SOMERVILLE, MASS. (WHDH) – Orange Line riders are expressing frustration after authorities announced a 30-day closure of train service on the line on Wednesday.
“Come on, guys, get together!” said Andrea Somerville, a regular rider with T.
“Yeah, no, that’s ridiculous,” said driver Joe McDonough.
Governor Charlie Baker and MBTA officials officially announced the shutdown earlier today, with Baker stressing how much work is needed to carry out long-awaited maintenance crews trying to squeeze in on nights and weekends. ends.
“To put it into perspective, the 30 days of 24-hour access to rebuild and replace tracks on this line will replace what would have taken five full years of weekend and evening diversions,” Baker said during of the announcement press conference.
But while the end goal is to get important work done and prevent future outages, like last month’s third rail fire over the Mystic River, the frustration remains of having to use shuttles or other means of transport.
“Very inconvenient,” said commuter Danny Smith. “I work in Everett (and) I live in Boston. I guess they fix anything that needs to be fixed, because there were a lot of problems not only with the orange line, but also with the red line.
Passengers who spoke with 7NEWS also asked about the work schedule, such as why maintenance was not carried out during the pandemic when few were using the T at all.
“I just don’t understand, like we’ve had, like, more than two years where there’s hardly anyone traveling and now people are finally going back to work and the timing feels really, really off,” said McDonough.
Most said switching to commuters or the commuter train or even working from home for a month would only create another level of headache for commuters.
“You say you give me better service, it’s not better service,” Somerville added. “You are making the situation worse. Now we will be closed for 30 days.
The closures will begin on Friday August 19 and will continue until September 18.
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