REVERE, MASS. (WHDH) - People living in a North Shore apartment building say they’ve been losing sleep for months.
They blame overnight MBTA maintenance work happening just feet from their building at all hours of the night.
Residents describe the unwelcomed wake-up calls as ear piecing and screeching – right outside their bedroom windows.
Residents sent 7 Investigates dozens of videos documenting the never-ending noise at all hours of the night. Some of the videos show wake-ups at 12:30 a.m. and 2 a.m. They say it’s the soundtrack of another night off the rails.
When Collin Crowder moved into his Revere Beach apartment, he didn’t expect an MBTA work site to replace the trees below his balcony.
“It’s kind of a monotonous torture, not knowing when it will end,” Crowder said. “It really, kind of, wears on you. It is like you’re waking up with a hangover almost every single day.”
People who live in the complex say there’s no time to recover.
“We can’t open the window. It’s a nice, beautiful Spring, but we can’t open the window because they’re out there welding,” said Sara Bremer. “I have to pack up all of my stuff every Sunday night and go over to my Mom’s and spend the whole week there and it’s just shuffling back-and-forth constantly.”
The overnight noise started last May after the MBTA cleared the land behind Wonderland Station for Blue Line maintenance work.
“It is a real push and pull of loving this area and loving the community that lives here, but how long can you really tolerate this,” Crowder said.
“They seem to not care about our well-being at all,” Bremer said.
That frustration sparked a flood of complaints to 7 Investigates. A total of 17 people contacted us about the noise, including a homeowner living in a nearby neighborhood fed up with sleepless nights.
7 Investigates brought their concerns straight to MBTA General Manager, Phillip Eng.
“We need to get in there. We need to address those conditions that have been long deferred,” Eng said. “I do apologize that we’re catching up on everything, but it is essential to Blue Line service. We can always do better and we’re committed to doing that.”
Part of the problem is the Blue Line signal system. It’s so old it’s not possible to take a small piece of track out of service for maintenance work and still run trains on the line. That means major repair work has to be done overnight.
“In our current system now, the only other way is to reduce service and I don’t know if that serves them better. It’s unfortunate that we didn’t do the work that we needed.” Eng said.
Eng said that the needed work has to come when trains aren’t running, and that the T wants to be a better neighbor. Although residents said all they need is a good night’s sleep.
“We don’t want to move again. We just moved last year,” Bremer said. “We would love to stay here. We love this apartment, but I don’t want to have to deal with this constantly.”
“It’s a working man’s city,” Crowder said. “It’s the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and it just feels like a big middle finger to that value.”
Eng saidi the MBTA plans to finish the projects currently underway, then they will look at what work can be postponed this summer to give the neighborhood a break. Howver, he said the overnight work will likely pick back up when temperatures drop.
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