BOSTON — The MBTA is taking the blame amid backlash over a power outage that jammed three major subway lines during the Thursday morning commute.
“We apologize for the inconvenience of travel,” MBTA CEO Phillip Eng said at a news conference after Blue, Orange, and Green line trains were brought to a standstill for hours.
The outage was so impactful that at least one station was in the dark, losing power completely.
0 of 14
The apology for the breakdown in service also came with a peace offering from the MBTA. People were able to ride free for four hours during their evening commute on Thursday from 3-7 p.m.
Power was eventually restored to all lines and trains got back up and running.
“We don’t know the actual cause of the failure, we just know it was outside the substation,” Eng said.
The MBTA identified a 30-year-old, 7-mile sub-feeder cable running into North Station as the cause of the problem but they’re still investigating how it failed.
The failure tripped six other power cables and shut down signals, lighting, and communication across parts of the three lines.
Even with the gesture of a free ride, passengers said it was not enough.
“There is no reason that the trains shouldn’t be reliable,” Northeastern student Isabella said “I do not understand why I should live in the city like I’m firmly in Boston proper and I should have to own a car. I should not have to rely on that, the T should be up.”
T rider Albert Wang added, “You can’t take back the time that we lost even if it is just a couple of minutes. Those couple minutes could be getting to class on time for me or getting to your job on time.”
Eng said they are still looking into the issue and will use this for the MBTA to take a step forward and make these instances fewer and farther between.
Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.
Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
©2024 Cox Media Group
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/7QOJU3BNCJERBNKJC5LWTBYFLU.png)
