Riding the Orange Line from Oak Grove to Forest Hills usually takes about 40 minutes, according to the MBTA.

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But for the roughly 100,000 people who take the MBTA’s second-busiest line, regular service is not an option during the 30-day shutdown. While maintenance crews are working on the long-overdue reinstalling of tracks and configuring of switches, riders are mostly left to board shuttle buses. That's been a difficult transition for everyone, especially riders with physical disabilities and riders who do not speak English.

To figure out how long that would take, Morning Edition Co-Host Jeremy Siegel boarded a shuttle bus at Oak Grove Sunday and started a timer.

To hit every stop, he walked between the shuttle terminus at Government Center, near the Orange Line’s State Street stop and the shuttle bus pickup at Back Bay. Aside from occasional supplemental service — every 30 minutes during morning rush hour and after 8 p.m. — there are no Orange Line shuttle buses serving riders at Downtown Crossing, Chinatown and Tufts Medical Center.

"This is, of course, a bit of a weird trip to make," Siegel said about his Sunday commute. "Depending on which station you’re headed out of and going to, there are some other options, including commuter rail and buses, that might be faster. But I think this goes to show how much the shutdown has changed things on the Orange Line."

Five minutes and 30 seconds after departing Oak Grove, the shuttle bus arrived at Malden Center. It stayed there for another six minutes as riders boarded on the route's second stop. Shuttles are free, so no one was fumbling with coins and dollar bills, but the bus was so full that it was taking people a while to find their seats.
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Half an hour later, the bus arrived at Assembly Station in Somerville. It was the fourth stop on the route, and some people waiting for the shuttle were asked to wait for the next one because there was no room for them.

Just over one hour in, the shuttle bus driver stopped at Government Center. The Orange Line would usually continue from nearby State Street to stops further south, but for this shuttle bus, it was the end of the line.

This part of the trip was on foot, though other riders can take the Green Line, a bicycle or another mode of transportation to their destination.

Shuttle service starts again at Back Bay Station.

On this Sunday afternoon, with no big events in the area, shuttle buses sped easily along the route.

Two hours and seven minutes later, the trip was over.

On Sunday night, MBTA officials said 37 percent of Orange Line work was completed and they were fairly confident the T would meet its Sept. 19 deadline for reopening.

"This may not look like a ballet ensemble behind me, but the amount of choreography that has gone into managing and planning a number of projects with a limited number of access points has really been extraordinary," General Manager Steve Poftak said. "So we feel right now like we’re very much on top of the schedule and on top of where we need to be."