Red Line car shells cleared from customs, reviving replacement project

Business

The clearance allows manufacturing to restart, bringing back over 140 furloughed employees.

Train cars stored at he CRRC factory in Springfield in 2023. Suzanne Kreiter/Globe staff

After nearly 10 months of gridlock, customs officials have finally released a cache of previously detained Red Line car shells, a move that the railcar maker China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation says will put more than 140 furloughed workers back on the job.

Once customs releases the car shells, the company will transport them to the CRRC MA Springfield manufacturing facility in mid-April, a spokesperson said. As operations ramp back up, the 142 furloughed workers will gradually return to their jobs.

There are 190 Red Line cars left to complete, the spokesperson said.

The shells were released after U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, who represents Springfield, and Gov. Maura Healey stepped up to negotiate the release.

“For any project, we know that there are things within our control and outside our control,” said MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng, in a statement to Boston.com.

The MBTA team supporting CRRC was able to meet the necessary documentation requirements when the negotiations came through, Eng said.

“I commend the workforce in Springfield for its dedication and commitment,” he continued.

The company said the ongoing delays stem from a U.S. Customs detention notice under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.

The 2021 law bans imports from China’s Xinjiang region made with forced labor, and requires importers to provide “clear and convincing evidence” that their goods have no links to forced labor.

In response, CRRC MA and its suppliers established a task force to review over 2,000 documents in order to provide that evidence.

Massachusetts first awarded CRRC MA a contract in late 2014 to build 152 new Orange Line cars and 132 new Red Line cars, according to an MBTA procurement update from March 2024.

A later revision expanded the order to include another 120 Red Line cars and set a five-year timeline for initial deliveries, bringing the total cost to between $1.1 billion and $1.4 billion.

The company did not provide an updated timeline for finishing the Red Line cars.