Healey says she needs more info on MBTA train contract

GOV. MAURA HEALEY said on Monday that she needs more information on the status of a problem-plagued contract with a Chinese company manufacturing Red and Orange Line trains for the MBTA.

“We’ve got to get to the bottom of it,” she said after a meeting with top legislative leaders, reciting her mantra that Massachusetts cannot have a functioning economy without a functioning transportation system.

“We need to make sure that projects that are promised with delivery dates are delivered on time or else we’re getting to the bottom of it,” she said. “At this point we’re still in the early stages of identifying what’s happening with respect to existing contracts. We’ll make whatever moves are necessary to ensure that we’re getting the delivery of what we need as soon as possible.”

Jeffrey Gonneville, the acting general manager of the MBTA, gave a fairly detailed presentation on the state of the contract to the T board last week. He said the Chinese company, CRRC, is way behind on deliveries and struggling to deal with manufacturing challenges, staff turnover, supply chain challenges, and “sudden and unexpected” technical and engineering issues at its Springfield assembly plant.

Gonneville said all new train car deliveries have been suspended since July 2022 to give CRRC time to address its manufacturing challenges. He said deliveries may resume in February, but probably at half the pace (four cars per month instead of eight) required under the contract. He said the T is pressing CRRC to come up with a realistic schedule moving forward.

CRRC, attempting to establish a beachhead in the United States, submitted a winning bid on the original 2014 MBTA contract that was $200 million lower than the next highest bidder. CRRC subsequently landed contracts with transit systems in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Chicago — and the MBTA in 2017 under former governor Charlie Baker purchased more Red Line vehicles, bringing the total value of the CRRC contract to $870.5 million.

The National Defense Authorization Act in 2019 barred the use of federal funding for transit procurements from Chinese companies and the T now says CRRC has “limited future work options” in the US. Gonneville said CRRC has no contract work scheduled in Springfield beyond the MBTA work, raising questions about the viability of the plant, which employs roughly 250 employees.

Brian Kane, the executive director of the MBTA Advisory Board, said Gonneville’s presentation suggested CRRC has little incentive to live up to its contract terms, let alone hang around as a future parts supplier or vehicle repairer.

“They’ve already lost a ton of money and they’re continuing to lose money with every car they ship,” he said.