James Bartlett

Orange Line shuttle bus waits outside station

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority announced that the Orange Line had reopened after its 30-day maintenance hiatus onSept. 19.

MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak said in a press release, “A tremendous amount of choreography, coordination, and hard work has been accomplished during these 30 days, including over a dozen projects to replace rail, track, signals, rail fasteners, and more that would have taken the T five years of nights and weekends to accomplish.”

In addition to this work, Poftak said the Orange Line would run faster now that the project is done.

 “We’ve also met our goal of eliminating six slow zones along the Orange Line, which creates faster and more reliable commutes for customers, and surpassed our goal for new vehicles with 72 new Orange Line cars ready to serve riders,” he said.

Commuters will have to wait a little longer for a fast-running Orange Line, however, as not all the slow zones have been eliminated. The train will continue on a slow pace between Assembly and North Station for several more days, reported The Boston Globe.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu also commented on the reopening after she rode the Orange Line to work on the 19th. 

“It was pretty smooth today. It was a six-minute wait when we go to the station and then it was 14 minutes until the next train after that,” she said. 

Some Suffolk University students noted the pleasant absence of the typical screeches and headaches that tend to come along with the T.

“I rode the orange line everyday to get to and from work. I have noticed that it is a much smoother ride between the stations I ride. No loud noises, small sparks, or delays like there were before,” said Cole Bolduc, a senior at Suffolk.

Prior to the reopening this week, many students at Suffolk said their commutes had been severely disrupted due to the closures.

“[The Orange Line] is my primary method of getting to school and work as I do both along many different places along this line and I do not have a vehicle. On top of dealing with the stress of a new semester of classes and work, my daily routine is going to be absolutely destroyed,” said Isabelle Liberti, a junior information systems major.

While Stephen Hudak, a senior broadcast journalism major, was one of the lucky Bostonians to have a car available, he said it wasn’t an easy fix.

“Truthfully it was absolutely awful,” said Hudak, who commutes from Medford. “I am fortunate to have a car, and drive most places so I was able to avoid using the orange during the shutdown totally, [but] I missed my entire first day of classes because it took over two hours to get from Assembly alone during morning rush hour.”

Now that it is reopened take a ride and see for yourself the new and improved Orange Line. 

Editor-in-chief Shealagh Sullivan contributed to the reporting of this article.

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