After two straight days of significant delays and equipment malfunctions on the Orange Line, Gov. Charlie Baker said Wednesday the MBTA needs to be more reliable for the people who use it everyday.
"The incidents, both this morning and yesterday morning, on the subway were unfortunate, but at the same time need to be fixed, and we'll be spending some time talking to the folks at the T and making sure that when it snows, we got to be there for people," Baker told reporters.
The governor made his comments in the afternoon after a holiday tree lighting at the State House dedicated to Gold Star families. Baker said T officials were "still processing" what happened to the three Orange Line cars that broke down Wednesday morning. A spokesman for the T describe the issue as "mechanical problems."
On Tuesday, Orange Line service was halted between the Haymarket and Tufts Medical Center due to a defect in the the third rail, according to reports.
Baker also addressed the 12 new Orange Line cars that were removed from service last month after "emitting a sound that made some of the safety engineers nervous."
"If it turns out to be something that is sort of part of the process of actually assembling the cars I'm assuming they'll take that information and factor it into the rest of the fleet," Baker said, referring to 140 new Orange Line cars the T has purchased and plans to phase into service.
Baker said one of the "benefits" of being able to pilot some of the new cars in the system is that defects that can be fixed in the assembly process can be detected and applied to future cars before they're put into service.
