Partial closures of other subway lines remain on the table once the MBTA completes a 30-day shutdown of the full Orange Line for a maintenance blitz, but the agency's leader stressed Wednesday that there are no plans to shutter the Red Line from end-to-end.
"We are not shutting down the entire Red Line for the winter, full stop," T General Manager Steve Poftak said, referencing rumors that have circulated about the MBTA's upcoming plans. "However, we will continue to use diversions, likely -- I would say everything that's on the drawing board right now is a partial diversion, which is a strategy we have been using for many years."
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When officials announced the unprecedented, month-long Orange Line closure, Poftak kept open the idea that the T could pursue additional shutdowns as a way of trading short-term inconvenience to make major improvements more quickly.
Poftak did not provide plans for the Red Line when addressing reporters Wednesday morning, but he said the T would use "smaller and more targeted diversions regularly as one of our tactics to address the operating maintenance issue" flagged by a federal investigation.
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"But that said, if the implicit question is are you shutting down the entire Red Line for the winter, I can tell you the answer is no," he added.
The MBTA is 12 days into its 30-day Orange Line shutdown, and so far workers have completed about 48 percent of the work planned, Poftak told the T's board of directors. That includes replacing 3,500 feet of track, 14,000 linear feet of rail, and replacing more than 40 percent of signals targeted.
