Company hired to build system to keep trains on North Station commuter lines from slamming into each other sues MBTA for cost overruns, project delays

Hitachi Rail, hired by the MBTA in 2015 for what is now a half-billion-dollar project to install a network of devices designed to prevent trains north of Boston from running into each other or getting up to unsafe speeds, yesterday sued the authority for what it says are $158 million in overruns and delays caused by alleged T bumbling.

In its suit, filed in US District Court in Boston, Hitachi says problems with its contract to install a network of trackside sensors and systems that could alert train drivers or even stop or slow trains emerged right from the start, when the MBTA realized it had no money to pay for the federally required system but convinced Hitachi to do 19 months of work without payment - on the promise of eventually getting reimbursed after the T collected an anticipated federal grant for the work.

But then, in month 20, with the grant money now in the bank, the T still refused to pay, Hitachi alleges, adding Hitachi agreed to the 19-month delay after "the MBTA demanded agreement on unique loan terms, worth tens of millions of dollars, under threat of awarding the project to another company."

The T initially hired Hitachi in 2015 to install a "positive train control" network for the commuter-rail lines out of North Station, for roughly $338 million. Four years later, the T amended the contract to upgrade the network to an "advanced train control" system, similar to the one Hitachi was installing on South Station lines, for an extra $253 million.

The company alleges nearly half the amount it's seeking is due to costs associated with delays caused by the MBTA.

In one example, it says it had to stop work on a stretch of the Fitchburg Line in Leominster for five months to wait for the MBTA to answer easement concerns from National Grid about the location of poles for the system. Turned out National Grid and the T settled whatever the issue was, but the T never notified Hitachi, which only found out it had been settled when National Grid contacted it, the company alleges.

In February, 2021, the MBTA decided it wanted the system along part of the Gloucester tracks operational in the next five months, instead of the thirteen months it had initially agreed to. Hitachi says it pulled engineers off work on other lines to meet the accelerated deadline. And then, the T decided, no, it didn't need the work done in five months after all. All the work caused "59 calendar days of critical path delay," Hitachi says.

Hitachi alleges it ran into further delays because the T and train operator Keolis would often refuse to provide flaggers to protect engineers working along the tracks.

And, the company continues, T managers ran amok with their reviews of specs. In one example, "Defendant MBTA withheld design approval or rejection from Hitachi Rail by demanding Hitachi Rail first respond to comments on immaterial spelling corrections;" in other cases, the T marked Hitachi submissions simply with "Revise and Resubmit" without specifying what needed revising, the company says, adding that cumulatively, these go-rounds wound up causing major delays in actually getting the work done.

Hitachi continues that the T insisted it install an expensive wireless-security system even though it was neither specified in the original or revised contract nor required by federal regulators and made other changes that forced Hitachi to do work not called for in its contract.

Hitachi even pointed to other problems the T has had, including all the well known safety issues on its subway lines that brought in federal transit regulators, as proof of the T's incompetence. In contrast, it claims:

Despite these substantial challenges and the large sums of uncompensated costs it has borne on Defendant MBTA’s behalf, Hitachi Rail continues to complete this important safety work on the MBTA Commuter Rail system for the benefit of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.