BOSTON — The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority will continue its effort to address maintenance needs on its rail transit system with a series of projects in November on the Red and Green lines, as well as on three commuter rail lines.
Previously announced work on the Orange Line is already in progress and is scheduled to conclude Nov. 1 [see “MBTA sets October maintenance shutdowns,” Trains News Wire, Sept. 27, 2024].
On the Red Line, the scheduled work includes:
— Nov. 5-10, between Broadway and North Quincy. Free and accessible shuttle buses will operate between those stations, and the Middleborough, Kingston, and Greenbush (Old Colony) commuter rail lines will offer fare-free service between Braintree, Quincy Center, JFK/UMass and South Station.
— Nov. 9-10, between Broadway and Ashmont. Shuttle buses will replace the rail service.
— Nov. 18-24, between Harvard and Broadway. Shuttle buses will make all stops except Park Street and Downtown Crossing; see the MBTA advisory for reaching those stations. Shuttle buses will also service State on the Orange and Blue lines, and Haymarket on the Orange and Green lines for easier connections. And commuter rail will be free between Porter Square and North Station.
More details are available here.
On the Green Line, scheduled service suspensions are:
— Nov. 9-10 between Riverside and 10, to allow for signal work on the D branch. Shuttle buses will replace trains.
— Nov. 11-17 between Union Square and Lechmere. There will be no shuttle bus service to Union Square; passengers should use regular bus service.
— Nov. 15-17, beginning at approximately 8:45 p.m. on the 15th, between Park Street and Union Square, as well as East Somerville. Shuttle buses will operate between North Station and East Somerville. Trains between Medford/Tufts and East Somerville will be fare free.
The following commuter line work is also scheduled. Shuttle buses will replace trains in all instances, and diversion schedules will be posted soon at the MBTA website.
— On the Franklin Line, Nov. 2-3 between Forge Park/495 and Readville.
— On the Fitchburg Line, Nov. 2-3, 9-10, and 14-17 between Littleton/Route 495 and Wachusett. These suspensions are for Automatic Train Control work.
— Also on the Fitchburg Line, Nov. 23-24 between North Leominster and Wachusett, for ATC work.
— On the Lowell Line, Nov. 23-24 between North Station and Lowell. This suspension is for work on fiber optic lines.
Perhaps the fact that there weren’t any big maintenance shutdowns back then is why they’re having to do so many so frequently NOW. Deferred maintenance is a pain to fix.
I can tell you Sound Transit has had a few partial closures in the last few years to take care of maintenance items, including a weeklong one last year in the downtown transit tunnel for rail replacement and some other work.
I have been a customer of MBTA (or before that, MTA) since I was in nursery school around 1950. I don’t recall any of these shutdowns.
Most of those years I haven’t lived in Massachusetts, but I visited frequently enough. If these shutdowns existed back then, sooner or later I’d have run into one of them. I never did. From Logan to see family, it was three of the four subway lines (Blue, Green, Red). Never (until last month) did I run into a closed subway or else a placard indicating that another subway was closed.
Ditto, other places. At one time or another I’ve ridden transit in London, Montreal, Toronto, Chicago, Edmonton, BART territory in California, Denver, Washington (D.C.), and Seattle. For four years (college) I was a regular rider in New York City. In other words, enough subways in enough places that if there were a shutdown somewhere, at one point or another I’d have been affected. Never happened.
It is a large number of shutdowns. NY MTA has had several of these, some going for months, since superstorm Sandy. Also, Washington, DC Metro has had a number of partial line closures on Blue, Orange and Red lines in the past couple of years.