GREEN LINE ‘STRETCHED TO LIMIT’
Derailment risk increases as T looks for solutions
A recent report blasts the Green Line as “stretched to the limit” and in danger of more derailments — saying the only fix is an infusion of cash and workers to the MBTA.
The Green Line saw four derailments through October of last year, according to federal records, and recorded eight derailments in 2016 — the most in the nation for light rail.
The report, ordered by
the state Department of Public Utilities, says tracks on the nation’s busiest light rail line are safe but suffer from years of disrepair, only seeing maintenance when they’re about to cause derailment — or afterward.
Light rail is what the government classifies streetcars as, like those on the Green Line.
“The overall track infrastructure condition has deteriorated to a point that trains may at times be operating at/or near potential derailment threshold limits for the (current Green Line) cars and at times these conditions are only recognized and acted upon by the MBTA after a derailment or near-derailment incident occurs,” the report reads.
“It is quite apparent that the MBTA cannot maintain the Green Line to an ‘acceptable level’ ... without additional resources,” the report says. “Succinctly, the system is simply overdue for renewal, and maintenance requirements far exceed capabilities of existing MBTA resources.”
The report was delivered to the DPU on Nov. 23, four days before MBTA officials provided an update on Green Line work to the Fiscal Control and Management Board touting a quicker repair schedule and replacement of nearly 5 miles of the Green Line’s 45.8 miles of track.
MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo called the ongoing $120 million repair project a “robust program for improvements” that reduced track defects by 50 percent and “set the foundation” for core infrastructure work that will come in a Green Line Track Renewal Plan.
But while the report itself acknowledges the difficulties of improving a century-old rail system that carries 200,000 people every weekday, it paints a darker picture.
“This level of repair and rehabilitation is commendable and clearly demonstrates that the MBTA understands the need to upgrade the system but is not sufficient to return the Green Line to a State of Good Repair and must be increased,” the report reads, adding minimal staff and resources lead to the T not addressing track issues until they reach “red level” priority.
George Gavalla, a railway consultant and a former associate administrator for safety at the Federal Railroad Administration, said the report sounded warning bells.
“Safety is supposed to be of primary importance,” Gavalla said. “It seems that the condition of the track and the entire system for maintaining that track is sorely deficient and both safety and service seem to be suffering, based on what I’m seeing in this report.”
At-Large City Councilor Michelle Wu, who has pushed for more funding for the T, said the report added urgency to a growing concern.
“This is one more example of why we need major investment in the T,” Wu said. “Ask any T rider any day what their experience is like, you’ll hear that we need to do a lot better and we need to do it now.”