Starting Friday evening, MBTA will suspend service on the busiest parts of the Red Line for nearly two weeks to repair tracks and address speed restrictions on one of the most heavily-used segments of the rapid transit system.
The disruptions began on Friday evening, July 12.
For two weeks, the closure will continue between Alewife and Kendall/MIT on weekdays until 8:30 p.m.
On evenings after 8:30 PM, and all day on the weekend of July 20-21, the closure will extend all the way to Park Street, with shuttles serving the Kendall and Charles/MGH stations:
Finally, there will be a final extended closure between Cambridge and South Boston on the weekend of July 27 and 28, when there will be no Red Line service north of JFK/UMass.
This suspension is part of the MBTA's year-long Track Improvement Plan, which has been chipping away at the dozens of slow zones that proliferated from deferred maintenance during Gov. Charlie Baker's administration.
Closure expanded after Tuesday's work train incident downtown
Until Wednesday, the suspension had been planned to affect only segments of the Red Line north of Park Street station in downtown Boston.
However, in the early morning hours of Tuesday, a work train derailed on the Red Line in downtown Boston.
According to an MBTA spokesperson, "the event highlighted the need for an additional access point to this area of the Red Line in order for crews to safely move work material and equipment on, off, and along the line."
Expanding this service suspension to JFK/UMass for two weekends at the beginning and end of the disruption will give work crews "more than one access point to this area, at the Longfellow Bridge and near JFK/UMass, so they can safely move materials and equipment, as well as remove the stray rail," the spokesperson added.
Alternative transit options
As usual, the T will offer ADA-accessible shuttle buses to serve closed Red Line stations during the closure.
- One shuttle loop will make all stops to all closed stations between Alewife and Kendall/MIT (on weekdays) or Park Street (on evenings and weekends).
- An additional shuttle route will make all stops to all closed stations between Park Street and JFK/UMass this weekend. Note that anyone desiring to travel beyond Park Street in either direction this weekend will need to transfer between these shuttle routes at Park Street.
- MBTA Route 77, which runs along Massachusetts Avenue north of Harvard Square, will be fare-free within the City of Cambridge for the duration of the closures.
- Commuter Rail will be fare-free between Braintree, Quincy Center, JFK/UMass, and South Station. Regular fares should be purchased beyond Braintree.
- The T will also offer free rides on the Fitchburg Commuter Rail Line between Porter Square and North Station. In addition to regular hourly service, the T plans to add an hourly shuttle between Porter and North Station, so Fitchburg Line trains will depart every 30 minutes from Porter and North Station.
- As in previous subway service interruptions, Bluebikes will also offer five free unlocks for users. Use the code MBTAREDJULY in the Bluebikes app.
This suspension is part of the MBTA's year-long Track Improvement Plan, which has been chipping away at the dozens of slow zones that proliferated from deferred maintenance during Gov. Charlie Baker's administration.
As of Monday, July 8th, the Red Line had 51 speed restrictions in place, which accounted for almost two-thirds of the slow zones that remain across the MBTA's rapid transit network.
According to materials from the MBTA's June board meeting, the T had previously expected to fix about 10 of those speed restrictions during this closure.
In more recent updates, the T now says it expects to remove only seven speed restrictions.
This story was updated on July 10 at 5 p.m. to include details of the expanded closure to JFK/UMass. This article will be updated with additional details and alternative travel routes as more information becomes available.
