Shirley Leung, business columnist for The Boston Globe and WGBH News contributor, recently wrote an op-ed about the reasons for the MBTA's delay in fixing Red Line signaling equipment that was destroyed in a June 11 derailment.
Leung wrote that the Red Line signal systems have not been updated sine the 1970s, and the manufacturer is no longer making the parts. She told Boston Public Radio Thursday that the MBTA is still about two years away from transitioning to a computerized system, and will have to continue to rely on the old system until then.
Leung said that the manufacturers now must search for parts to fix the damaged circuit boards.
"It is almost like a salvage yard. They have to figure out which vendors have these 1970s-era circuit boards," Leung said.
