MBTA Warns Of Significant Commuter Rail Delays Friday Morning

BOSTON (CBS) -- The MBTA and the company that runs the commuter line are urging riders to avoid South Station and warning them about significant delays Thursday night and Friday morning because of a signal issue that's caused major delays all day at the transportation hub.

Check: MBTA service alerts

The MBTA said that, due to the Amtrak signal issues, only the Providence/Attleboro and Stoughton Lines would be departing from South Station Thursday evening. Those travelling on other commuter rail lines were instructed to board at JFK/UMASS, Back Bay, Forest Hills, Quincy Center, and Braintree.

New Thursday Afternoon Schedule Announced

An Amtrak signal problem forced trains that would normally go into South Station to stop at Back Bay and Red and Orange Line stops, making a mess of the morning commute because it drastically limited the number of trains entering and leaving the station.

The issue was not fixed for the evening commute and may not be fixed by Friday morning.

Friday Morning Commuter Rail Changes

The MBTA says they plan to run a normal Commuter Rail schedule Friday morning, with some trains terminating at earlier stations as they did on Thursday. "Delays should be anticipated tomorrow," the MBTA said in a tweet Thursday night.

With the exception of trains on the Franklin and Providence/Stoughton Lines, trains will terminate at outlying stations, where customers can make free connections to the Orange and Red Lines.

"Track switches are currently being operated manually, which significantly limits the amount of trains arriving to and departing from the station," Amtrak said in a statement on Thursday.

"Engineering forces are actively working to fix the issue and restore scheduled service. Amtrak is also working with our partners MBTA and Koelis to update customers on the status of repairs and restoration of service."

Photos: Major Delays On MBTA Commuter Rail

It left many riders frustrated, confused, and late to work Thursday morning.

Keolis, which operates the commuter rail, said the problem is out of their hands.

"At the moment we still don't have an estimate as to when the signal issue will be repaired but our crews are working as efficiently and safely as possible to restore service," Amtrak spokesman Mike Tolbert told WBZ-TV Thursday afternoon.

Gov. Charlie Baker expressed his frustration with the situation to WBZ-TV Thursday afternoon.

"We made clear to [Amtrak] that we need their absolute best people working on this," said Gov. Baker. "We can't just say to people, 'we're working on it.'"

The MBTA said in a statement that nearly 40,000 people travel to South Station via the commuter rail on a typical weekday morning--though they said ridership was lower this week due to school vacation.

Keolis spokeswoman Leslie Aun tweeted an apology to commuter rail riders Thursday morning.

"This is no fun for anybody," Aun told reporters at South Station. "This is not the way we like to run the commuter rail service. When you have a big outage like this, and we're not even in control of it, it's especially frustrating, and passengers are telling us loud and clear how unhappy they are about what's happened this morning. And we get it ... so we say to all of our passengers, we apologize."

MBTA General Manager Frank DePaola told WBZ NewsRadio 1030 that commuter rail passengers were being given a free transfer to the Red and Orange Lines to complete their trip.

"We're going to try to keep everybody updated, but right now there's no ETA on the resolution of this problem," said DePaola.

The Red Line also experienced severe issues in the morning rush, due to a disabled train.

Two women told WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Karen Twomey they walked from Back Bay to South Station.

"They said there was no signals coming in to South Station, so we needed to walk from, or take the train from Back Bay," said one woman. "We opted to walk. There were actually quite a few people that opted to walk."

"It took about an hour to get from Cohasset to Quincy Center, which usually takes about 20 minutes," another woman told WBZ. "We sat at multiple Red Line stops. Our conductor felt really bad, but no progress, really disappointing."

At suburban commuter rail stations, messages warned riders they would not get to South Station.

"This is really inconvenient," one rider told WBZ. "And they're not giving us any information, they keep saying they're going to post it."

"We got to Back Bay and were supposed to switch, and then things got confused," said another commuter. "And it all stopped."

One student, whose commute started in Hull, missed the class she was trying to get to because of the delays.

"I've been waiting at North Quincy all morning," she said. "And each time they would say that another train would be coming, another car, and each time it would be full."

Another student was worried about finding an alternate way home.

"I actually had to leave early because I'm in graduate school," she said. "If I miss a class, I'm out of the program."

Keolis urged riders to find alternate modes of transportation for the evening.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Karen Twomey reports