Above: A snowy scene at Fields Corner MBTA station. Chris Lovett/file photo
If you’re one of the thousands of commuters wondering why the MBTA’s Red Line service has been so massively disrupted this week, more detailed explanations are starting to come from T officials.
Bottom line, they say: Most of the Red Line’s fleet is made up of older vehicles that are prone to break down in the freezing temperatures that have gripped the city and region over the last week.
According to T sources familiar with the rolling stock, there are typically 20 trains in service on a normal weekday along the Red Line between Alewife and Ashmont/Braintree.
On Tuesday— the worst performance day on the Red Line this week— only six of those trains were fully-functioning. Some of the older vehicles broke down at the beginning of the service day— and all were “struggling” in the cold temps— leaving only six trains to service the tens of thousands of T customers who use the Red Line.
The resulting delays have caused major headaches for commuters, including some who have given up on waiting for Red Line cars and turned to pricey ride shares to get to and from work or school.
The number of trains in service improved a bit on Thursday (January 29) but was still well below the 20 trains needed for the typical weekday demand.
A Red Line train made its away across a bridge connecting Dorchester and Quincy over the Neponset River in this file photo. Chris Lovett photo
T sources say they have no choice but to run the older, crankier cars in an attempt to meet the demand. Otherwise, they say, customers would be waiting 45 minutes or more for trains if they just used the newer cars.
That’s meant that MBTA employees have been working “around the clock to keep the cars operating safely,” according to a T source. The goal is to maintain at least 15-minute headways during this period.
A T spokesperson said: “The MBTA thanks its frontline workforce for its exceptional work over the past handful of days to keep riders safe and the system moving, even through the intense weather conditions. We appreciate our riders’ patience during any of the delays they may have experienced.”
T officials point out that the Orange Line has had a far better week performance-wise, mainly because that part of the system has newer vehicles that are less susceptible to break-downs due to cold weather. More new Red Line cars are expected to be added to the fleet, but some have been held-up by a disruption caused by an ongoing border-related trade dispute that has prevented necessary parts from getting to an assembly plant in Springfield.
MBTA officials have said they are working hard to resolve that problem, but Red Line riders may have more cause for concern with frigid temps and more potential snowfall in the forecast through the coming weekend.
On Friday, T officials cancelled a scheduled Red Line service suspension between Broadway and North Quincy on the Braintree Branch and Broadway and Ashmont on the Ashmont Branch “due to the lingering impacts of the recent winter storm and the potential weather for the weekend.”
