Halloween weekend MBTA Green Line shutdown frustrates riders: "I think it's a terrible decision"

The majority of the MBTA's Green Line will shut down again this Saturday. While a weekend closure avoids a commute nightmare, this shutdown also lines up with Halloween.

People who live along the Green Line are questioning the timing as they look to celebrate safely.

"I think it will be an unpleasant surprise for a lot of people," said student Gabe Sunseri. "That might throw a wrench in their plans."

"I think a different weekend could've been picked," said student Anna Johnson.  

There is frustration and confusion among MBTA riders over the decision to suspend service on significant portions of the Green Line this weekend, including the entire downtown stretch and most of the stops at area colleges.

"I think it's a terrible decision by the T," said student Ayman Baba. "Over the weekend, people are inevitably going to be drinking, people are going to be under the influence, people are going to be partying. Shutting down the Green Line, which is such a major form of infrastructure and transportation for the local student body, I think is really setting people up for disaster."

The MBTA says it announced the weekend closure over a month ago. It's part of its signal upgrades, and they say their work is a "critical and necessary part of maintaining infrastructure improvements ... and modernizing the MBTA's infrastructure."

The T is offering free shuttle bus service as a substitute.

"In my opinion there are a lot of other ways to get around so it's really not too big of a deal in terms of how far we are concerned," Sunseri said.

"I think if your aim is to end drunk driving and incidents such as that, I think shutting down transit is not the right way to do it," Johnson said.

Students and other commuters say they take less of an issue with the line's seemingly constant closures, but question why the T would do that work on a busy weekend.

"Out of all of the weeks to do something like that you would think that someone in that boardroom has a son or daughter that is going to be out doing something on Halloweekend," Baba said.  

The MBTA did not respond to questions about why it chose this weekend over another one. After this weekend, there's a weeklong partial shutdown of the Green Line in mid-November.