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The T announced that it is going to order 10 more of the infamous Breda cars for the Green Line. We wondered why the T would order more cars that don't work. The T's problems with Italian company AnsaldoBreda go waaay back:
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority signed a $222 million contract in 1995 with an Italian company now known as AnsaldoBreda to provide the trains. The company was supposed to deliver 100 "Breda" cars, but T officials halted delivery of the trains in 2004 after frequent breakdowns and a $50 million lawsuit from AnsaldoBreda over the terms of the contract.
Dan Grabauskas at the T said the problems have been solved. But after being burned once, why get burned again?
Speaking of Bredas, David Harris at the Brookline TAB had a nasty Breda experience Monday night. Harris writes, "A Green Line train stops abruptly — and when I say abruptly, I mean ABRUPTLY — for an unexplained reason." A young woman got thrown back and couldn't move her legs. Harris writes that the T driver said nothing and just had a cigarette.
We e-mailed Joe Pesaturo, MBTA spokesman, for comment and to find out if the accident was determined to be driver error, Breda error, or "stuff happens" error. Here's Pesaturo's response: "As the train was proceeding out of St. Mary's Station, a passenger told the operator of the second trolley that she needed to get off the train. The operator then used the emergency brake to stop the train. The operator should not have done this. She will face disciplinary action. The woman, who was taken to Beth Israel, was not seriously injured."
So, the incident was the result of good old T-driver error, which is good news for the Breda car, and bad news for the driver. Anyone else thrilled at the prospect of more cars on the Green Line, or would you rather hold off on the new cars and get anything but Bredas?
Image of a Breda car from MBTA.com.
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Of course they got 10 more cars from Breda. Where else are you going to pick up 10 random subway cars. Yah, the bredas suck, but you can get more cars for the price of the cars. The last thing you want is 10 cars from somewhere else, that require different replacement parts, have different compatibility, different interfaces... Plus, the acquisition would require a whole new contract process, rather than just an add on to the current contract.
But, given it took 10 years for the Bredas to show up, we need to start the process for the Kinki's replacement NOW...