MBTA pulls new Orange Line trains due to ‘an uncommon noise’ from wear pad

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    Boston (WBZ) — The MBTA has taken its new Orange Line trains out of service again, this time over to an “uncommon noise” determined to be coming from wear pads.

The six new cars debuted back in August. A month later, they were temporarily taken out of service because of a door problem.

Now, engineers have noticed what they called “an uncommon noise” coming from the underside of the cars.

“With safety as a top priority and out of an abundance of caution, the decision was made to temporarily remove the new cars from service to investigate the issue, any potential impacts, and identify the necessary corrective action,” an MBTA spokesperson told WBZ-TV. “T personnel aim to resolve this issue as soon as possible and return the cars to service.”

During a press conference Wednesday afternoon, MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak said the issue has been determined to be with wear pads connected to part of the truck that holds the wheels. Poftak said he is confident there will be a fix soon, but declined to provide an estimate when the trains would be back in service.

“It wasn’t really a safety issue, but we wanted to fix the problem, so it didn’t become a safety issue or a durability issue in the long run,” Poftak said.

Commuters told WBZ-TV Wednesday they’re disappointed and frustrated.

“I’m concerned about the whole T until I see improvement across the entire thing. There’s no excuses, they’ve got to do their jobs and fix it,” said rider Ben Kenison.

“If it’s a random noise they’ve never heard before, it could be something loose, it could be dangerous,” said commuter Chris Carter.

The MBTA has made a $2 billion investment in the Orange and Red Lines. There will be 152 new Orange Line cars in service by 2022.

“We are working really hard to get these back in service,” Poftak said.

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