Sparks Fly, Delay Commuter Rail Train

According to multiple published reports, the inbound Franklin Line Train 2706 was delayed approximately 30 minutes on Sunday by an apparent arcing incident involving the overhead wires used by Amtrak’s electric locomotives. An individual posted video of the scene on X, from which the above image has been captured. The image seems to show sparking and arcing in the vicinity of some large transformers.

Keolis spokesperson Alana Westwater stated, “Earlier this afternoon, Franklin Line train 2706 (from Forge Park/495) was delayed approximately 30 minutes due to fire department activity at South Station in response to an issue reported by Amtrak. No additional Commuter Rail delays are expected.”

Keolis operates the commuter rail system for the MBTA.

We inquired with Amtrak about the origin of the problem and got a partial response from Spokesperson Jen Flanagan:

“On Sunday, November 26, 2023, a piece of debris fell onto overhead wires at Boston's South Station. There was approximately a 10-minute delay to service while crews worked to resolve the issue.”

Amtrak did not respond to a repeated request for information regarding the nature of the debris, whether it was an act of vandalism or a failure of maintenance. There was also no response regarding whether an investigation had been launched.