By Jim Kinney | jkinney@repub.com
SPRINGFIELD — With work on MBTA subway cars ready to ramp up at CRRC following a customs dispute. Phil Eng said he’s working to keep the plant open even after its current orders are completed.
That’s an issue for Chinese-owned CRRC, which is barred by federal law from taking work from transit agencies other than the ones it already does business with: MBTA in the Boston area, Chicago and Los Angeles.
But transit systems around the county need rolling stock and those subway lines and commuter railways need rolling stock made in this country, said Eng, interim secretary of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation and general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.
“We’re talking with folks about how to ensure we protect that plant long term,” Eng told reporters Wednesday following a roundtable meeting and media conference at Springfield Union Station. “There’s a lot more dialogue going on. We’re just as committed to seeing that workforce have the ability to raise their children and their children’s children right here in Springfield.
The first of CRRC’s unfinished subway car shells, now freed from U.S. Customs and Border Protection holds, should arrive here from a port in California either this week or early next week, Eng said.
The company will ramp up production as those cars arrive and more follow.
“You know, the folks here in Springfield, Massachusetts, and particularly the labor workforce at CRRC, they should be proud because they are delivering quality cars for us at the MBTA. But they’re also rooted and invested in raising their families and being right here in Massachusetts.”
CRRC’s Springfield factory has 422 employees, of which 280 are working and 142 are on furlough. The T went without federal money for its order of Red and Orange Line subway cars in order to require final assembly here in the state. The idea was to build a railcar industry here, a product lost when pioneering Wason Manufacturing fell victim to the Great Depression.
“That’s one of the reasons that we’re very proud of the plant here in Springfield and working with Congressman (Richard) Neal, wanted to make sure that not only these cars can continue manufacturing, but the workforce has a future here,” Eng said. “And we’re really optimistic going forward.”
U.S. Customs stopped unfinished CRRC car shells at US ports back in May 2025 over concerns that they were made with forced labor by children or by members of the Uyghur ethnic minority.
CRRC said it answered the complaints by documenting its supply chain. But nothing happened. CRRC laid off 142 employees earlier this month because there were no parts.
Then U.S. Rep. Neal, D-Springfield, cornered President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, at a Washington St. Patrick’s Day lunch with a fact sheet on the issue. She spoke across the political divide with Gov. Maura T. Healey and the cars were freed.
Neal described Eng as a reassuring presence throughout all of this. Wednesday, Eng said not only were these 142 jobs saved but more like an estimated 7,000 jobs, given all the components that are manufactured in the United States but not in Springfield.
While the T’s Orange Line cars are delivered, there are 190 Red Line cars left to complete.
Those 190 were to have been completed in 2027. But Eng said Wednesday that the timeline will have to be adjusted.
The Springfield plant is also making cars for Los Angeles ahead of the 2028 Summer Olympics.
