Riders were warned that northbound trains were delayed about 20 minutes due to a train with a door problem at Downtown Crossing. An MBTA spokesperson confirmed that this involved one of the new Orange Series cars and that the door was not “operating as designed.” Shortly after 7 p.m., the MBTA said regular service had resumed. The MBTA is under intense scrutiny after a federal investigation found several safety issues and called on the agency to immediately address some of the problems, including understaffing and delayed track maintenance. In an unprecedented move, officials decided to shut down the Orange Line, which serves hundreds of thousands of riders every day, for 30 days to complete some of the necessary work. The line reopened Monday after replacing 14,000 feet of rail and nearly 3,500 feet of track, making repairs to Orange Line stations and eliminating six slow zones. MBTA officials said they were pleased with how the job went. But the closure meant commuters had to find alternative forms of transport. The MBTA offered buses to replace train service, which required changes to traffic patterns, some of which are still in place. The MBTA’s historic shutdown of the Orange Line began on August 19th. Agency officials said crews completed five years of track and signal replacement, along with maintenance and other projects during the 30-day period. The MBTA is now planning for three 9-day closures on the D Branch of the Green Line, as well as another shorter closure on the Red Line in Braintree.
