CRRC MA Co., Ltd. is a Chinese-American

rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, Railroad car#Freight cars, freight and Passenger railroad car, passenger cars (or coaches) ...

manufacturer in

Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield is the most populous city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, and its county seat. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ea ...

. It is part of the larger Chinese state-owned rolling stock manufacturer

CRRC CRRC Corporation Limited (known as CRRC) is a Chinese state-owned and publicly traded rolling stock manufacturer. It is the world's largest rolling stock manufacturer in terms of revenue, eclipsing its major competitors of Alstom and Siemens. ...

. Its offices and company headquarters are located in

Quincy, Massachusetts Quincy ( ) is a city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the largest city in the county. Quincy is part of the Greater Boston area as one of Boston's immediate southern suburbs. Its population in ...

. This Springfield facility is responsible for the manufacturing and delivery of

metro Metro may refer to: Geography * Metro City (Indonesia), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urban area with high ...

and

commuter rail Commuter rail or suburban rail is a Passenger train, passenger rail service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting Commuting, commuters to a Central business district, central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter town ...

cars for the

MBTA The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (abbreviated MBTA and known colloquially as "the T") is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. The MBTA transit network in ...

and LA Metro.

History

CRRC MA was first established as ''CNR MA'' in 2014. It won a state contract to manufacture new railcars for the

Red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–750 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seconda ...

and

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...

lines within the state of Massachusetts. At the time, no railcar manufacturing facilities existed in Massachusetts. The new 150,000 square ft assembly facility was built on the former site of a New England Westinghouse Company property and manufacturing started shortly after the facility's opening.

Contracts and delays

In March 2017, the company was awarded a contract to build 45 train cars for SEPTA at the cost of $137.5 million, with the cars expected to arrive in Philadelphia in 2019. A month later, they had won a contract to build the HR4000 series cars for the Los Angeles Metro Rail, and deliver the entire base order of 64 subway cars by September 2021. On July 2, 2019, SEPTA and CRRC agreed to a six-month extension on the delivery deadline for the 45 Springfield-built double-decker commuter rail cars. A few weeks later,

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

banned federal funding for new railcars for practically all Chinese-made buses and trains, citing connections with the

People's Liberation Army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the military of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Republic of China (PRC). It consists of four Military branch, services—People's Liberation Army Ground Force, Ground Force, People's ...

. However, funding from other sources is still allowed, but it is rare for this to happen. Some delays had been found in the factory, but there was work to improve the situation as of early 2022. However, quality control issues still have surfaced. Federal transportation officials visited the Springfield facility in March 2023, as part of its "scheduled review” compliance with the Buy America provision in place. In December 2022, the MBTA accused the CRRC MA of abandoning their core values after a MBTA engineer conducted a recent inspection and found failures in a power cable, consequently pulling nine Springfield-built Orange Line cars from service. CRRC MA notified MBTA officials in January 2023 they would not be able to deliver the remaining Orange and Red Line railcars by December 2023 and September 2026, respectively. In August 2023, LA Metro received its first trainset of the 64-car order. The second MBTA Red Line trainset entered service in January 2024, a few years after the first had entered operation in December 2020. In late March of 2024, the state of

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

and CRRC officials agreed to extend the company's deadline to deliver a total of 404 railway cars from the long-missed due dates of January 2022 and September 2023, until 2029. The state also agreed to increase the cost of the contract by $148 million to over $1 billion. With SEPTA not receiving a single car due to delays, it had announced it would terminate the contract for cause.

Products

Rapid transit

Red Line 1900-series * MBTA Orange Line 1400-series *

Los Angeles Metro Rail The Los Angeles Metro Rail is an urban rail transit system serving Los Angeles County, California, United States, consisting of six lines: four light rail lines (the A, C, E and K lines) and two rapid transit lines (the B and D lines), ...

HR4000

Coaches

* Double decker coaches for

SEPTA SEPTA, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, is a regional public transportation authority that operates bus, rapid transit, commuter rail, light rail, and electric trolleybus services for nearly four million people througho ...

(Cancelled)

Gallery

File:Park Street Southbound MBTA Red Line Platform, July 2024.jpg, 1900-series MBTA Red Line train in service in July 2024 File:Green Street MBTA Orange Line Platform, July 2024.jpg, 1400-series MBTA Orange Line train in service in July 2024 File:CRRC HR4000 at Union Station, April 2025 (cropped).png, HR4000 train for LA Metro in service in April 2025

References

{{Reflist

External links

Website
2014 establishments in Massachusetts Springfield, Massachusetts CRRC Group