GOVERNOR CALLS T'S STORM PERFORMANCE UNACCEPTABLE'
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| Passengers wait Monday at the MBTA commuter rail train station in Framingham. (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS) |
The Boston-area transit system announced Monday that all subways, trolleys and commuter rail will stop running at 7 p.m. on Monday and will remain shut down all day on Tuesday.
There will be limited bus service during that time.
T officials said crews will spend the day trying to clear snow and ice from tracks and assess damage that has been done to equipment during the recent spate of storms.
Gov. Charlie Baker said Monday he's frustrated and disappointed with the performance of the MBTA during the recent spate of severe winter weather and plans to sit down with transit officials after the latest storm to discuss service disruptions.
The embattled Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and its customers dealt with a series of fresh delays and disruptions before deciding on an early suspension of all rapid transit service amid the latest storm, which was expected to deliver up to 2 feet of snow in parts of the Boston area.
Subways, trolleys and commuter rail trains were scheduled to shut down at 7 p.m. Monday, about six hours earlier than normal, with only limited bus service continuing after that time.
The MBTA, in a statement, said the snow was making it almost impossible to operate.
''From a safety perspective, the MBTA is concerned about the risk of multiple disabled trains that would require evacuations on the tracks, potentially in the dark,'' the T said.
In one incident earlier Monday, nearly 50 commuters had to be evacuated from a disabled Red Line train in Quincy after being stranded for more than two hours. No one was injured. Officials said the train lost connection to the electrified third rail because of the buildup of snow on the tracks.
Baker said his administration spent a lot of time during the weekend talking to public transit officials to make sure they could run an at least a scaled-back schedule during the latest storm.
''We've been disappointed by the fact that even that abbreviated schedule hasn't been able to be maintained. Once it stops snowing, we plan to have a long conversation with the folks at the T about improving performance,'' Baker said. ''There are a lot of people at the T who I know have been working extremely hard, but this performance is simply not acceptable.''
Officials at the transit agency say aging equipment has exacerbated the weather-related problems that have frustrated and angered many riders.
At the T's Red Line station in Cambridge's Kendall Square, near the MIT campus, riders said they were more or less prepared for a long slow commute Monday, especially given the challenges the subway line faced last week.
Valerie Patilla said her morning commute from Boston's Hyde Park neighborhood lasted about an hour and a half — more than twice as long as her normal commute, which also includes a subway transfer and a bus ride.
''But this was a good one. Last week it took two and a half hours,'' she said as she waited for a train home after being let out of work early. ''That was awful. I sum it up as leading cattle in a herd.''
Cassie Smith, of Boston, said a delay on the Red Line earlier Monday had forced her to cut short her doctor's appointment.
''I only got to see him for 10 minutes, so I'm just really frustrated,'' she said as she headed back into Boston's Beacon Hill neighborhood. ''It said it was arriving in 15 minutes but took a lot longer. I could have walked across the river faster if I had known.''
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