The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) has revealed the exterior paint design of the new Green Line Type 10 supercars. The design features a green and dark gray paint scheme along the body of the vehicle, green doors and a white and navy blue lower running strip.
The paint design was selected by a majority of respondents to an online survey hosted by the MBTA. Riders were invited to select one of three exterior paint designs for the new cars through the survey, which was available from Oct. 2 to Oct. 13, 2023. MBTA employees were also asked to provide their feedback. More than 16,300 responses were received, with the winning design, “Option 3”, receiving 9,566 votes.
“Ensuring that we engage with riders and incorporate their feedback is critical in everything we do. I thank our riders for taking the time to engage with us on the exterior design of the new Type 10 Green Line supercars,” said MBTA General Manager and CEO Phillip Eng. “We value the time that it takes to vote and the fact that we heard directly from thousands of riders demonstrates the importance of these new Green Line cars to the public. It’s important for riders to know that we care about both their safety and also their experiences on the system and we are incorporating their feedback into our decision-making. Thank you to our Customer Experience and Vehicle Engineering team for their work and to our riders for continuing to engage with us.”
The MBTA Board of Directors awarded a nearly $811 million contract on Aug. 31, 2022, for the delivery of more than 100 Green Line Type 10 supercar light-rail vehicles, which will bring benefits to riders and the MBTA system through increased safety, accessibility, capacity and maintainability. The new Green Line supercar will be 40 feet longer than the Green Line vehicles in use today and includes state-of-the-art communication systems, accessibility improvements like wider doors and the latest generation of crash-safety technology, which will create a safer environment for both operators and riders.
The MBTA’s Vehicle Engineering team is currently in the process of engaging with the public and all MBTA stakeholder groups to incorporate the customer experience into the Green Line Type 10 supercar design, including technical specification development. These stakeholder groups include more than 15 MBTA departments, including safety, system-wide accessibility (SWA) and SWA’s external support partners, operations, training, customer technology, green line transformation and more.
Safety and reliability continue to be the main priority of the Green Line Type 10 supercar design process, with the experience of riders and the operator as the central focus. Lessons learned from the MBTA’s previous vehicle projects are also being incorporated as part of the design process. MBTA notes technical specifications were drafted for the future technology and safety needs of riders and employees. The technology includes redundant major systems, 100 percent low-floor vehicles for level boarding in the future, Green Line Train Protection Systems, which combine vehicle and wayside equipment to avoid train-on-train collisions, add red-light signal protection and incorporate speed enforcement, live screen and announcement updates, increased priority seating and accessibility upgrades such as new bridge plate concepts.
The supercars will be in design for several more years before pilot vehicles are introduced to the system. The MBTA anticipates a mock-up of the Green Line Type 10 supercar will be available in 2024 for riders and the public to visit and offer their feedback.
