Commuter rail struggles to meet surge in ridership
By Mac Daniel, Globe Staff | July 19, 2006
MBTA commuter rail, the new way to work for thousands because of the Big Dig tunnel closings, struggled yesterday with new speed restrictions and disabled trains that delayed and infuriated riders.
Equipment breakdowns have become so widespread this week that the company running commuter rail for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority can't put enough cars on the tracks to meet demand.
T officials ordered mechanics yesterday to work consecutive overtime shifts over the next several days to put more coaches on the lines. The T is also considering shifting newly added midday trains to the rush hour and plans to add four more coaches to the north and south commuter lines this morning, with five to six more by this afternoon's commute.
``The events of the past 10 days have caused particular challenges," said Scott Farmelant, spokesman for the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad, which runs commuter rail for the T. ``And this was not the best day."
The chaos began early yesterday when an engine failed on the first train out of Providence, canceling the train and causing a 45-minute delay that Farmelant said forced passengers who would fill 12 cars to pack into six.
The impact then rippled up the Providence-Stoughton line, as passengers were forced to wait an hour or more for a train with room.
Steve Weeks, 23, of Natick, said he let his scheduled train to Cambridge pass yesterday morning because it was full, finally arriving late to work at 10 a.m.
Later in the day, a Worcester train was delayed 35 minutes because of signal problems. An accident involving minor injuries to a pedestrian in Concord tied up service further in the day on the Fitchburg line.
Then, CSX Corp., which owns much of the rail on the T's Worcester-Framingham line runs, lowered speed limits from 60 miles per hour to 40 miles per hour for safety reasons, because the extreme heat was expanding the steel. The slowdown, which could continue today, created 20-minute delays that ballooned throughout the afternoon commute.
Several riders on crowded trains said conductors did not try to collect fares or check T passes.
The commuter railroad's contract with the MBTA requires 333 coaches to operate out of North and South stations during peak commutes, but it acknowledged that it was down about 20 yesterday. About 77,000 passengers board the system daily.
At 4 p.m. yesterday, the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad said air conditioning wasn't working in 47 of the cars, as temperatures neared the record high of 98 in Boston. Other coaches are in for overhauls to have their air conditioning repaired.
The company said it had 15,000 free bottles of water to hand out to passengers at North and South stations during yesterday's afternoon commute.
Vehicle traffic during the morning and afternoon road commutes has been slow but moving, which many credit to commuters switching to the T.
Officials said that although ridership is up on buses, subway, and commuter rail, they do not know exactly how many more people are using the T.
Traffic watchers say, however, that if fed-up commuters go back to their cars, rush hour traffic could get far worse, as the repairs on the tunnels stretch on for weeks, if not months.
``We've had faults in the system, which has disappointed me," said Daniel A. Grabauskas, general manager of the MBTA. ``There's no question that we were hoping to have every mode perform at 100 percent. I can say that about boat, subway, the Silver Line, and bus service. But commuter rail has fallen short."
Globe correspondent Shawntaye Hopkins contributed to this report. Mac Daniel can be reached at
mdaniel@globe.com.
