Electrical Issue Knocks Several Orange Line Cars Out Of Service: MBTA

BOSTON, MA — MBTA Orange Line riders are facing extra disruptions, the T confirmed Friday, after an electrical issue recently forced several subway cars out of service.

The T said an engineer found the issue during a routine inspection earlier in the week, identifying a failure in a power cable that possibly created electrical arcing with a nearby train axle.

MBTA crews, the agency said, inspected all Orange Line vehicles after this finding, identifying at least 11 axles with issues across nine cars.

The T has removed all impacted cars from service for repairs, according to Friday’s announcement.

Repairs, the T said, will involve replacing the impacted axles.

This issue is leading to longer headways between trains of about 15 minutes, T officials said in an initial statement Friday afternoon. A separate statement from the agency later in the day estimated the headway to be between 12 and 14 minutes. Orange Line trains had been scheduled to run on an 8-12 minute cycle on weekdays before this issue, according to the T's winter service schedule announced earlier this month.

“The T apologizes for these inconveniences,” the agency said this week.

The removal of Orange Line cars leaves the T with 48 Orange Line cars in operation, representing eight sets of six-car trains, according to the T.

The T noted its recent removal of nine cars from service on Friday. It said later in the day that it is a total of 12 cars short of the number needed to meet its schedule.

New issues on the Orange Line are the latest in a line of problems for the T and the Orange Line in particular. Among issues, long travel times have lingered despite this year’s total Orange Line shutdown in August and September.

The T has faced continued criticism along the way from riders and public officials alike around its reliability and repeated safety issues.

The Boston Globe reported on this week's Orange Line disruptions on Friday, citing data that it said showed a near doubling of wait times on the Orange Line in recent days.

The T recently made a switch from its old Orange Line cars to new replacements, running exclusively with new cars since it resumed Orange Line service in August, as noted by the Globe.

Boston-area subway riders already faced service cuts across the Red, Orange and Blue lines in June after regulators with the Federal Transit Administration identified staffing issues in the T's Operations Control Center, which handles train dispatching duties.

The T largely extended cuts through its fall and winter service schedules. Recruiting, hiring and training efforts are ongoing, the T said in its winter update earlier this month.

The T on Friday advised riders to subscribe to T-Alerts or to follow the MBTA on Twitter for updates on service changes.

In its second statement Friday afternoon, the agency said riders will continue to experience train wait times while inspections and repairs move forward.

Riders utilizing the T to get to and from First Night New Year's Eve celebrations in Boston Friday, as a result, should plan for additional travel time, officials said.

The T is scheduled to offer free service on all transit modes on New Year's Eve after 8 p.m.