I mean, I've long thought that the T needs better protections against our monthly car on the tracks incident, but this just proves that they'll invent a better breed of idiot.There is a car on the tracks at Savin Hill somehow.
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This is where I would chime in about the need to require comprehensive and thorough driver education in order to get a license, but per the report in UHub, "Transit Police report the driver was arrested on charges of driving without a license and negligent operations - and add the driver was uninjured."
I think there’s still some work to be done on the Lechmere viaduct (despite the slow zone on the bridge being lifted, maybe 25mph can be raised? Not sure but I think the tie issue on the old bascule span was never fully rectified) and I remember during a prior shutdown they had tried to turn trains at Lechmere from the north and quickly gave up (signaling issue?) that’s my guess for why the whole branch closure
At the very least they could turn trains at East Somerville though right? There is a crossover and a pocket track past the station. Then shuttles would just need to run down McGrath.
They have turned trains at East Somerville once for an emergency shutdown and it worked just fine.
There was also a scheduled E branch closure north of East Somerville in January 2023 (i.e. trains from downtown Boston to East Somerville, shuttle buses to Medford/Tufts). Not exactly what's being discussed here, but I have to assume that if scheduled short-turns can be used in one direction, they can be used in the other.
IIRC they ended up modifying that diversion so that the entire Medford branch was suspended and all trains went to Union Square.
The topic of discussion revolves around a planned 2 week shutdown of the entire Medford Branch in November 2024. The entire GLX from Medford/Tufts, Union, all the way to Park Street is slated to be shuttered for two entire weeks later in the fall to fix 2 slow zones between North Station and Government Center. It was quietly added to the schedule where the original North Station - Lechmere diversion was extended to cover the entire GLX.
There is also a crossover just south of East Somerville that should not require single tracking if they were to turn at East Somerville.
Unless I'm misreading it or things have changed from the initial technical proposals, the VMF, Lechmere and East Somerville are all fed from the Red Bridge Substation built as part of GLX.
I am 90% sure that this statement was not true on January 8, 2023. On that day, I was photographing shuttle buses terminating at East Somerville, with signs for "Shuttle to Medford/Tufts"; at Medford/Tufts, there were signs for "Shuttle to East Somerville". I do recall passengers walking to the shuttle from the station, and that no shuttle buses were running in the opposite direction (with no signs of such at East Somerville), but I don't have photographic evidence of them.
I might have mixed it up with another diversion.
That diversion is scheduled for November. We've got 4 months and 7 other diversions before then; the T has been reasonably transparent about what the impacts will be ~a month before each diversion to date, but I personally wouldn't panic until they actually announce the service change.
Double post to add the following diagram that shows track and power segments between Kenmore and the NS Portal. I'm pretty good at digging stuff like this up, but I'm not entirely sure the T meant it to be publicly accessible.