MBTA still exploring cause of train derailment

BOSTON -- MBTA officials have ruled out foul play and operator error as the cause of Tuesday's Red Line derailment, but they still have not determined an exact cause and have no specific timetable for when service will return to normal.

General Manager Steve Poftak told reporters Friday that the investigation, which was slowed to allow time for the train to be removed from the crash scene, remains ongoing and will examine whether track infrastructure at the JFK/UMass stop or a malfunction with the 50-year-old train was responsible.

There were 61 people aboard the six-car train set when the third car derailed at 6:10 a.m. Tuesday. The southbound train set careened forward more than 1,800 feet following the derailment, officials said. T officials said one person reported a hand injury.

Commuters should account for delays of up to 20 minutes through the weekend, and will still need to change at JFK/UMass to access the Braintree line, Poftak said. The MBTA will provide a service update on Sunday evening, but Poftak declined to give a clearer estimate when standard Alewife-to-Braintree trips will resume.

"As much as we would like to do this quickly, our priority is on doing it safely," Poftak said. "Part of the reason that we have the current delay is we are running the trains more slowly because we don't have the automatic signals and switches in place. We won't speed up the system unless we know we can do it safely."

The derailment was the MBTA's fourth this year, and, according to data the authority provided Friday at the request of the News Service, the 24th involving a passenger service train since the start of 2015. Seventeen of those derailments happened on the Green Line, including an incident last Saturday that injured 11.

Effects from the Tuesday morning incident continue to linger several days later because the train damaged much of the infrastructure, including tracks and signals, when it derailed. Poftak said Friday he does not yet have an estimate of the cost of the incident.

Repairs to the track and third rail are complete, but Poftak said the "longer-term challenge" will be fixing the signal system. One bungalow housing the equipment was "almost entirely wiped out," Poftak said, and two others were significantly damaged.

With that system offline, crews are manually directing trains when it is safe to proceed -- a much slower process than the typical electronic signalling.

About 150 people are working to address the problems.

"This is unacceptable, and we apologize for the inconvenience during the commute this week," Poftak, who took the Red Line to the press conference Friday, said. "I want to assure everyone the MBTA is working 24 hours a day to address this incident."

Countdown clocks at stations are disabled, too, because they are "integrally tied" to the signals, although Poftak said employees were exploring alternative ways to restore travel-time estimates.

Despite the scrutiny, Poftak said Friday the MBTA was not considering suspending or altering a set of fare increases, averaging about 6 percent, that will take effect on July 1.

"That process has been long underway," he said. "It's a pretty significant process from a technical point to do it. From a procedural point of view, we have put together a (fiscal year) 2020 budget that invests in the system, invests in additional service, that invests in our employees. The fare increase is a component of that investment in the FY20 budget, and we intend to execute on the approved FY20 budget."

Some lawmakers have pushed to increase state spending on the MBTA and other transit priorities as a way to address frustrations. In a previously scheduled vote, the Legislature this week advanced a proposed surtax on personal income greater than $1 million that will be used to fund education and transportation.

Asked if he wanted to see additional funding allocated to the MBTA, Poftak did not answer directly, pointing to a "fully funded" capital plan. The MBTA will introduce new cars on the Orange Line this summer and the Red Line next year and will eventually replace both fleets entirely, and Poftak said a $113 million program is already underway to replace all Red Line signals -- although those damaged in Tuesday's derailment were set to be the last ones updated.

Baker has also highlighted preexisting investments in the T this week in response to the derailment. He touted plans to spend $8 billion over the next five years on various MBTA infrastructure improvements when speaking with reporters Thursday.

"I think everybody would like the T to be fixed tomorrow, and we certainly put the resources on the table, the largest four-year investment in the history of the T to invest in its infrastructure," Baker said. "But we can't shut the T down to do the work every day, all day, because there are literally hundreds of thousands of people who rely on it every day to get where they go, so the work has to be done at night and on weekends, and that means it's going to take longer."

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