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There will be a 2 percent reduction in scheduled trolley trips, a T spokesperson said.
Green Line commuters may have to wait a little longer starting next week, the MBTA announced, as the transit agency makes anti-collision safety updates to the fleet’s trains.
Starting June 15, trip time adjustments on weekdays for the Green Line B and C branches have been adjusted due to a slight decrease in vehicle availability, according to the MBTA. The trains will be returned to service as they are equipped with safety equipment.
The Green Line delays are part of this summer’s service changes, which also includes improved frequency on the Orange Line on weekdays and shifts in dozens of bus lines.
The trains taken out of service will be updated with equipment as part of the Green Line Train Protection System. The GLTPS equipment will be used to improve safety across the Line, including real-time train location and speed enforcement, according to the agency.
MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng told the Board of Directors in a Thursday meeting that reducing the headways allows operators to safely maintain a schedule, “that, on paper, was not achievable.”
An MBTA spokesperson confirmed that there will be a 2 percent reduction in scheduled trolley trips.
Maeve Ragusin, the MBTA’s acting deputy director of operations and planning delivery group, told the Board that construction crews have installed 262 “anchors,” which are wayside equipment installed along the MBTA tracks as part of the GLTPS Program. The anchors were installed between North Station and Kenmore, Blandford Street on the B Line, and Northeastern on the E Line.
The GLTPS Program is part of a directive from the Federal Transit Administration, Ragusin said.
“This is wayside equipment that was installed that is going to work in conjunction with equipment integrated into the vehicles themselves in order to prevent collisions of trains,” she said.
After the trains are updated as part of the GLTPS Program, the trains will be returned to service, a T spokesperson said.
Eng said at the meeting that the schedule change “is exactly the train service that people are feeling today.”
“It’s about transparency and making sure that our schedules can be adhered to by the operators, that our schedules are real for the public, and that we have the ability to accelerate key safety work,” he said.
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