A moving MBTA Green Line train struck an out-of-service train sitting at the East Somerville station just after midnight on Feb 9. Five people—four train operators and one passenger—were sent to the hospital. One passenger was admitted and later released with a reported neck injury, the T said in a statement to the Beacon.
As the MBTA was scrambling to get shuttle buses replacing service after the crash, thousands of passengers were left figuring out how to get home.
“Incidents of this nature are unacceptable, and the T is committed to learning what happened here and taking any steps necessary to prevent it from happening again,” the MBTA said in a statement to the Beacon. “We are working with the [National Transportation Safety Board] on their investigation and will closely review their findings.”
The crash is the second incident in four months to be investigated by the NTSB, an independent U.S. government agency that investigates transportation accidents, with this incident coming after an Oct. 1 derailment near Lechmere station. Both events occurred on the same portion of the new Green Line Extension project that created the Medford/Tufts and Union Square branches. The MBTA has received frequent scrutiny in recent years, facing a stacking list of safety and operational concerns that were outlined in a 2022 Federal Transit Administration report.
The FTA, which performs safety inspections on the T, was also notified of the crash. The NTSB started an on-site investigation on the day of the crash. A preliminary report is expected within a month, but is not final, and NTSB reports can take up to a year or more.
“NTSB investigations involve three primary areas: the human, machine and the operating environment,” a spokesperson for NTSB wrote in a statement to the Beacon. “During the on-scene phase of the investigative process, the NTSB does not determine or speculate about the cause of the accident.”
WCVB interviewed a passenger with mild injuries after the crash. When they asked him how it happened, passenger Max Desmond replied: “All I heard was [the conductor] said, ‘I couldn’t find the brake.’”
In 2022, the FTA outlined over 50 problems in a report that the T was ordered to address relating to staffing, workplace culture, and operating policies. It found that the MBTA had put stress on daily operating budgets, maintenance, and staffing to prioritize bigger, capital projects. It also found that training for operations and maintenance departments was “under-resourced, decentralized … and relies significantly on on-the-job training, which is informal.”
In April 2023, in an attempt to turn the tracks and the T’s reputation around, the Healey-Driscoll administration appointed longtime New York railroad engineer Phillip Eng as the next General Manager of the MBTA. Under Eng’s leadership, the T has made noticeable progress, including clearing up Red Line slow zones and fixing the Green Line Extension shortly after its opening, when Eng discovered the tracks were built too narrowly just a few years prior.
Eng has completed sizable maintenance in the almost two years he’s been in Boston, although a lot of work and needed funding still lies ahead. In November, the T released a report estimating that it would currently cost $24.5 billion to fix and replace all the infrastructure currently needing repair.
Although the construction to fix the narrow rails, fires, and derailments have caused their share of commuting snarls, Tufts University students Kaylee and Mariana, who requested to use only first names, said the extension was good to have. Tufts students and those living on the north edges of Boston in Somerville and Medford were relatively isolated from public transportation before the extension opened.
“It’s more accessible, but less reliable,” said Kaylee.
Mariana said she was “definitely not surprised” when hearing about the crash.
“I don’t like riding the train anymore because I am always thinking, like, is this train going to crash?” she said.
Kaylee said that she was not affected by the crash, but that her friend was stranded at Government Center until she could get a bus home.
Emerson Sophomore James Hollander hadn’t heard of the most recent crash, but said the T threw a wrench in his plans in October when a Green Line train derailed at the Lechmere station in Cambridge and stranded him. Green Line service did not resume until two days later.
The NTSB’s preliminary report found that the train was traveling at 36 mph in a 10 mph zone. The driver did not stop at a red signal long enough.
Hollander said the crash and wider concerns for public transportation, like the string of plane incidents across the country in recent weeks, don’t make him think twice—he is going to ride it anyway.
“It’s the same as with all the plane crashes happening,” he said.
Walking in the 2 Boylston Alley on Feb. 17, Hollander’s friend, Emerson freshman Blue Neilen, also hadn’t heard of last week’s crash but wryly laughed when informed. “That makes sense,” she said.
On Thursday, Feb. 20, shuttle buses replaced service on portions of the Green Line due to “the derailment of an overnight track maintenance vehicle at Government Center,” the T said in a post on X. Service resumed a few hours later.
Portions of all four Green Line branches will be closed during the upcoming weekend of Feb. 22-23 for scheduled track maintenance and tunnel inspections. More closures on the other Red, Orange, and Blue lines were also recently announced by the MBTA as part of its ongoing Track Improvement Program.
