New Orange Line subway cars pulled from service over safety concerns
BOSTON - Just months after transit officials shut down Boston's entire Orange Line subway line for 30 days to conduct repairs, officials pulled nine new Orange Line subway cars from service Friday because of safety issues.
Officials from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority said the latest problem was detected when an engineer identified a failure in a power cable that may have created some electrical arcing with a nearby train axle.
The MBTA later identified nine cars where some arcing appears to have occurred and removed all of the impacted cars for repairs including replacement of the axles.
A total of 11 axles across the nine cars were affected, officials said.
As the MBTA continues inspections and repairs, Orange Line riders can expect to experience longer wait times of about 12-14 minutes between trains.
Currently, the MBTA is operating eight Orange Line train sets, or 48 cars. That's two train sets, or 12 cars, fewer than the number of vehicles required to meet its schedule.
Transit officials are urging those participating in First Night celebrations on Saturday to plan for additional travel time.
The new Orange Line cars were manufactured at a plant in Springfield by the Chinese-owned company CRRC, which is also manufacturing new Red Line trains.
