MBTA overseers voted Thursday to acquire more than three dozen additional bi-level commuter rail cars, a move that officials say will allow the agency to retire single-level coaches across the network.
The T’s Board of Directors approved exercising a $165 million option in the agency’s existing contract with Hyundai Rotem to buy another 39 coaches for the commuter rail network, whose ridership rebound has far exceeded other modes of public transit.
The MBTA in 2019 struck a contract with Hyundai Rotem for 83 coaches, 16 of which would go toward the in-development South Coast Rail project. Officials added to it in May with another 41 coaches, and they moved Thursday to round out the option and lock in the remaining 39 coaches outlined in the original deal.
William Wolfgang, the T’s senior director of vehicle engineering, said the new vehicles will “bring our reliability up and customer satisfaction up.” Once all 163 vehicles are online, the T can phase out single-level commuter rail cars and use only the two-story cars, he said.
Officials said the coaches can also be run fully with an electric-powered locomotive instead of one that uses greenhouse gas fuel. Wolfgang described them as “future-proof.”
Commuter rail has been a bright spot at the MBTA, which like most other transit agencies has struggled to attract as many riders as it did before the pandemic.
In September 2024, the Keolis-operated commuter rail network transported 94 percent as many people as in September 2019, a higher rate than MBTA ferries (83 percent), buses (81 percent) and subways (53 percent), according to data Wolfgang presented.
“It’s a really good news story for us,” he said of the commuter rail’s performance.
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