An MBTA green line train derailed at around 5 p.m. Tuesday at the Red Bridge on the one-stop Union Square spur from Lechmere, according to the transit agency’s social media and a rider account.
Free shuttle buses will replace service between North Station and both Union Square and Medford/Tufts due to the derailment near Lechmere, the MBTA said via social media, and passengers can use the Route 87 bus for alternate service. “At this time, it’s unclear when service will resume” without buses, the T said Wednesday.
(Update on Oct. 3, 2024: Green line service resumed at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, according to the MBTA.)
“Safety continues to be our top priority and this incident is unacceptable. We’re working alongside our federal and state partners to understand what happened to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” said Phillip Eng, the agency’s general manager and chief executive, on Wednesday. The MBTA is working with the National Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Transit Administration and Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities to figure out what happened “and welcomes all post-incident direction from the NTSB, FTA, and DPU,” said a Wednesday press release.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has been troubled by derailments for years, scoring the sixth-highest rate of derailments among big mass transit systems from 2014 through 2018, according to The Boston Globe. There were 13 in 2019.
A maintenance vehicle derailed and damaged the third rail power line July 9 at Park Street, leading the T to offer free red line rides. Disruptions lasted through July 29. A green line trolley derailed near Packard’s Corner in Allston on June 12, 2023. In Cambridge, an out-of-service train derailed near the Kendall/MIT red line station April 23, 2022. A June 11, 2019, derailment on the red line led to 106 days of repair that returned full service in late September of that year.
A Tuesday photo by rider Aaron Berkowitz, who was heading toward his home by Union Square, shows the green line train running off the rails and knocking down equipment. No one appeared injured, Berkowitz said, and the incident was “not as violent as one would expect from the phrase ‘train derailment.’”
Cambridge firefighters said on social media that several people had been taken to a hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries. Six people were reported injured.
“We were just moving along when there was a thud, like a normal thud – but then it kept going,” Berkowitz said. As the train left the rails and hit gravel, and movement got rougher, “I grabbed the rail to keep myself from bouncing around.” Smoke began to fill the car, though it was brief.
The roughly 30 to 50 riders got off and “for a while we were kind of milling around,” Berkowitz said. As he began to walk back toward Lechmere station, MBTA workers showed up to redirect riders to a back road away from tracks. Firefighters and police also arrived.
The conductor was heard saying the steering failed. “I heard her saying ‘it wouldn’t turn right.’ It was at a point where the track splits,” Berkowitz said.
This post was updated Oct. 2, 2024, with comment from the MBTA.
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