, improved lighting and automatic passenger counters.