Milton commuters who transfer to the Red Line at Ashmont will wait even longer for new trains.

The MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority) acknowledged Oct. 15 that it will miss its end-of-2027 deadline to receive all 252 new Red Line cars from Chinese manufacturer CRRC, as reported by CommonWealth Beacon. The agency does not yet have a replacement timeline. A new projection should be available this winter, officials said.

The delay traces to a federal customs seizure. U.S. Customs and Border Protection detained Red Line car shells at the Port of Philadelphia starting in May 2025 over suspicions they were built using forced labor, according to the Boston Globe. The shells were held for about 10 months and released in March. The disruption forced CRRC to furlough more than 160 workers at its Springfield assembly plant for roughly six months, according to CommonWealth Beacon.

"It's unfortunate that actions by the federal government have further delayed the delivery of these new cars," MBTA spokesperson Joe Pesaturo said.

Workers returned to the Springfield factory in July. The facility has a full workforce with about 40 cars on site, and another 10 shells are on the way from China, the Globe reported. CRRC plans to open a second assembly line early next year to speed production.

The Red Line's Ashmont branch connects to the Mattapan Trolley, which provides light rail service to Milton. Aging cars are a persistent problem: some Red Line trains still in use date to about 1970, according to the Globe. Chris Friend, interim executive director of TransitMatters, told CommonWealth Beacon that vehicle failures "are by far the number one cause of delay on the Red Line due to the age of the current set of cars."

The procurement has a long history of setbacks. The MBTA first awarded CRRC a $566 million contract in 2014 under then-Gov. Deval Patrick, with all cars expected by 2023. Manufacturing problems, the COVID-19 pandemic and supply chain disruptions pushed that date repeatedly. In 2024, the MBTA's board paid CRRC an additional $148 million and reset the deadline to the end of 2027, pushing the contract's total value above $1 billion.

As of July 15, the MBTA had conditionally accepted 68 of the 252 Red Line cars. All 152 new Orange Line cars under the same contract have been delivered.

Brian Kane, executive director of the MBTA Advisory Board, which represents 178 cities and towns that help fund the T, called the procurement a "bad deal." He told CommonWealth Beacon: "This whole procurement has been done incorrectly from day one, and now we're living with those consequences."

The disclosure itself came by accident. At an Oct. 15 board subcommittee meeting, deputy chief financial officer for capital finance Susan Woods presented a slide stating the project was "scheduled for completion of deliveries in FY32." T officials later clarified that fiscal year 2032 refers to the full contract period, including warranty work, not the car delivery date. The agency uploaded a revised slideshow with a correction.

The MBTA has not said whether the latest delay will increase the project's cost.