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MBTA hopes to resume normal downtown subway service on Monday - but there's a caveat
By adamg on Sat, 06/25/2022 - 9:44pm
Update: Service restored Sunday night.
The MBTA said this evening it is hoping to resume regular Orange and Green Line service Monday morning (well, the new normal of Saturday-type service on the Orange Line) - "if deemed safe by internal and third party engineers and safety experts."
The T shut the Green Line between Lechmere and Government Center and the Orange Line between North Station and Back Bay on Thursday after discovering decaying columns holding up what's left of the Government Center Garage over Haymarket station.
Two developers are tearing down the garage to make way for more of their high-rise Bulfinch Crossing complex, which has a completed residential tower and a nearly completed office tower that had one floor catch fire on Friday. Thursday's subway shutdown is the second since March, when part of the garage structure collapsed.
The T described weekend work to shore up the columns:
The MBTA continues to provide assistance to the developer of the private Government Center Garage in the recovery effort, accommodating all efforts for the developer to have access to the support columns and to reinforce the structures. Repair work continues to be underway and the MBTA will continue to support HYM’s contractors by delivering workers and materials to the site. Structural engineers and safety experts are also on scene monitoring the site, performing intensive examinations and assessments of the infrastructure above and below the surface at Haymarket. These teams are and will be ready to assess their work to ensure the safety of all infrastructure before allowing MBTA service to resume. The MBTA will continue to share updates as more information becomes available.
In its statement, the T did not say, as its general manager, Steve Poftak did on Thursday, whether it still intends to bill the developers, National Real Estate Advisors and the HYM Investment Group for costs related to the subway shutdown.
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Comments
Public pain, private profits
This is as good of time as any to remind others of the two years the T made people walk outside between North Station the commuter rail station and North Station the subway station while a private developer rebuilt the Garden.
One might think that’s unavoidable when it comes to complex construction. But the developer magically found a way to keep the parking garage open that entire time. It was only the millions of commuters who weren’t paying garage fees that had to schlep outside in bad weather. The developer could have prioritized getting the pedestrian tunnel reopened. But they didn’t. The state could have made that a requirement of the permit. But they didn’t.
Private developers never prioritize the needs of the public beyond their customers unless they are given no other choice by the state.
nothing will change at the T
nothing will change at the T until there is a catastrophe. and even then nobody working there will lose their jobs, nobody will lose their pension nobody will go to jail. It will be all because climate change. Then the Commonwealth will increase taxes and put billions more into its "rainy day fund" instead of fixing things.
Catastrophe
A guy had his arm ripped off and was killed. So a catastrophe did happen.
But let’s keep spending money on a new overpriced fare enforcement system.
Direct that money to new trains
That keep breaking down and have to be removed from service and are way past when they’re supposed to be operational.
The T is fundamentally broken. The new fare system is only a small reason why.
They should have at least
They should have at least shut down the block to cars. But of course the city favored a few lazy fat car drivers over thousands of MBTA riders.
North Station
I don't think the Green Line and the commuter rail at North Station were ever connected underground before the most recent construction, were they? I used to commute that way every day circa 2006-7. And, I believe, less than 10 years before that, the Green Line was still elevated along that stretch.
They were *almost* connected
The pedestrian tunnel under Causeway Street already existed, ending at stairs and an escalator to a headhouse on the north side of the street, next to but not quite connecting into the TD Garden. You did not have to walk very far out in the sun or rain.
And the direct underground connection
is a poor excuse for a subway entrance and was clearly an afterthought in the design of the building.
Tell me about it
All you have to do is go through that connection at rush hour to see the problem. It's a choke point.
The T rebuilt the Garden
The Garage and concourse was built with Federal subway funds. The T later sold the garage and the concourse to the developers for peanuts.
Roads are closed, too
Congress Street under the garage in both directions is closed, and so is the southbound Greenway road next to Haymarket. There may be other closures that I didn't encounter on my bike trip today.
Edit, responding to comment below: closed for *everyone* -- cars, buses, bikes, and pedestrians.
Closed for pedestrians, too
They really don't want anyone under that thing.
I had to bike the wrong way on the northbound Greenway road
to get past these closures. That wasn't much fun. I have no idea what the people in cars are supposed to do.
Second caveat
I believe what they are calling "normal service" for the Orange Line is still only weekend service.
They are altering normal service. Pray they don't alter it any further.
https://i.pinimg.com/600x315
https://i.pinimg.com/600x315/e6/6e/c6/e66ec6a2bf8f191ed6053c774ef07a30.jpg
Good point on that second caveat
Although it only applies to the Orange Line. I've amended the original post to reflect that.
I am going to be wealthy
*If I buy a powerball ticket and have the winning numbers.
When my Dad was a driver on
When my Dad was a driver on the Green Line, he told of areas that had to go like 3 miles an hour because it was dangerous in the 1970s and it looks like not much as changed.
Boylston station, perhaps?
There's a super-sharp curve just west of the station. Trains have had to go slowly through it for as long as I can remember, and I don't expect that to change. Similar situation to the Red Line curve going into Harvard station.