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MBTA: Green Line derailment had nothing to do with all the track work
By adamg on Tue, 03/12/2024 - 9:55am
The MBTA is blaming a faulty trolley for Saturday morning's derailment on the outbound B Line, rather than the track and other work that was completed just the day before:
A thorough inspection confirms no relation exists between this Green Line work and the derailment that occurred on Saturday, March 9, near Kenmore Station. Prior to reopening the Green Line at 5 AM following the latest construction work, rigorous testing was conducted, including running multiple test trains. More than 70 Green Line trolleys had safely traveled through Kenmore Station prior to the incident. The post-derailment inspection corroborated the results from the post-diversion testing, confirming that the switches were functioning without any defects, that all track and switch replacement work was successfully accomplished, and that the replaced track and switches are performing well. The investigation into the cause of the derailment is now isolated to the incident car itself. The MBTA will continue to provide details as they are confirmed.
The T says the 18 days of Green Line shutdowns was successful: Some 11 slow zones were eliminated, including the oldest one in the whole system:
Located near Ayr Road and Beacon Street in Brookline, one speed restriction removed during the suspension on the C branch was the oldest in the system at over 900 days old. Thanks to the MBTA team’s coordination and work, removing this restriction this month means the MBTA does not need to suspend service on the C branch in the fall as previously planned.
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Comments
Good
That's actually good, I was thinking i maybe it was a driver going too fast. How frustrating for them, though, after all that work! And frustrating for the riders too, of course.
morale
An announcement like this, while obviously meant for the public, is also meant to demonstrate management's support for everyone who's been working on the track upgrades. It also reports on the testing that's done in the course of the work. Hope they keep the communications coming.
They might want to double
They might want to double-check that switch one more time, since they were again running shuttle buses from Babcock St. to Kenmore late Monday night because of "switch problems"
The Type 8 went off the tracks
It was a Type 8 unit that derailed. These were made by Ansaldo-Breda and have been a perpetual problem. As with many past derailments of the Type 8 units, it was the center compartment unit that went off the rails. Research by a good investigative reporter, and assuming the MBTA cooperates, will find that the Type 8 units have been all kinds of problems since they arrived. It is well-documented.
In fact, the MBTA did not take the full order of working units but took a number of partially built units at the end of the order to have as spare parts and those never went into service. They just wanted to end the order and relationship. A large portion of the entire Green Line system was adjusted (rails and road bed) to deal with the known problem of the Type 8 units as well. Do we remember that when they first arrived? In fact there are track sections and switches that they really have to crawl over that has nothing to do with the recent repairs.
And you and I will live with this for some time to come.
As of right now, the T has to run trainsets with one Type 7 and one Type 8 together. This is because the Type 7 units do not have low-floor boarding and do not meet all ADA requirements. The Type 8 units have this so they pair them for that need. The newer Type 9 units built by CAF are fully ADA compatible but they do not have enough of them to handle the load. And the 9s cannot be married to a 7 or 8. Type 9 units also cannot run on Huntington Ave where the E-Line has a street-running section from Brigham to Heath. This is because the doors do not have a fly-out stop sign to stop inside passing autos which is allowed on that street-running segment. So those will only run B, C, and D lines regularly, and maybe E to Brigham and turn back.
The Type 10 units are several years off and still in design. So this issue with the Type 8s is here to stay. Get used to it. And yeah... a lot of the people that bought those are long gone, so there is no one left to fire over that. Eng already got rid of the people that screwed up the GLX.
Type 10s
Type 10s can’t come soon enough. Type 8s are a liability as long as they are in service.