Gov. Charlie Baker joined transportation and MBTA officials to observe completed track work and construction on the Orange Line Sunday.
Ten days after the Orange Line shut down, Gov. Charlie Baker said he's "pretty confident" the repairs will be done by Sept. 19, allowing the line to reopen on time.
Baker joined Transportation Secretary Jamey Tesler, MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak and other transportation officials Sunday at the State Street Station to observe completed track work and construction on the Orange Line, including the replacement of 900 feet of rail between State Street and Downtown Crossing Station.
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The governor reiterated the importance of the shutdown allowing around-the-clock work.
"I base that confidence on the fact that a lot of the work that's being done here can be done over the course of a 24-hour period. You don't have to spend a huge amount of time you're actually on the tracks getting on them and getting off them, which is typically the case for night and weekend work," he said. "The other piece of it is this is work that was planned in and scoped as part of the T's 5-year capital plan, so it's not unfamiliar to people."
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Baker also emphasized this opportunity to increase the quality of service for riders by completing five years worth of work in a short period of time.
“I do think the amount of work that will get done though will in fact dramatically reduce some of the issues that we have on the Orange line generally," he said. "And there will be by the time these folks come back, predominantly new Orange line cars on the tracks, as well, which will mean better tracks, new cars, a ton of signal work that got done that would have taken a long time otherwise, it should dramatically improve the ride for riders.”
With just under 20 days remaining of the Orange Line shutdown remaining, Poftak said he believes everything is going according to plan at this point.
"We're 37% of the way there, so we're happy with the way it's going. I think we have a great deal of confidence that we can get this done in 30 days," he said. "This may not look like a ballet ensemble behind me, but the amount of choreography that has gone into managing and planning a number of projects with a limited number of access points has really been extraordinary so we feel right now like we’re very much on top of the schedule and on top of where we need to be."
When asked if they were ahead of schedule, Poftak responded, "I'd say we're on schedule."
"I don't want to count these chickens before they're hatched," he added. "We're on schedule. I think we're cautiously confident in our ability to do this."
For the most part, things have seemed to go relatively well so far. While many people have reported longer commute times, there weren't any massive issues that some had anticipated during the first week.
Boston students are getting set to return to school, however, and some, like Mayor Michelle Wu, have said this could be the real test of the shutdown.
Baker was asked Sunday what his message is ahead of the start of the new school year.
"The first thing I would say to everybody is we appreciate the difficulty that this creates for everyone, but the chance to get five years worth of work done in a very short period of time was a significant opportunity to improve the quality of service for Orange Line riders generally," he said. "And there's always friction between running the service and fixing the tracks, or doing almost anything that involves an upgrade of a system like this."
The governor also encouraged anyone who can take the Commuter Rail to do so.
"The main reason I say that is it has capacity, they're running more trains than they were running previously, and the feedback we got from a lot of people using the Commuter Rail last week was very positive," he said.
Asked if there are any future plans to change the Commuter Rail's pricing to make it more accessible, the governor said, "Let's get this done first and then we can talk about that."
Baker also said riders who still have lingering questions and confusion can download the rider's guidebook on the MBTA's website. It comes in 11 different languages, and Baker said he personally thinks it's a "relatively easy" document to understand.
