Springfield factory repairs MBTA rift with deliveries of Orange and Red line cars

By Jim Kinney | MassLive.com

SPRINGFIELD, MASS. — With help from American rail-car experts and senior leaders from China, better subway cars are now rolling out of CRRC’s Springfield plant at a quicker pace, improving the company’s troubled relationship with the MBTA.

Also, executives with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority are often in Springfield, overseeing production along with permanent on-site inspections, said Jackie Jiang, project manager at the Chinese-owned rail car manufacturer.

“They are working very closely with CRRC so with all the people in the plant we can concentrate on production,” Jiang said in a telephone interview from CRRC’s offices in Quincy. “We take the lessons learned. We’re talking about how we can build a strong team and effective communication between CRRC and MBTA.”

Meanwhile, plastic-covered empty car shells sit around the CRRC factory in the East Springfield neighborhood, signaling that the factory is getting busier.

The added attention seems to be working for the beleaguered plant in East Springfield, which is woefully behind delivering much-needed subway cars to the MBTA. Joe Pesaturo, a T spokesman, said Nov. 14 that CRRC has delivered 98 Orange Line cars to date, with four more cars scheduled for delivery by the end of this month. CRRC has also delivered 14 Red Line cars to date with two more scheduled for delivery before the end of the year.

All 152 Orange Line car shells have been fabricated and the grounds around the Springfield factory is filled with parked car shells covered in white

In 2014, CRRC received a $566 million contract from the MBTA to build 152 Orange Line cars and 252 Red Line cars in Springfield. In 2016, the state upped the order with another 120 Red Line cars, with production on those set to begin in June 2022 at a cost of $277 million.

All of the cars were to have been delivered September 2023 under the original contract. A revised deadline of September 2026 probably isn’t feasible and both sides are negotiating a new timeline.

“We look to reset this contract for the delivery of very important rolling stock to us,” Phillip Eng, general manager and CEO of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority told the T’s Board of Directors last month. “The quality and the safety of the cars that we are receiving continue to exceed expectations.”

‘Spirit of partnership’

In a sign of how a once-adversarial relationship has shifted, trustees questioning Eng seemed more concerned that CRRC would “walk away” from its manufacturing plant, frustrated by federal laws that restrict the Chinese-owned company’s ability to build cars for federally funded projects.

Eng said the T and CRRC are in talks on funding, fines CRRC might face for being late to deliver cars and a new timeline for competition of the cars.

“I believe what we are seeing is a spirit of partnership,” Eng said. “We need this fleet,” he said.

Secretary of Economic Development Yvonne Hao singled out CRRC last month when she spoke in Springfield to the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council, saying the factory is an important part of the state’s transportation future.

Eng cited Hao for her work with CRRC from an economic development prospective. “These are not easy jobs,” Eng said. “They are good jobs. They are skilled labor.”

The state went without federal money so it could require the train cars be assembled in Massachusetts. The goal: Bring rail car manufacturing back to Massachusetts and create manufacturing jobs.

Springfield was an early center of rail car manufacturing. Wason Manufacturing Co., one of the largest makers of railroad cars and locomotives in the country, operated in the city from 1845 to the Great Depression.

CRRC spent $95 million and built a 204,000 square-foot rail car manufacturing facility on a 40-acre site that was once a sprawling Westinghouse plant. A casino hopeful had already cleared the site before losing out to MGM’s proposal.

At the plant, car shells arrive from China and are fitted out with pretty much everything else, including wheels, control systems, lights and seats. By contract, 60% of the material must be American-made.

Early trouble

But there was trouble early on. Cars were shipped with quality issues, including problems with undercarriages that kept cars from turning and created excessive noise, battery failure and brake problems.

In a December 2022 letter first reported by a Boston Globe columnist, MBTA deputy director Mark DeVitto laid out a list of quality and inspection lapses.

“Given the breadth, number and age of chronic quality issues that have remained unresolved, it becomes abundantly clear that CRRC MA’s management has completely abandoned its core responsibilities and commitment to lead, monitor and support quality management,” he wrote.

That’s quite a contrast with Eng’s comments last week.

“We really have turned a corner with the MBTA,” said CRRC spokeswoman Lydia Rivera.

Springfield staffing

In Springfield, CRRC has 406 employees, including 261 union production employees made up of Sheet Metal Workers Local 63 and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 7.

“The majority of the workers are actually from Springfield. There are well-paying jobs, union jobs,” said state Rep. Orlando Ramos, D- Springfield, a longtime union carpenter with ties to organized labor. The plant sits in his district.

Rivera said CRRC’s hiring plan for 2024 is to maintain its current headcount while possibly adding union, engineering or project management staff as needs require.

Ramos said CRRC just reached a new collective bargaining agreement with Local 63 and is close to one with Local 7. “I understand those negotiations went well,” Ramos said.

The plant has a lot of orders to fill, he said, not just for Boston, but for Los Angeles and for the SEPTA transit system in Philadelphia.

CRRC has two out-of-state contracts. For the Los Angeles Metro, it is building 64 subway cars at a cost of $230 million.

For Philadelphia, it is constructing 45 bi-level coaches at a cost of $138 million.

The LA Metro has already received the first of its Springfield-built cars.

For Philadelphia, two of the multilevel cars SEPTA ordered are at CRRC’s Springfield facility, said SEPTA spokesman Andrew Busch.

These are the pilot cars SEPTA will use for testing. They arrived at the Springfield facility in May, and are scheduled to be sent to Philadelphia by spring. “There have been many delays with SEPTA’s procurement of the multilevel vehicles, particularly due to pandemic-related travel restrictions and supply chain challenges,” Busch said.

Future orders unclear

It might be hard for CRRC to get more work after it completes these projects. A compromise deal brokered by U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D- Springfield, allows CRRC to only do business with those three agencies — SEPTA, the T and Los Angeles — if the project is to receive federal funds. A grace period that allowed CRRC to do business with other agencies— but never with the Washington, D.C., Metro, due to espionage fears — has expired.

Opponents, worried about Chinese government involvement, espionage and national security, pushed for a ban on CRRC’s continuing work here.

Rivera, the CRRC spokeswoman, notes that Trump-era tariffs of 25% are still in place on imported rail car equipment coming form China.

Rivera said that the tariffs added $18 million in costs to the T project, $35 million to the SEPTA contract and $44 million to the cost of the Los Angeles cars.

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