Commuter rail chief unhappy with delays on Worcester Line

By Ben Terris
Town Correspondent

On Friday, June 26th, a switch failure delayed ten rush hour trains on the Worcester and Needham Lines, four of which were stalled for two hours, according to the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Company.

Now, the General Manager of MBCR, Richard Davey, wants answers from the line’s owner, CSX, on why it took approximately 90 minutes before maintenance was at the site.

In a letter dated Tuesday to Chip Dobson, the Manager of Commuter Operations at CSX Transportation, Davey wrote to express “MBCR’s extraordinary disappointment at the response time of CSX” to a failure that “caused major disruption to evening services.”

In his letter, Davey said, “This is not the first occasion that CSX’s response time has been a source of delays to MBTA service.”

Davey cited the distances that maintenance staff must travel as being a factor to the lengthy waits for their arrival.

“If qualified CSX maintenance staff is not located close to the service area, we cannot provide our customers the service they expect,” Davey wrote. “While we understand that discussions are currently underway to enhance certain maintenance functions along the line, in the interim, we request that CSX provide assurances that repair personnel will be posted no more than 20 minutes travel time from the service area to protect the delivery of reliable rail service, especially during the rush hour.”

Davey ended his letter by requesting a meeting with CSX staff to “discuss the steps required to assure improved response time for the signal, track and switch issues on the Worcester Line.”

Bob Sullivan, a spokesman for CSX said that the company has received the letter and that the “certainly regret the inconvenience caused by the delay.” He also said that they were “more than willing to have a meeting to further work with [MBCR].”

Were you delayed on the commuter train last Friday? Tell us your experiences with commuter rail by posting a comment below.