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Newstalk is The Harvard Crimson's flagship news podcast series. Join our reporters each week to hear the most important stories from the Harvard community and beyond. Streamed in all 50 states. Heard in 100+ countries. 2024 Associated Collegiate Press National Podcast of the Year.
This transcript was generated automatically by https://otter.ai. Its accuracy may vary.
Nyla Nasir 0:03
From Plympton Street, this is Season Two of Newstalk. I'm Nyla Nasir. The Red Line — the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's most popular subway line — is closed for maintenance work. How much is this going to affect its regular users? Let's find out. Two of our reporters join us to discuss.
Madeline Proctor 0:24
Hi, my name is Madeline Proctor and I'm a government relations reporter for the Harvard Crimson.
Aisling A. McLaughlin 0:30
Hi, my name is Aisling McLaughlin, and I'm also a government relations reporter.
Nyla Nasir 0:34
Awesome. Thank you so much for joining us. So to start, tell us what's happening.
Aisling A. McLaughlin 0:39
The MBTA Red Line is shut down starting February 5 to February 14, between Alewife and Harvard before 8:45pm. And then between Alewife and Park Street after 8:45.
Madeline Proctor 0:51
There are alternative shuttle buses which riders can choose to use during the shutdowns the times and stops are available on the MBTA website, as well as accessible vans. We talked to Transit Matters, an advocacy organization, volunteer and engineer Seth Kaplan, who told us how these shutdowns they were going to be very disruptive because of how high the ridership the red line has compared to the other lines on the T.
Aisling A. McLaughlin 1:16
And these specific stops that are closing are the most densely populated on the red line. So there will be a lot of commuters affected.
Madeline Proctor 1:23
And from firsthand experience, I ride the red line every single day to work. And on my commute, I was interviewing fellow people who are commuting and would be impacted by the shutdown. And they had a variety of opinions. Some people had been riding the T for 20 years, some people would be impacted a lot more than others people who had to take the T for longer stretches and couldn't turn alternatives like walking or biking and the cold weather on the whole commuters will be largely impacted because their main mode of transportation to work will be removed for a week. And the impression that I got from speaking with commuters was that the safety issues and slowdowns might warrant the week-long shutdown to fix them.
Nyla Nasir 2:03
Is there a demographic that's being affected more than others?
Madeline Proctor 2:07
The one demographic that might be adversely impacted more than others is people with disabilities and people with disabilities might have a hard time waiting for the accessible vans for example. However, the MBTA has reassured us that even without the accessible vans, the shuttle buses are widely accessible as well.
Nyla Nasir 2:23
And how often does the T or specifically the red line go through closures? Is this something we see happening more and more — is it becoming more frequent?
Aisling A. McLaughlin 2:32
This is an ongoing project called the Capital Transformation Project, which is the Orange, Red and Green line being renovated over the course of several years. It started in 2014, when they bought a bunch of new vehicles and trains. A lot of riders complain right now that they're late to work, that they have to wait longer than the expected wait time. There was just the green line closure recently in the month of January. So that's something that's ongoing, and we're gonna keep seeing more Red Line closures to eliminate slowdowns and also to fix the signalling systems within the rails.
Nyla Nasir 3:03
And to put this in context of transportation issues outside of the area. Is this something that a lot of other places and regions in America or in Massachusetts are facing or is it just here?
Madeline Proctor 3:16
One writer told me that his experience with the New York subways was that they were almost always almost anywhere in New York City, the same speed or faster than any other mode of transportation you would take. And the opposite is true of the T.
Nyla Nasir 3:33
Thank you so much for joining us. This episode of Newstalk was hosted and produced by Nyla Nasir. Our Multimedia Chairs are Julian J. Giordano and Addison Y. Liu. Our Associate Managing Editors are Claire Yuan and Elias J. Schisgall. Our Managing Editor is Miles J. Herszenhorn. Our President is J. Sellers Hill. From Plympton Street, this is Newstalk.