A Red Line train failed to come to a halt for a crew that was doing track inspections, despite someone flagging the train to stop, according to an MBTA spokesman, who said this week's incident was preceded by a similar one last week.
No one was hurt during the incidents, which are being investigated by the MBTA; the Federal Transit Administration and the Department of Public Utilities have also been notified.
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The MBTA said that on Monday, shortly before noon, two people were working on track inspections between the Harvard and Porter stops on the Red Line, when a flagger signaled for an oncoming train to stop. The train failed to do so, but neither worker was hurt.
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The train's motor person is not in service amid the investigation, the T said.
While the transportation agency was interviewing the crew about Monday's incident, one of them pointed out that something similar had happened a week earlier in the same area. The MBTA consequently launched an investigation into that incident as well.
In response, Red Line operators were given safety briefings before their shifts on Tuesday.
General Manager Phillip Eng also met with other managers, as well as the inspection teams to talk about ways to improve safety.
In light of these latest incidents, Gov. Maura Healey said she met Tuesday with the head of the FTA to assure the agency that her administration is taking the matter seriously.
Warning that "a combination of unsafe conditions and practices exist such that there is a substantial risk of serious injury or death of a worker," the FTA last Thursday further ramped up its scrutiny of the T and gave the agency until Wednesday to file a "detailed explanation" of the reasons a slate of near misses were not properly reported within the T and to overseers at the DPU.
In an interview on WBUR's "Radio Boston" Wednesday, Healey said the MBTA and its general manager "better" meet that deadline.
"I have confidence in GM Eng and what he is is doing. As folks may know, I appointed a new GM to the T, he's the first engineer and first person with any transportation experience in the last eight years," Healey said. She added, "We have work to do. We have work to do and yesterday I met myself with the FTA administrator because I want to be clear with them that we are on it, that we will work with them, and that safety of workers and riders is our top priority. And so, nobody wants this with greater urgency than I do."
"I think part of this is culture and this is one of the problems that we are confronting and that this new leadership team is confronting, and that we're working with employees on; making sure people understand that if there are issues, they need to raise issues, they need to say something as soon as they see them," the governor said. "We're not going to tolerate anything less and near misses are unacceptable."
