MBTA Plans To Close Parts Of T On Weekends To Speed Up Repairs

BOSTON (CBS) – The MBTA Fiscal & Management Control Board approved a new initiative Monday that would shut down sections of the T on weekends this fall.

MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak calls it an acceleration plan, and says shutting town sections of the Orange, Red and Green lines for the weekends remaining in 2019 will allow the MBTA to speed up projects designed to increase efficiency and reliability on the T.

Read: MBTA 'Mass Acceleration' Plan

The work includes track replacement, signage and lighting upgrades, increased accessibility, and station repairs.

"I think we heard loud and clear that folks wanted a faster pace and that they wanted to see results," Poftak told reporters.

The closures, he said, would reduce some repair projects from 16 months down to just four months. However, in the meantime, weekend closures will affect hundreds of thousands of riders. Some MBTA busses will be provided as a travel option.

"I guess maybe it's better to be frustrated for them to do it in a shorter time-frame than for it to be chaos for a year and a half," said Manisha Marisetty, a nursing student who relies on the T to get to class and clinical.

"Without a car and without the orange line, I don't know what I'm going to do to keep up with class schedules," said Paul Whooten, who is studying to be a paralegal at Bunker Hill Community College. "Saturday morning at 8 AM I have a class at Bunker Hill."

Still, MBTA officials say the short term inconvenience of the closures will be worth a better T system in the long run. If the closures are successful, the MBTA is considering extending them into 2020 – and is considering some weekday closures.