MEDFORD, MASS. (WHDH) - Students are likely to take a hit from the month-long Orange Line shutdown happening during the start of school.
“I am told there are various reasons for this exact start date and window that are beyond our control,” said Mayor Michelle Wu.
The shutdown is expected to last from about 9 p.m. on August 19 through September 18, with service resuming on Monday, September 19. Boston Public Schools are scheduled to start on September 1.
“Our plan as always has been to ensure that there is reliable transportation for our students,” said incoming Boston Public Schools Superintendent Mary Skipper. “This is certainly an evolving situation. We will be in continued dialogue with the MBTA.”
Students who rely on the Orange Line will have to take shuttle buses instead to start the school year.
“I don’t like the shuttles,” one parent told 7NEWS. “I really don’t.”
“We’re working as much as we can to try to streamline, speed up and simplify what the shuttling alternatives will be,” said Wu. “The Orange Line as it goes over into Charlestown and as it is headed into RCC as well, there are huge numbers of students who will be impacted.”
Parents said that the shutdown could affect their child’s attendance.
“A lot of tardies that he’s going to have,” said one parent.
The incoming Superintendent said it won’t just be students who feel the effects.
“Our staff come from everywhere, and in some areas in the city where schools are, the parking is very difficult, and as a result staff rely on the MBTA,” said Skipper. “We have to look at it from not only student and family but also the staff, so our classrooms are staffed properly.”
Wu said they will work with students with disabilities that may require a door-to-door drop off.
MBTA officials ordered the shutdown amid several Orange Line incidents, including a smoking train that hundreds of passengers evacuated out of the car’s window. The MBTA blamed the incident on a loose piece of metal.
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