NEWTON, Mass. (AP) – The hardy side of Boston might not extend to its aging public transit system.
On Tuesday, the head of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority staunchly defended her decision to shut down rail service as crews struggled to clear tracks of snow and ice and hundreds of thousands of commuters scrambled to make alternative travel plans.
Her remarks came a day after Gov. Charlie Baker called the performance of the MBTA – known in Boston as the T – unacceptable during the recent severe winter weather that has left up to 7 feet of snow in parts of the state.
Subways, trolleys and commuter rail trains remained idle Tuesday as Dr. Beverly Scott, MBTA general manager, told reporters that she didn’t know when service would resume on the nation’s fifth-largest – and oldest – transit system.
“We are running an extremely aged system that is getting a pounding every single day,” Scott said.
She acknowledged that riders are “frustrated as heck. They are mad as heck.” She said she hasn’t spoken directly to Baker since the onslaught of winter storms began more than two weeks ago. Baker had said Monday that he planned to have a “long conversation” with MBTA management after the weather subsided.
Transit stations around the region, normally jammed with commuters on a weekday, were eerily silent Tuesday.
The sprawling Riverside MBTA station in suburban Newton was virtually empty except for a handful of plows and workers trying to clear away snow.
A few people who hadn’t heard the news of the shutdown were surprised to learn there were no trains, including 91-year-old Bernard Udin, who walked several blocks to the station and planned to take a trolley to Newton Highlands to run some errands and visit the library.
“I’ll go back home I guess,” Udin said. “What else can I do?”
The subway station at Davis Square in Somerville was padlocked and some businesses in the neighborhood were closed.
“The fact the trains aren’t running means no one is heading to work,” said Jeff Brussel, who was trying to find one of the few buses still operating that could get him to Boston. “But I’m on a project with a deadline, and everyone is freaking out. So I’m going to do what I can.”
Scott said she made the call to shut down rail service in part after dozens of trains broke down Monday after losing contact with the electrified third rail, including one in which passengers were stranded for more than two hours. She said upgrading the system would require more investment in new equipment.
Scott was appointed to run the T in 2012 after managing transit systems in Atlanta, Sacramento and Rhode Island and serving in leadership positions in others including the Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York.
“I have been around 40 years. I have been through hurricanes. I’ve been through World Trade Center bombings, tornadoes coming … 36 inches of snow, this ain’t this woman’s first rodeo,” Scott said.
Asked Tuesday why he had not yet huddled directly with Scott, Baker said he had no direct authority over the MBTA, a semi-independent agency. He said he was dealing with it through Secretary of Transportation Stephanie Pollack, who has a seat on the MBTA’s board of directors.
Baker said he hoped to meet with T officials Thursday.
The governor also struck a more conciliatory tone, conceding that the system faced severe financial pressures and that Scott and MBTA employees had been working around the clock to restore normal service.
“But we are going to have to figure out and they are going to have to figure out what the operating plan is going forward,” Baker said.
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Associated Press writers Steve LeBlanc and Mark Pratt in Boston and Philip Marcelo in Somerville contributed to this report.