State-owned China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC) has inaugurated a new $95-million manufacturing plant on Thursday, Sept. 3, in Springfield, Massachusetts, the China Daily USA reported.
"There are many firsts here in Massachusetts," Yu Weiping, vice president of CRRC Corporation, said during the ground-breaking ceremony. "One is being home to America's first subway, and now this is a first for us in the U.S."
Aside from Yu, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno and Liu Yi, commercial counselor from the Chinese Consulate General in New York, attended the ceremony.
"The Springfield train factory is the first-ever Chinese investment in the high-end railway transportation equipment industry in the U.S.," Liu said. "After years of development, the Chinese railway equipment industry has become highly competitive internationally."
According to the report, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority awarded CRRC with the contract to design and manufacture 284 new Orange and Red Line subway cars for Boston's transit system.
The report said that the 220,000-square-foot assembly facility will start construction in 2016 and scheduled to be completed in fall of 2017. The first cars are expected to be produced and delivered in 2018.
The report added that many of Boston's railcars are "old, slow, dirty, squeaky, and the paint is peeling off their rusty bodies" and needed to be upgraded. Most of Red Line cars are on average 44 years old, while the Orange Line cars have been in service for 32 years.
Governor Baker was told by Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack that during the snow storms of last winter, many of the Red Line trains were the same cars that were running during the blizzard of 1978.
According to Yu, the new facility will benefit Boston subway riders as well as boost Springfield's economy. The Springfield facility will employ about 150 local workers in the manufacturing, engineering and administrative sectors. The facility will also assemble and test all production vehicles.
CRRC is expected to work with local companies as part of the plan to expand its business in the U.S. Yu said that the CRRC is also in talks with the New York MTA.
"In addition to this project, we can further improve the transportation infrastructure here in the U.S.," Yu said. "CRRC is a world leader in rail manufacturing, with successful projects in over 100 countries or regions including Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and we are ready to invest in a country with so much potential to have the best subways and high speed rails in the world."