BOSTON — According to the Boston Globe, Italian-made train cars taken off the Green Line last year after several derailments could be back on Commonwealth Avenue by Christmas after a quick fix that – if it works – could save the MBTA about $25 million in repairs, officials said Tuesday.
The Breda cars would run on the B line along Commonwealth Avenue starting in mid-December, but only after the state Department of Telecommunications and Energy approves the plan.
A T report detailing the plans for reintroducing the low-floor cars is expected to be delivered by Nov. 1 to the department, which oversees the T.
Older model trolleys are now being used on the B line and would continue to be used on other Green lines.
The Breda cars were introduced in March 1999 to offer better access to riders with special needs. They were pulled from service six months later and again in July 2000 after several derailments as well as problems with the cars’ braking system.
After $1 million in track work intended to avoid derailments, the Breda cars were put back in service last year, only to experience more derailments. In all, seven derailments have occurred. No one has been injured.
T management mothballed the 27 Breda cars in August 2001.
General Manager Michael H. Mulhern said he was cautiously optimistic the new fix would work. The cheaper alternative involved alterations to the wheels. It’s been tested for three months in the T’s rail yards and along Commonwealth Avenue, T officials said.
The repairs could save the T about $25 million, which would have been needed to reconfigure the trains’ wheel assemblies to better hold tracks along the Green line’s 100-year-old curves.
The derailments triggered a still-unresolved dispute between the T and the Breda’s manufacturer, Italy’s Breda Costruzioni Ferroviarie. The T stopped its order for 73 more Breda cars, and the $215 million contract for a total of 100 cars remains in limbo pending the results of new repairs.
Reintroducing the rail cars will require a multi-faceted approach, with as much emphasis on track maintenance as wheel-to-rail contact, officials said.
”It’s been the most difficult procurement in my career and probably the most difficult for the MBTA,” Mulhern said.