Photo courtesy of the MBTA
Less than 24 hours after receiving emergency marching orders from federal transit safety inspectors, MBTA officials announced an entire arm of the transit agency’s Green Line will shut down for 12 days to repair tracks and install a new safety system.
The busy B Line, which connects Boston College with Kenmore Square via Commonwealth Avenue, will be closed from Monday, June 20 through Friday, July 1, to allow crews to make track upgrades and install a long-delayed collision-avoidance system called the Green Line Train Protection System, or GLTPS. The National Transportation Safety Board first recommended the T install the system in 2008, after a train operator was killed when she drove her trolley into the back of another one in Newton. The agency only began installing the $70 million system, a form of “positive train control” technology, this year.
For over 100 years, trolleys on Green Line tracks have been controlled by a signal system broadly analogous to stoplights, that tell a driver whether the tracks ahead are clear. However, the system has no ability to stop a train automatically if a driver goes too fast or gets too close to another train. A trolley operator on the B line sent 5 people to the hospital when he rammed his trolley into the back of another one last summer. And just this month, the MBTA has seen Green Line trains collide twice in and around the Government Center station – once when a driver appeared to ignore a stop signal, and a second time when a train pulling into the station rammed another one fast enough to cause the two trains’ couplers to lock.
The Federal Transit Administration ordered the MBTA yesterday to submit plans to fix urgent safety hazards across five broad categories within the next 30 days. Among those hazards: 2 miles of Green Line track where trains are speed-restricted due to insufficient maintenance. It was unclear from either the FTA emergency directives issued Wednesday or the MBTA’s announcement of the Green Line closure Thursday whether the 3,000 feet of track to be replaced as part of the closures covers the 2 miles highlighted by federal safety inspectors.
The T said the closure will be one of four scheduled to take place across the Green Line this year, and is part of the agency’s relatively new practice of concentrating closures to speed repair work, instead of dragging the work out over as many as six months of weekend closures.
“Safety is our top priority,” MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak said in a statement. “Having a full access closure such as this allows our team to complete a massive amount of work in a short timeframe. In doing so, we are able to accelerate construction and resume regularly scheduled service for all riders in a safe and timely manner. We know these kinds of service disruptions are frustrating, and we thank our Green Line B branch riders for their patience while we accomplish this important track and safety work.”
Alternative service will be provided for B Branch riders throughout the closure. Accessible shuttle buses will replace service from Kenmore to Boston College stations. Shuttles will not stop at Warren Street, Allston Street, or Packards Corner stations due to inaccessible sidewalk conditions.
