Summer of discontent on Red Line

Latest delay shuts subway for 3 hours in morning rush

Yesterday's three-hour breakdown on the MBTA's Red Line, stretching into morning rush hour, was only the latest inconvenience for riders in what is becoming a maddening summer on the T's second-busiest subway line.

For more than two weeks, Red Line trains have been forced to slow to 10 miles per hour atop the Longfellow Bridge, a restriction that can cause rippling delays on the line. In addition, the T has shut down service over the Longfellow Bridge entirely on at least two recent weekends to perform maintenance work, a practice that slows everyone and leaves many tourists wondering how to catch a shuttle bus between Park Street and Kendall/MIT stations.

"Of course it's frustrating," said Reald Biba, a Dorchester man who works in Back Bay and has had to change his commuting schedule because of recent delays. "It doesn't come anymore when it used to come."

The service delays and confusion come as the T is experiencing significant growth as a result of rising gas prices. Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority managers have acknowledged they need good customer service and reliability to keep new passengers and accommodate the larger crowds.

Yesterday's delay was caused when a piece of track-aligning equipment being used for overnight maintenance malfunctioned on the Longfellow, said Lydia Rivera, a T spokeswoman.

Delays lasted from 5 a.m., when the T opened, until just after 8 a.m., forcing commuters onto shuttle buses between Park Street and Harvard stations.

"It was a nightmare," said Hallie White Speight, a lawyer from Cambridge who was dropping off her 2-year-old son at day care before heading to work.

When she got to Central Square at 7:40 a.m., the trains were packed so tightly she could not get on. One stopped at the station for 10 minutes without a full explanation, she said.

She finally took her son out of his stroller and squeezed into another train, she said, arriving at work an hour late.

Although all the delays are the result of work being done on the Longfellow, they are not all directly tied to one another. The overnight and weekend work is for regular maintenance, replacing ties along the tracks, Rivera said.

The daily speed restrictions were requested by the Department of Conservation and Recreation, which is in charge of maintaining the Longfellow Bridge. Inspections have revealed structural problems, and workers have been out trying to fix them.

DCR and its engineers, along with state and federal highway officials, were "erring on the side of being too cautious," said Richard K. Sullivan Jr., commissioner of DCR.

Slower trains puts less pressure on the bridge, he said.

"The engineers have done the calculations, and they are very confident that at 10 miles per hour, everything is safe," Sullivan said.

Sullivan said he hopes the speed restriction can be lifted by the end of the month, after workers finish repairs and engineers inspect the bridge.

But that all depends on engineers signing off on the repairs, he said.

The delays add about three to four minutes to each one-way trip across the Red Line, Rivera said. But as the day goes on, they can ripple to five or six minutes, she said.

"People that choose to take the system do realize that with public transportation, you are going to encounter delays," she said. "What we can do is remind the customer that we are trying to do the best job we can to maintain the service."

The T is not planning to close any Red Line stations this weekend, but work is expected to continue later this summer, Rivera said.

The T has posted extra workers and signs to explain the rerouting. Yesterday, she said she would speak with Red Line supervisors to improve communication during scheduled maintenance.

Yesterday's unscheduled rerouting caused confusion and left many riders late to their jobs.

Mark Mattar, a security guard at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary who commutes from Quincy, said he was 20 minutes late to work yesterday; he is usually 15 minutes early.

This summer, he has had morning delays six to 12 times. He said he is worried his employer will dock his pay.

"A lot of people depend on this thing getting in on time," he said.

Noah Bierman can be reached at nbierman@globe.com.