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Maintenance mishap cuts power to T

E-mail|Link|Comments () May 21, 2009 02:56 PM

By Noah Bierman, Andrew Ryan, and John R. Ellement, Globe Staff, and Stewart Bishop, Globe Correspondent

An MBTA maintenance crew inadvertently tripped a breaker during the morning rush hour, causing a massive power outage that literally stopped the subway system in its tracks.

Crews had begun restoring electricity to the system after just seven minutes, but the outage had already sent a transit system loaded with 60,000 riders on 132 trains and trolleys into chaos. The mishap cut power to stations, fare collection systems, and left tunnels dark.

Electricity fortunately continued flowing to the air conditioning system on a day with temperatures in the 90s and the third rail and overhead catenaries stayed live through much of the network. But the outage threw automated dispatching offline, forcing the MBTA to use an arduous manual system with radios that slowed trains to a trickle.

"I'd like to apologize to our customers," said Richard J. Leary, chief operating officer for Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, speaking this afternoon at a press conference. "We'll do better."

The problem originated in South Boston, where two feeder cables from a power plant supply the subway system. Officials took one of the feeder cables out of use this week for annual preventative maintenance. The breaker tripped at 8:50 a.m. and cut power to the other cable, cutting off the remaining flow of electricity. Although crews began restoring power after seven minutes, it took until 9:20 before the system was fully operational.

The standstill hit hardest on the Green Line, which had 78 two-car trolleys on the tracks when the power died. It relies on an older signal system than other subway lines which had to be restored manually, adding to delays. The Red Line had 28 trains on the tracks; the Orange Line had 14 trains; and the Blue Line had 12.

One Red Line train carrying about 30 people had to be evacuated near Shawmut Station when the third rail lost power in that portion of the system. The 30 passengers had to walk along the tracks for 70 feet until they reached the station, according to MBTA officials.

"We're going to put practices in place to make sure this never happens again," Leary said. "Our process has to be reviewed for preventive maintenance."

Frustration boiled this morning among passengers, many of whom sat in stalled cars and finished their commutes on foot.

"You'd think we are living in a Third World country," said Robert Christian, 75, a retiree stuck for 10 minutes between Kenmore and Hynes on the Green Line. "We are trapped between stations. Fortunately it's an air-conditioned car, but we are absolutely jammed to the gills. Communication is terrible. This happens with considerable frequency. It just gets you enraged."

Will Rizzuto got stuck on the Green Line between Park and Boylston streets and after 20 minutes decided to just walk to Kenmore Square. "You know I went to college here and I just moved back after two years, and this is exactly what I expected to happen," Rizzuto said.

Laili Ben Mbarek of East Cambridge said she "doesn't understand why" it took her two hours to get from Lechmere Station to Boylston Street. "Now I'm just going to take a cab," Mbarek said.
Liz Stuhlsatz of Quincy thought the MBTA handled the outage well, despite the fact that she spent 20 minutes stuck on a train.

"I think they did a good job letting us know what was going on," Stuhlsatz said. "They kept updating us over the loudspeaker.

"I mean the whole power went down," Stuhlsatz said. "What can you do?"