At a recent community meeting the MBTA’s Adam Kamoune announced some bad news for local commuters.
At the meeting Kamoune said the MBTA will be closing down the Blue Line for nearly two weeks between Airport and Government Center from Saturday, April 2 to Thursday, April 14 for harbor tunnel repair work.
“The bad news is we do have to divert the Blue Line from April 2 through April 14,†said Kamoune. “The MBTA at this time is replacing 1,800 feet of track but the good news is this work is going to make the tunnel a lot more resilient and less prone to some of the concerns that we’re hearing from folks from the environmental community. This work will also make our service just a little more reliable in the future.â€
Kamoune said part of the work includes a lot of tunnel inspection, tunnel lighting repair, fiber optic cable installation, removing abandoned cable that exists in the tunnel.
“We are also performing signal repairs, which is a major source of issues on the Blue Line when there are so-called “blind delaysâ€, said Kamoune. “We’re also investigating some of the drainage issues that we have in the tunnel–especially because it goes under the harbor.â€
Kamoune said commuters will have to use shuttle buses from the Blue Line’s downtown stations to Airport Station in East Boston. These buses will stop at the Aquarium, State Street and Government Center and Maverick.
“So during this time, we’ll be bussing folks from Airport station to Bowdoin and back,†said Kamoune. “So you’ll have regular train service from Airport to Wonderland in Revere.â€
Kamoune said express shuttles will be servicing Airport, Aquarium, State (drop off only) and Government Center. Local shuttles will service Airport, Maverick, Aquarium, State (drop off only) and Government Center.