MBTA’s Book of Lamentations

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A reasonably complete collection of recent news items regarding the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) is mostly bad news – a veritable book of lamentations for commuters and those tasked with keeping thousands of public transit wheels rolling around Massachusetts and beyond.

  • New Orange Line cars that were supposed to solve transit woes are proving so troublesome they are actually making matters worse.
  • The legislature’s Transportation Committee, has critiqued the structure of the MBTA including its ‘home” under the Department of Public Utilities, but its range of alternative proposals may not get off the ground.
  • The National Transportation Safety Board published its findings on a 2021 crash that injured 24, and concluded the driver's sudden acceleration and "loss of situational awareness" were the probable cause.
  • Earlier in the year, the Federal Transit Administration issued a damning report on T operations.
  • Closer to home, and less consequentially, the MBTA has announced a change in schedules on the Franklin Line due to the opening of a new station in Pawtucket, RI.

On the plus side of the ledger, Governor Maura Healey is promising a new MBTA general manager within 60 days and has made a commitment to hire a thousand new workers for the agency.

Orange Line Woes

Late in December, Orange Line riders were told they should expect slow commutes with gaps of about 15 minutes between trains after the MBTA pulled nine cars from service because of unexpected "electrical arcing," the agency announced Friday.

A T engineer "identified a failure in a power cable that may have created some electrical arcing with a nearby train axle."

A total of 11 axles across the nine cars have been affected.

The MBTA went on to write a scathing letter to the Chinese company that supplied the new vehicles, accusing them of basically producing a sub-standard product and failing to resolve issues identified after delivery to Boston.

Legislative Investigation

After studying the crisis at the MBTA for months, top lawmakers concluded the Legislature should rethink the Department of Public Utilities' role as the state agency responsible for overseeing MBTA safety and floated a few other ideas that do not yet appear to have much traction across both branches.

The Transportation Committee, which had 20 members serving on it this term, published its final report Tuesday afternoon, just hours before the 2021-2022 term draws to a close, summing up the panel's three public oversight hearings held this year and reams of MBTA documents that lawmakers examined.

Most of the 78-page report provides a recap of the upheaval riders have faced at the MBTA and the intervention federal investigators made this spring and summer following a string of harrowing, sometimes deadly incidents.

Rather than provide a set of recommendations with one unified voice for the entire panel, however, top Democrats opted for a different, bifurcated approach: co-chairs Rep. William Straus and Sen. Brendan Crighton each got a separate section of the report to detail what they believe should be "future areas of focus."

Green Line Crash

Federal investigators identified a Green Line operator's "loss of situational awareness" as the likely cause of a July 2021 Green Line collision, and their report about the incident published Thursday also appeared to reveal a lengthy delay to an overdue MBTA safety feature that could have prevented the crash.

Two and a half years after the incident that sent 24 passengers and three MBTA workers to local hospitals with minor injuries, the National Transportation Safety Board published its findings that concluded the driver's sudden acceleration and "loss of situational awareness" were the probable cause of the crash into another Green Line train and subsequent derailment, which caused about $2 million in damage.

Investigators did not find track defects or problems with either Green Line trolley involved, but they pointed out that a long-discussed safety feature could have played a crucial role.

More than a decade ago, federal officials recommended the MBTA install automated anti-collision technology on the Green Line, but that never happened.

MBTA leaders said following the 2021 crash they would accelerate the project timeline and bring the Green Line Protection Project online by 2023, but the NTSB said in its report that the agency now in fact plans to have the system completed by June 2025.

FTA and the T

The Federal Transit Adminstration's 90-page report outlined four more directives the MBTA must follow and one more the DPU must follow, adding to a series of directives issued in June before the investigation's conclusion. The agency risked losing federal funds if it fails to address the orders. While the FTA will remain involved to ensure changes are made, it has not opted to take over safety oversight at the T as it did with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority -- the only other time it conducted a similar safety management inspection.

Franklin Line Schedule Adjustments

According to a posting by the MBTA, a new schedule “adjustment will prevent train traffic between Readville & South Station after the opening of Pawtucket station (Prov Line) and offer improved on-time performance.” In fact, under the new schedule, it appears that weekdays, the Forge Park 7:09, 8:12, 9:12, 11:12, 1:12, and 5:07 inbound arrive will arrive at South Station three minutes later than under the existing schedule.

Similarly, the weekday outbound schedule from South Station changes, but only the 7:45 am seems to be affected, arriving at Forge Park three minutes later than under the present schedule.

The new schedule begins on Jan. 23.

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