Commuters faced lengthy delays on the Orange Line on Wednesday after three trains were wrecked the night before.
MBTA spokeswoman Lisa Battiston said windows were “maliciously damaged” on “three trains,” disrupting subway operations throughout the day.
“We will be running more spaced trains this afternoon due to a limited number of trains,” the MBTA said in a statement. “Several trains were destroyed (Tuesday) night and repairs are underway. We apologize for the inconvenience and are working to get the trains back in service as soon as possible.”
Battiston later said that the repair work and window replacement was proceeding at a good pace and MBTA expects to have a sufficient number of Orange Line trains, 10, by the evening shuttle to accommodate the new reduced subway services. to comply with timetables that were introduced last week.
The additional delays further bother commuters who are already grappling with significant cuts on the Orange Line and two other rapid transit lines — Red and Blue — as MBTA works to comply with a federal guideline that has ordered the agency to reduce its subway Dispatcher to reinforce personnel deployment in the operations control center.
Weekday timetables are now the same as a Saturday timetable, which has increased the average waiting time on trains from around two minutes to four.
Twitter user Kirky said she waited half an hour at the Sullivan Square station on Wednesday morning, “hoping for a train that wasn’t too crowded.”
“Orange Line trains only run every 13 minutes, resulting in hot, crowded trains with mostly mask-less drivers,” the commuter said. “By the time the next train comes, the platform will be full again.”
MBTA CEO Steve Poftak said last week that the agency had launched a “hiring blitz” to address the shortage of subway dispatchers.
As part of its inspection of safety management, the Federal Transit Administration found that subway dispatchers routinely worked 16- to 20-hour shifts to fill staffing shortages.
The T said the service cuts will continue throughout the summer.
In addition to the Orange Line vandalism, Transit Police are also investigating a swastika found spray-painted at the Green Street Station last Friday. The department said the anti-Semitic graffiti was painted by an unidentified man who was captured on surveillance footage.