The first China-made metro cars for Boston’s Orange line rolled off the production line in Changchun, capital of northeast China’s Jilin Province. The metro cars, which will be delivered to the United States in December, are among a 284-carriage order signed by CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles and Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) in December 2014.
The 2014 deal, intended for the orange and red lines of the Boston metro, was the first time a Chinese train car maker won a bid in the U.S. market. “With completely independent intellectual property rights, China-made metro cars have met U.S. standards in terms of control security, quality management and vehicle strength,” said Yu Qingsong, deputy chief engineer of CRRC Changchun. The metro cars have adopted high anti-collision standards, which ensure passenger safety in case of trains colliding at a speed of 40 kilometers per hour.
Parts of the metro cars will be produced in Springfield, Massachusetts, where a CRRC assembly factory was built in September 2015. The factory is expected to open in 2018.
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