Power issue halts Green Line service day after track defects revealed
BOSTON - Green Line riders were the first to point out the irony on Friday afternoon. Their commute home was brought to a standstill when a train lost power and brought the entire line north of North Station to a halt.
The MBTA said one of its trains experienced a "pantograph" issue. That's the device on the top of the Green Line trains that connects to the electrical line. Crews worked for more than three hours to fix the problem. In the meantime, some commuters told us they were held on their trains for an hour and a half before being let off.
"It's getting worse and worse all the time," said Kerri. She was on a train headed out of town when it stopped just before the Lechmere Station. "You can see everyone is frustrated here. They have to do something about this."
Some people told WBZ-TV they had been waiting for 40 minutes to get a shuttle bus. Others chose to walk. "I just spent 50 minutes walking from North Station to here (Lechmere)," said one commuter.
"I have been sitting here for half an hour watching them not being able to control it," said another. "It's getting worse and worse all the time."
This incident comes just 24 hours after the MBTA General Manger revealed the new Green Line Extension has extensive track problems. Issues with track placement were worse than originally thought. Nearly all of the line had been installed too close together.
As of Thursday, General Manger Phillip Eng said 50% of the Union Square line and 80% of the Medford/Tufts line needed to be replaced.
The tracks were installed too close together. They are off by 1/8 of an inch.
Even worse, Eng revealed some within the agency who worked on the project knew of the issue as early as April of 2021, but continued with the project anyway. Governor Maura Healey told WBZ-TV on Thursday, that no one from the previous administration told her office, or the new brass at the MBTA about the issue. Eng said he only recently found out about it.
"It's just day after day after day a new thing," said Charles Chieppo of The Pioneer Institute. He has been studying the MBTA for 25 years. "It's an organization that is so opaque and lives so much in its own world and its own culture and it's as if time has passed it by."
The MBTA said it is investigating who knew what and when. The agency confirmed two employees with senior level positions on the project had been fired. Pending the results of that investigation, Chieppo said criminal negligence could be a possibility. It's unclear what steps, if any, the Attorney General would take.
"I just think the time has come to have a discussion whether we end this entity and start a new one," said Chieppo. "I really think this is broken beyond repair."