MEDFORD – MARCH 15: T officials inspecting the derailment of the Orange Line T train just outside the Wellington MBTA station in Medford, MA on March 16, 2021. (Photo by Matthew J. Lee/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
A portion of the MBTA's Orange Line is back up and running -- albeit slowly -- after being shut down by damage from a derailment last month.
The agency implemented speed restrictions between Oak Grove and Wellington, which will remain in place for "a few days," in order to allow newly installed upgrades to settle properly. The agency asked people to allow for extra commute time on Twitter Monday.
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Last month, the MBTA pulled all of the new Orange and Red Line trains from service and replaced them with the shuttle buses after the train derailed at Wellington Station in Medford. The Orange Line train derailed in a work zone at Wellington Station on March 16, according to officials, when a slow-moving northbound train was crossing to the southbound track to accommodate ongoing maintenance work.
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The MBTA said at the time that the service changes would be in effect for three weeks. The agency completed its work upgrading and addressing damages over the weekend.
But new Orange Line cars are still out of service and will stay that way for at least three weeks, MBTA officials said at a meeting Monday.
The new Orange Line train cars, which went into service in August 2019, are more spacious and have wider doors and more safety features. But the subway trains have since derailed six times near Wellington Station. Officials told NBC10 Boston Investigators that their weight might have played a role in some of the accidents.
The entire fleet of Orange Line cars will eventually be replaced with the new version, though the rollout has been bumpy, with the cars initially making odd noises that were eventually traced to a faulty wear pad, then temporarily taken out of service last March for a maintenance issue.
