Now arriving: New Green Line cars for extension project

BOSTON — Construction on the Green Line Extension Project is rolling into its second month and the MBTA unveiled its new trolleys on Wednesday.

The new cars will begin hitting the tracks soon to fill the need for more cars by the time the extension is completed in early 2022.

After years of delay the Green Line Extension is finally underway and 24 new cars are coming with it.

Governor Charlie Baker and Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollock toured one of the new cars at Newton's Riverside stop Wednesday afternoon.

Secretary Pollack says although the extension project likely won't be finished until early 2022, the new cars will start to roll out later this year.

"Toward the end of the year, we'll start to see the production cars come off the line,” Pollock said. “It’s not that folks have to wait until all 24 cars are here, they'll see them come onto the system two at a time."

Secretary Pollack says they're bigger than the previous models and can fit more riders.

"This will hold more folks -- about ten percent more folks – and the seats have been changed to make things a little more comfortable,” Sec. Pollock said.

Officials broke ground on the Green Line extension last month.

It will add about five miles of Green Line track through Cambridge, Somerville and Medford.

Several new stations will also be added along the way. This isn't the only big MBTA project getting underway. They're also planning to replace the entire fleets of Red and Orange Line cars starting this fall.

Commuters say they're skeptical of the Green Line Extension being finished by the targeted 2022 date.

But Governor Baker says because of the nature of the Green Line is more complicated than some of the other lines this project took much more time to plan out than the anticipated upgrades to the Red and Orange lines.

“Given the nature of the tracks and the way the system works above ground, underground, lot of tough corners in – it requires a certain type of vehicle to actually work on this system and that's essentially why this process takes such a long time," Gov. Baker said.

MORE: MBTA Green Line extension project finally underway

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