An inbound MBTA train derailed on the Green Line early Wednesday morning, adding to the troubles facing users of the service-challenged transit authority. The T reported no injuries — there was only one passenger on the train at 6 a.m. — and said 35 shuttle buses were being deployed after the derailment east of Riverside Station on the D branch.
The buses will move would-be train users between Riverside and Newton Highlands.
MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said the first car of the two-car set did not derail and T personnel have begun to re-rail the second car. He said the cause of the derailment is under investigation.
Pesaturo said there will be an inspection of the right-of-way infrastructure once the train is back on the rails and has been returned to the Riverside rail yard.
A Red Line train set derailed on June 11 in Dorchester, wiping out signal infrastructure as it careened off the track and spurring the T to form a review panel to review the agency’s safety practices and derailments.
T officials have not announced the cause of the Red Line derailment, but this week said that delays stemming from the crash will extend until sometime in October. The T initially hoped to end those delays by Labor Day.
On Wednesday, trains on the Red Line, one of the T’s busiest corridors, were running northbound into downtown Boston “every 6 to 15 min,” according to a countdown clock reading at 8:30 a.m.
“It’s gotten to the point where I expect to hear of MBTA problems as a listen to the morning news,” Cathy-in-Dot tweeted Wednesday from @Mom_Editor. ” … Come on, @MassGovernor, @MBTA, @marty_walsh, and @CityOfBoston. Let’s make Boston and surrounding LIVABLE – or at least survivable.”
The safety panel includes former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, former acting administrator of the Federal Transit Administration Carolyn Flowers and former New York City Transit President Carmen Bianco.
