SPRINGFIELD — As people filed onto the subway car Tuesday morning, a recorded voice told them the next stop is Westlake/McArthur Park.
But the car isn’t in Los Angeles cruising under Wilshire Boulevard, yet. It was in the massive hangarlike CRRC assembly factory in East Springfield. CRRC, the largest manufacturer of railroad rolling stock in the world, celebrated the arrival of the first cars for the B (Red) and D (Purple) Lines of the Los Angeles County Transportation Authority.
This car on display is a pilot car built by CRRC in China and sent to the states for testing and study, first in Springfield and later in Los Angeles. Work in Springfield on this initial order of 64 subway cars for Los Angeles at a cost of $230 million begins in the fall. If successful, the Metro can expand its agreement to as many as 218 cars for a total of $647 million, CRRC said Tuesday.
CRRC MA chairman and president Jia Bo thanked all the partners on the project.
“We all benefit from today’s achievement,” he said. With our partner, LA Metro, we designed state-of-the-art vehicle equipment to meet the needs of today’s passengers and with the city of Springfield we continue to stimulate the local economy through job creation.”
But the celebration comes as Chinese-owned CRRC faces continued scrutiny, both as a state-owned enterprise and due to ongoing problems with the cars it’s building for the MBTA in Boston.
To date, just 36 Orange Line cars and six Red Line cars have been delivered to the MBTA and they are all currently out of service following a March derailment of Springfield-built orange Line car. The T has traced derailment to a failing part in the cars’ wheel assembly that make s it hard to turn. But it acknowledges that there were problems with the switch and tracks as well.
Manufacturing has also been delayed due to training and workforce issues, a lack of parts and problems with noise and car’s doors.
Workers were busy at the Springfield factory assembling Red Line and Orange Line cars for Boston.
On a visit to the Springfield factory, James T. Gallagher, Los Angeles Metro chief operations officer, discussed the layers of testing and engineering supervision the Metro has both in California and here in Springfield.
“I have complete confidence that CRRC can deliver to us a product,” he said. “I have complete confidence in them.”
CRRC got the job, he said , following a competitive bid where it submitted the best price.
The Metro is expanding its subway lines, he said. And its existing cars are aging.
CRRC received a $566 million contract from the MBTA in 2014 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 a production cost of $277 million.
The Orange Line project is expected to be completed in 2023, the Red Line in 2024.
As part of the deal, Chinese-owned CRRC built a factory in Springfield to assemble the cars — shells built in China but about 60% of the parts are U.S.-made.
CRRC spent $95 million, 204,000-square-foot factory at the former Westinghouse plant site on Page Boulevard.
For the Los Angeles Metro cars, some components are built in at a new CRRC factory in City of Industry, California, and will be shipped to Springfield for assembly.
Massachusetts went without federal money on the car project so that it could mandate that assembly work take place in the state. The idea was to establish a rail car industry here, something Springfield hadn’t had since Wason Manufacturing went out of business during the Great Depression.
And it’s worked , CRRC said. Besides The MBTA and the Los Angeles project, work begins over the next few months on 45 new double-decker passenger coaches for SEPTA in Philadelphia. That’s a $138 million project.
CRRC MA has 386 total employees of which 308 work in Springfield including 227 union production employees. CRRC said it is recruiting to fill 60 union jobs in various roles including assemblers, test technicians and engineers.
For Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno, the event means his favorite four letter word: “jobs, jobs, jobs.”
“Keep people working,” he added.
The factory has a first-of-its-kind, state-sponsored apprenticeship program in railroad car manufacturing. It features 2,000 hours of technical training at CRRC in addition to 150 hours of related technical instruction provided by Sheet Metal Workers Local 63.
Michael LaFleur, regional business manager for Sheet Metal Workers Local 63 said the union is ready to continue the job training program as CRRC expands.
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