The T is at the top of everyone’s mind right now as winter rears its slushy, slippery head in Boston.
But Blue Line passengers don’t have the weather to blame for the rush hour mishap that left hundreds standing out in the cold Tuesday night.
It was a dislodged grate that brought the train to a halt between Bowdoin, the line’s westernmost stop, and Maverick, inconveniently located across the water in East Boston.
The grate issue “remains under investigation,” MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said in an email. When asked if the T planned to investigate other grates in the system, Pesaturo wrote: “The MBTAwill continue to perform regularly scheduled inspections of its tunnels.” The MBTA first tweeted about “urgent tunnel repairs” underway just before 5 p.m. Service resumed about two hours later.
#MBTA Crews are working to make emergency repairs on the #BlueLine as quickly & safely as possible pic.twitter.com/dDzgdyP2kZ
— MBTA (@MBTA) December 29, 2015
Buses shuttled passengers to and from. Many reported waiting over an hour for a ride.
@MBTA @universalhub this is going swimmingly. No signs, no one knows where to stand… Blue line gonna blue line pic.twitter.com/FMqkFgPvxj
— Alex Martland (@MooseMartland) December 29, 2015
“I get the fact that accidents happen, but we are freezing,” T-rider Maria Simpson told WCVB. “I’m too cold to be angry. It’s really a joke. You pay all this money and they increase the rates every year or every other year, and this is what you get.” “The MBTA worked very hard to get buses to the affected stations in a timely manner,” Pesaturo, the T spokesman, said in a statement to Metro. “Despite very short notice, the MBTA was able to deploy 45 buses for the shuttle service. The MBTA apologizes for the inconvenience caused by the urgent necessity to make repairs inside the tunnel.”
