MBTA Can't Handle 'Hell On Earth' (Also Known As Winter)

While MBTA officials touted improved service and praised workers, Jay Gonzalez made a campaign stop before the MBTA Board on Monday, saying the transit agency appeared to be "in a state of chaos" and arguing it needs urgent attention.

"The system by all reports appears to be in a state of chaos this morning," Gonzalez told the T's Fiscal and Management Control Board at its Monday meeting.

The Needham Democrat is running for governor, arguing that Republican Gov. Charlie Baker has not devoted enough resources to the T. Baker appointed all five members of the control board. The governor shifted his focus to the T shortly after taking office in 2015 when cold and snow knocked out train service.

MBTA General Manager Luis Ramírez said Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito checked in on T operations during the recent cold and snow, and said there was "a lot that went well" during the bad weather. The tough weather also offered "some lessons to be learned," Ramírez said, getting no questions from the board.

"Some of the things that occurred on Friday could have been avoided," Ramírez told reporters after the meeting.

The MBTA on Monday morning reported via Twitter that ferry service to Hingham was still suspended because of a damaged dock, there were disabled trains on the Green and Red lines, and a track problem on the Blue Line. System users have faced strings of service alerts during the cold weather.

In contrast to subway service that was on time 73 percent and buses that showed up on time 64 percent, commuter rail trains were only on time 37 percent of the time Friday, the day after the so-called bombogenesis storm.

Asked if that was acceptable, Ramírez said, "Absolutely not." However the former business executive hired to take over the T in September opined that the nasty winter weather can have unpredictable effects on all kinds of infrastructure.

"I can't predict when my pipes are going to burst in my own house when we get this kind of weather," Ramírez said. "So it really is something that all the infrastructures have a lot of stress during these times, and we do our best to keep them running and we make investments to make them more resilient."

Deputy General Manager Jeff Gonneville said the T encountered "hell on earth" conditions in recent days, with frigid temperatures leading to broken rails and requiring extensive efforts to keep equipment in working condition.

"The mantra is keep everything moving," said Gonneville, who said by continually operating switches and other equipment T workers can prevent them from freezing up and can more quickly identify problems.

Last week's so-called bombogenesis snowstorm that blanketed the region amid a historic cold snap presented the "greatest test that we have had since the winter of 2015," Gonneville said.

Three years ago the T did not remove snow from its facilities fast enough, said Gonneville, who said since the recent storm the T has removed roughly 2,000 truckloads of snow.

Subfreezing cold can also crack rails, and over the past couple weeks there have been 20 rails breaks, although only one - along the Orange Line on Dec. 29 - resulted in a "service disruption," Gonneville said. After a rail break, workers run "magic rope," which is covered in accelerant, along the track and then set aflame to mend cracks in the rail, Gonneville said.

Accepting the challenge of an MBTA commuter from Jamaica Plain, Gonzalez recently rode the T and he said a woman told him how she waited at an Orange Line station for 20 minutes in the "freezing cold" while a countdown clock continously showed that her train was only one minute away.

The countdown clocks have a bug that causes them to malfunction during extreme weather when T officials are actively swapping out trains, according to Gonneville, who said the bug should be patched by this spring.
Workers helped protect Aquarium Station against seawater flooding, acccording to Gonneville, who said there was still "some infiltration" of water into the station.

At the Hingham ferry dock, a large piece of ice pushed up under the structure causing it to bend, said Gonneville. On Monday morning a team was out breaking ice to access the dock to make repairs. An MBTA spokesman said the agency is targeting the end of this week for resumption of ferry service.

Asked to grade the T's performance, Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack gave it an "uncomplete" because the winter isn't over, while also drawing a contrast between the recent reliability of the subway and the commuter rail – which traverses much longer distances to more remote corners of eastern and central Massachusetts.

"The next day people should be able to commute. We were able to do that on the Red and the Orange and the Blue and the Green lines. The commuter rail was not, so next time we have to do better on that," Pollack said.

The MBTA will conduct a formal after-action exercise on Tuesday, Gonneville told the control board Monday. Meeting in the Transportation Building, the board was briefly interrupted by a building alarm. A couple minutes later, Board Chairman Joseph Aiello told the audience what had triggered the alert.

"There's a pipe break in the lower level of the garage," Aiello said.

Photo by Jenna Fisher