BOSTON — In the latest embarrassment for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and its Green Line extension transit line, the agency shut down the extension this afternoon (Friday, Oct. 20) because of problems with the overhead power system, forcing some passengers to walk along the right-of-way on foot to evacuate from at least one stalled train.
The latest issue occurred when the pantograph on one train failed at about 3:30 p.m., the Boston Globe reports. Shuttle buses began serving the stations on the extension about 4 p.m.; the MBTA announced on X, formerly Twitter, shortly before 7:30 p.m. EDT that rail service had been restored “after repairs were made to the overhead wire.”
During the outage, passengers on a train stalled between the Lechmere and East Somerville stations were stuck onboard for more than an hour before MBTA employees walked those on board along the tracks to the nearest station, according to a Globe reporter who was among the passengers. The MBTA said about 80 passengers were onboard, according to WBZ Radio.
The power issues came a day after MBTA CEO Phillip Eng announced at a press conference that a majority of track on the 4.7-mile extension had been built out of gauge and will have to be repaired, a process that could take weeks [see “MBTA Green Line extension was built with track out of gauge …,” Trains News Wire, Oct. 19, 2023]
Eng said he has placed new people into extension leadership roles, and MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said two people who had held senior roles on the extension project were no longer employed as of Thursday.
— Updated at 7:40 p.m. CDT with resumption of service.
When you think you have seen everything, another fiasco happens.The MBTA FIRED the 2 engineers that were in charge in 2021 when the tight gauge was discovered and no one inspected other locations of the new track ,which it turned out to be tight also.The new head of the MBTA was in charge of the Long Island RR and came out of retirement to take the job.I think he is doing a great job, he is trying to get things back on track and make people accountable.We also had a new head of the state transportation DOT,she lasted 4 months and resigned, there was no word why she left. Political or worker interference would not surprise me.They seem to have a serious design problem with the DOT in regards to highways with planning for the future when a new bridge is built.
Years ago, any infrastructure the government built was made to last. It may not have been perfectly designed but it did what it was supposed to do. They also only used paper, pencil, ans slide rules to design.
Now anytime Government is involved in something, it turns into one giant CLUSTER ?”%@. You would think with all the years of railroad construction you remember the basics and improve upon that with new technology. But NO, They forgot that the GUAGE is 4 feet 8 1/2 inches or how to properly make electrical overhead. OH, just remembered that everyone in charge never came from a railroading background.
By comparison, the way the MBTA is being run or should I say mismanaged, this makes both the MTA in New York City and Amtrak Class One operators in rail transportation. Between mismanagement, defective equipment, poor planning and misgauging track dimensions, I think any of us railfans and model railroaders could do a far better job of running the MBTA and getting it back on track. However dealing with the usual political ineptness, boondoggling and just plain stupidness that comes with any government run enterprise it should not come as a surprise. We must remember that when many of these transit lines and systems were built in the late 1800s and early 1900s these were built with private investment, money and private companies and were built by people who knew their business and what it takes to run trains and traction lines. Today it appears that whatever government gets it’s hands into, they make a mess of it and many of these fine old transit and traction lines have either gone off the rails or just get worse each year due to poor management and government control that is worse than ever Maybe we should revive the Toonerville Trolley it couldn’t be any worse
Joseph C. Markfelder
MBTA has done a heckuva lot of really good things in its fifty-nine years. The Red Line extensions from Harvard to Alewife (at the north, Cambridge/ Arlington) and the South Shore extension to Quincy and Braintree. The Silver Line, all new. Reopening the Old Colony commuter rail which the New Haven Railroad walked away from in the late 1950’s.
What MBTA can’t do is solve the equation of skyrocketing costs vs. flat (at best) revenue. My most recent trip to Quincy (and riding my favorite train, the South Shore Red Line), a few things struck me in the COVID year. (1) The frequency of commuter trains on the Old Colony, though they were short and most likely half empty. (2) Getting on a Red Line train at North Quincy into an almost empty car, with the few masked-up riders trying to avoid each other. (3) The Wollaston Red Line Station, first built in the 1970’s, is all-new. What would that be, $100 Million? (4) Heavy maintenance, pretty much a rebuild, at Quincy Adams Station and its parking garage.
On an earlier trip, I saw a brand-new, and very attractive and functional station, at Logan Airport on the Blue Line. Even though the all-new Silver Line to the airport has bled off many or most of the Blue Line airport passengers.
What MBTA hasn’t done, becomes the mega-billions aren’t there, is to turn the Green Line into something decent.
All this costs money, mega-millions which doesn’t come from the farebox.
Casey Stengel once said of the original 1962 Amazin’ Mets, “Can’t anybody here play this game?”
Yes, I know this is off-topic, but I couldn’t resist this opening to pass on my favorite Casey Stengel quotation: “Most people I know my age are dead, at the present time.”