The Pros and Cons of The MBTA Red Line Partial Shutdown

 

For the past two weeks, the MBTA's Red Line has been partially shut down from track repair work between Alewife and Kendall Square. The closure has also extended to Park Street during the evening.

This has made getting to and from work between Cambridge and Boston very interesting with both pros and cons. 

Mind you, I have recently experienced other prolonged MBTA Red Line shutdowns. There was a 10-day shutdown between Alewife and Harvard Square back in February. This particular shutdown wasn't onerous as it made for a pleasant walk to Harvard Square. In early May, there was a 9-day partial shutdown between Park Street and JFK/UMass. Again, this shutdown didn't affect me too adversely as it only affected my route between Park Street and South Station which made for a short shuttle bus trip. There were several occasions when I opted to walk from Park Street to South Station and one occasion when I walked straight from Park Street to work in the Seaport District.

However, this shutdown which commenced on July 12th and will conclude tomorrow (July 28th), affected the Cambridge portion of my commute which necessitated more strategic planning on my part. While I don't start work until 9 a.m., I made a point of setting my alarm for 4:50 a.m. so as to allow as much preparation time as possible. 

Initially, I would catch the shuttle bus on Mass Avenue. The first day was great as there was hardly anyone on the bus. But most people work from home on Mondays and Fridays. The following day proved far more chaotic. Fortunately, the MBTA devised a two-pronged approach to shuttle buses. 

There was one set of shuttle buses which made all stops between Alewife and Kendall Square while there was another bus which went express from Porter Square to Kendall Square and on most days, I opted to take this bus. However, this past Wednesday morning, the lines were unusually long for the express bus, and I ended up taking the local shuttle and barely got to work on time. The MBTA had a similar strategy on the return home. Passengers could take buses to Central Square, Harvard Square and Davis Square or could opt for bus service to Porter Square and Alewife. 

This being the MBTA there were invariably other wrinkles. On the first day, a lot of us couldn't use our Charlie Cards to enter Kendall Square and there was no MBTA staff on hand to help. The next day there was plenty of MBTA staff present and they made their presence known. As I was making my way to the train, one MBTA worker shouted at me, "Hurry up, dude!!!" To which I replied, "Don't call me dude!!!"

For the most part, the buses we used were charter buses which were clean and had plenty of air conditioning. Although I do remember having to take a minibus to Porter Square in which I had to stand for the entire duration of the trip. Standing on a subway train is one thing. Standing on a minibus is another. 

Still, I was amazed how the bus drivers could make those tight turns without hitting anything. That is until one evening a bus driver collided with a car as we pulled into Porter Square knocking the driver's front fender clean off. While I could disembark, those headed to Alewife had to stay put until the police arrived to settle things.

However, things would become chaotic this past Wednesday evening. I actually got out of work 15 minutes early due to cutting my lunch short to help a client. This delighted me as I was supposed to meet a friend for dinner in Davis Square and I figured I would have plenty of time to spare.

Wrong.

A man jumped to his death in front of a train at South Station resulting in a temporary shutdown of the entire Red Line. There was a large police and fire department presence. An MBTA worker notified us that "an extreme emergency" had taken place and that shuttle buses would be coming soon. 

This meant having to take a shuttle bus all the way from South Station to Davis Square which took almost two hours. Despite the lengthy trip, I arrived at my destination not long after my friend and we had a splendid dinner on a cool evening.

The biggest virtue of this partial shutdown was all the time I now had at my disposal before getting to work. There were several occasions when I arrived at Seaport before 8 a.m. I would use this time to shop at Trader Joe's, walk around Boston Harbor and eat breakfast before needing to clock into work at 9 a.m. It would liken it to a morning siesta. 

My co-worker Scott asked me if I was going to continue getting up earlier once the shutdown ended. I think I'll try a happy medium as I do want to catch up on my sleep. But at the same time there is a joy in arriving at work with time to spare before needing to start work. This I would like to continue. But we shall see.

Further partial Red Line shutdowns are scheduled for both August and September. The former will take place between August 19-25. While this shutdown will be shorter in duration, it will affect my entire commute as the shutdown is between Alewife and JFK/UMass. It will be interesting to see what the MBTA's shuttle bus strategy will be during this shutdown. Fortunately, I get to miss the September shutdown which goes from JFK/UMass from September 6-29. 

However, for better or for worse, these partial shutdowns are likely to continue for the foreseeable future. I also wonder if the Red Line will have a total month-long shutdown as the Orange Line did in August-September 2022. This is the price we pay for not making public transportation and infrastructure improvement a priority for far too long.