BOSTON — Federal safety directives have led to service cuts for some Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority subway lines.
The website Streetsblog Mass reports that as of today (Monday, June 20), weekday service on the Red, Orange, and Blue lines is being reduced to weekend levels. Trains will run every 7 to 8 minutes on the Red Line (every 15 minutes on the Ashmont and Braintree branches); every 7 to 9 minutes on the Blue Line, and every 8 to 11 minutes on the Orange Line.
In a notification on the MBTA website, the agency says the changes “are the result of staffing challenges among the ranks of subway dispatchers in the MBTA’s Operations Control Center. With a limited number of dispatchers, these new timetables allow the MBTA to schedule dispatchers in compliance with Federal Transit Administration directives, and continue delivering service in a safe and reliable manner.” The changes will continue through the summer.
The FTA issued a series of safety directives to the MBTA last week [see “Federal directives order MBTA to address safety issues,” Trains News Wire, June 15, 2022]. Among them were requiring the agency to ensure dispatchers have sufficient rest between shifts, and to no longer allow workers to operate as both dispatchers and supervisors on the same shift.
The MBTA said it is “exploring multiple options” to increase its number of dispatchers, including “an aggressive recruitment campaign, offering bonuses, and potentially hiring back former dispatchers. … As soon as sufficient dispatch capacity exists, the MBTA will revert to its previous level of service.”
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