BRAINTREE, MASS. (WHDH) - Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is calling for major upgrades to improve the safety of the MBTA after a runaway train on the Red Line caused delays early Monday morning.
“Rather than just trying to do a little bit of track here or there every weekend or late at night … actually doing it all in one sweep,” Wu told WBUR.
Service was disrupted just after 5:30 a.m. on Monday morning as crews were moving trains when the train’s brakes weren’t working properly, according to the MBTA. The two-car train set then rolled out of the rail yard and came to a stop about 800 feet north of Braintree Station. No injuries or damage were reported.
The MBTA said in a statement that the train involved had “diminished braking capacity” and that a train operator was on board at the time of the rollaway. The MBTA said a full investigation is underway.
Passengers are also frustrated by this latest incident.
“It’s really scary,” said Red Line commuter Ryn Mei. “I need to use the T for work and everything, so I need it to be reliable and safe.”
The rollaway came less than two weeks after federal investigators detailed several other incidents in a scathing report on the MBTA, including a situation in May when several cars became loose and rolled backward at the Braintree Station.
In a statement on Monday, the MBTA reiterated that it is “taking corrective actions to enhance safety around the movement of rail cars in yards,” but said that they didn’t consider all these incidents runaway trains, as trains sometimes had operators aboard during the incidents.
“Accompanied with plans to increase staffing at rail yards, the MBTA recently issued a series of new safety directives, trainings, and polices regarding train movements in rail yard facilities and car houses,” the statement read.
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