MBTA, Keolis advising riders to allow for extra time during Monday's commute

BOSTON — The MBTA and the Keolis Commuter Rail Services are advising commuters to allow for an extra 15 to 20 minutes for Monday's commute due to this weekend's storm.

Commuter rail lines along coastal areas, such as the Greenbush, Newburyport/Rockport and Kingston lines are expected to face more delays than other lines.

While both agencies are expecting to return to regular scheduled service on Monday, the MBTA and Keolis have been working on cleaning up tracks, platforms, parking lots and pedestrian walkways as well as making system repairs, all which can impact train times.

Heavy rain, tidal flooding and other debris brought by the nor'easter that hit New England on Friday have caused significant damages to roads, homes and power lines.

Power outages and damaged rail infrastructure will require the Greenbush, Newburyport/Rockport and Kingston lines to operate on a secondary power sources until the power grid is restored.

“While we are expecting to run full service on both the MBTA and the Commuter Rail systems, ongoing storm cleanup efforts may still hinder some people’s ability to travel,” said MBTA General Manager Luis Manuel Ramírez.  “Because efforts to bounce back from the storm are still underway, we urge our customers to allow for extra time to reach stations, and to be mindful that storm restoration efforts may affect regularly scheduled service, especially in areas that were hit the hardest by the storm.”

Both agencies had crews working nonstop over the weekend to repair storm damages and restore power. Some of the efforts completed in order to ensure trains could operate on a regular schedule on Monday included:

• Eight train sets, which represents approximately 12 percent of the total fleet, were damaged during the storm from downed trees and other incidents. These 8 sets were repaired this weekend.
• Dozens of downed trees and branches landed on commuter rail tracks. All of these have been cleared and tracks in these sections have been re-inspected.
• Several sections of track were flooded, especially along coastal areas. Teams operated pumps and repaired or restored damaged infrastructure. There are no flooded areas on commuter rail tracks, and gates, signals and switches are operating with some operating on generator power still.
• 50 generators were deployed to provide power where it was lost. In several South Shore communities power remains out, and generators are powering critical infrastructure to ensure safe operation.
• Receding tides along coastal areas washed out sections of rail, specifically the ballast underneath the rail. Approximately 100 tons of stone ballast was delivered to these areas and infrastructure was re-built this weekend.
• Approximately 25 crossing gates were damaged and have been repaired.

Riders can check in on service updates via Twitter by following @MBTA and @MBTA_CR, by accessing their site at mbta.com/alerts or by downloading their apps.

Cox Media Group