SOMERVILLE, MASS. (WHDH) - A crash between two trains in Somerville on Sunday left five people hospitalized and forced buses to replace service on a stretch of Green Line as investigators work to determine what caused the crash.
The trains were still on the tracks 24 hours after the crash, but had been removed by 5 a.m. Monday morning.
“I’m surprised,” said Green Line rider Brian Morin. “The station has been open so briefly for such a big crash to have already happened.”
MBTA officials said a Green Line train hit another train as it was approaching the East Somerville station around 12:30 a.m. on Sunday. The impact caused one car on each of the two-car trains to derail.
One passenger and four trolley operators were taken to the hospital.
“Even just down there, there was a door hanging off the door jam,” Morin said. “I was like oh that’s kind of strange as I was coming up the path and then I was really shocked to see how totally destroyed this is.”
The damage renewed safety concerns for commuters.
“The conductor seat of one of the cars is pushed out the window and you can see multiple trains have been completely compressed and have broken windows,” one Green Line rider told 7News.
“It’s definitely a lot worse than I was expecting,” said another. “I thought that maybe it would have slowed down a lot more than it had, having it been right at the station. It looked like it was going a lot faster than I would have expected it to have been the whole front is caved in.”
Shuttle buses were brought in to replace service, something not all commuters were looking forward to.
“The shuttles are really inconvenient to the point I won’t take them,” Morin said. “I’ll just walk, if it’s a shuttle. I can’t do it.”
Shuttle service ended and train service resumed by 11 a.m. Monday.
The MBTA said safety is their top priority.
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