CAMBRIDGE, MASS. (WHDH) - Two near misses between MBTA trains and workers along the tracks are coming to light, after the federal transit officials blasted the MBTA last week for a number of near misses over the past month and a half.
The latest incident on Monday morning involved a Red Line train and a two-person crew inspecting the tracks between the Harvard and Porter Stations. The MBTA said “a flagger signaled for an approaching train to stop and it did not.”
The MBTA said no one was hurt, and while the agency investigates, the train’s driver is out of service.
During the investigation, one of the two track inspectors said a similar near miss happened a week earlier in the same area of the Red Line. The MBTA said this near miss, which was previously unreported, happened a week earlier on Sept. 11 and is now under investigation.
The Federal Transit Administration criticized the MBTA over four near miss events since the beginning of August.
“Based on these incidents, FTA has determined that a combination of unsafe conditions and practices exist such that there is a substantial risk of serious injury or death of a worker,” the FTA’s letter said last week.
The FTA ordered the MBTA to make immediate changes and to report any new close calls within two hours.
Gov. Maura Healey said these are examples of longstanding issues her administration is working hard to fix.
“Any situation like that is unacceptable,” Healey said. “Nobody is more frustrated than me whenever I hear an instance like that, but know that we are on it and GM Eng has been empowered to do everything that he needs to do.”
Transportation expert Keith Millhouse said if these incidents continue, the FTA could take a rare step of taking over oversight of the T, which they did with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority eight years ago.
“If we see that incidents are continuing or incidents are not being reported, I think at some point the FTA will step in because the MBTA has had plenty of time to get their act together,” Millhouse said.
The MBTA said all drivers were given a new safety briefing before Tuesday.
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