Red Line delayed by smoke, signal problems after MBTA touts "successful" 10-day shutdown for repair work

The Red Line is back open after a 10-day shutdown for repairs, but Boston-area MBTA riders weren't going anywhere fast on Friday afternoon.

At 10:45 a.m., the T posted that there were delays of about 15 minutes due to a disabled train at Harvard and said trains may stand by at stations. The agency said at 11:23 a.m. that the delay had cleared.

But problems returned in the afternoon. The T said at 2:30 p.m. that a signal problem near Harvard was delaying trains for about 15 minutes. At 3:39 p.m., the T said delays had grown to 20 minutes due to the ongoing signal problem near Harvard and reports of smoke at the Charles/MGH station. 

As of 5 p.m., the Red Line delays had grown to 25 minutes as crews worked to resolve the signal problem.

Furious commuters let the T hear it on social media.

"This is still an issue over an hour and a half later?!!?" one rider said about the signal problem. "What did you do during the shutdown?"

"Why do you keep shutting down major portions of the red line for nothing to improve?" another said.

Shuttles replaced trains between Alewife and Park Street stations during the shutdown.

A press release from the T on Friday morning proclaimed, "MBTA Successfully Completes Latest Infrastructure Work on Red Line." It said crews performed "critical and necessary track work, the repair of many floating slabs, work along complicated track areas, upgrading Red Line signals, and much more."

"We made a commitment to the public to ensure that we perform essential preventative and corrective repairs to address conditions in a timely manner, ensuring we do not go back to the days of speed restrictions impacting every trip for decades," MBTA general manager Phil Eng said in a statement. "This is just a taste of how the MBTA can be a best-in-class transit system that the entire Commonwealth can be proud of."