Blue Line train service will stop early for four nights this week as the MBTA seeks to advance track work needed to relieve slow zones on the line once considered the most reliable in the system. Shuttle buses will replace trains starting at 8 pm every evening Monday through Thursday on most of the Blue Line until the end of service. Buses will not serve Bowdoin Station. Both early closures are also scheduled to occur from May 1-4. With the extra time allowed by the early closing, MBTA officials said work crews will replace close to 2,000 feet of track and more than 450 ties. They will also perform more than 3,000 feet of tamping. Public messaging about these plans has been a bit muddled. When new MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng first announced the idea at the Board Meeting, he apparently said they’d be in place every night for a month. Several outlets are broadcasting that announcement. Later that day, an MBTA spokesman clarified that the agency intended to use eight nights of early closings starting at 7 p.m. and that Eng’s remarks were meant to discuss overall progress that could be made within a month. Additionally, officials said the planned timing of the early closure was changed in response to subsequent pushback from riders and stakeholders. The early end of train service is now scheduled at 8 p.m., and the agency is considering using the same plan on additional nights in June.” The MBTA apologizes for the inconvenience of the revised start time of scheduled changes to this service, and appreciate riders’ understanding and patience while this critical and necessary work to maintain, upgrade, and modernize the system takes place,” officials wrote in a statement. “The MBTA will announce additional service changes in advance as they are confirmed and scheduled.”
Blue Line train service will stop early for four nights this week as the MBTA seeks to advance track work needed to relieve slow zones on the line once considered the most reliable in the system.
Shuttle buses will replace trains starting at 8 pm every evening Monday through Thursday on most of the Blue Line until the end of service. Buses will not serve Bowdoin Station.
Both early closures are also scheduled to occur from May 1-4.
With the extra time allowed by the early closing, MBTA officials said work crews will replace close to 2,000 feet of track and more than 450 ties. They will also perform more than 3,000 feet of tamping.
The public messaging about these plans has been somewhat muddled. When new MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng first announced the idea at the Board Meeting, he apparently said they’d be in place every night for a month. Several outlets are broadcasting that announcement.
Later that day, an MBTA spokesman clarified that the agency intended to use eight nights of early closings starting at 7 p.m. and that Eng’s remarks were meant to discuss overall progress that could be made within a month.
Aside from this, officials said the planned timing of the early closure was changed in response to subsequent pushback from riders and stakeholders. The early end of train service is now scheduled at 8 p.m., and the agency is considering using the same plan on additional nights in June.
“The MBTA apologizes for the inconvenience of the revised start time of scheduled service changes, and appreciates riders’ understanding and patience during this critical and necessary work to maintain, upgrade, and modern system is taking place,” officials wrote in a statement. “The MBTA will announce additional service changes in advance as they are confirmed and scheduled.”
