Shuttle buses will replace trains for 58

MBTA service impacts (Courtesy photo)

READING — Trains on the MBTA Commuter Rail’s Haverhill Line will be suspended between the Read­ing Depot and Mel­rose’s Oak Grove Station for much of the late summer and early fall, town and state officials recently announced.

According to Town Ma­nager Fidel Maltez, who recently contacted The Daily Times Chronicle in order to get the word out about the service reductions, the stoppage will in­volve the use of shuttle buses to nearby MBTA service stations for a 58-day period starting on Sept. 9.

“I wanted to share the presentation and notice of an upcoming closure of the commuter rail,” wrote Maltez in an email last week. “I don’t know if the MBTA is issuing a press release for this [but] there will be a closure of the commuter rail from Sept. 9 to Nov. 5 due to scheduled maintenance.”

The nearly two-month long service disruption of Haverhill Line services be­tween the North Wil­mington stop and Oak Grove’s connection to Or­ange Line trains is being instituted in order to test the functionality of a new safety system that can monitor and remotely control trains in real-time to prevent collisions and other accidents.

According to the MBTA, which instituted a near identical service blackout for an 18-day period last winter to install a series of so-called Automatic Train Control (ATC) sensors along the railroad tracks between Haverhill and Reading, test locomotives will now be deployed to ensure the new equipment works.

The project, which also entails the replacement of railroad crossing track panels at Prospect Street in Wakefield and other general maintenance work, means Reading residents will be forced to take shuttle buses to either Oak Grove or Woburn’s Ander­son Station, where the commuter rail’s Lowell Line stops on its way to North Station.

Wilmington residents who normally hop on the Haverhill Line at the North Wilmington stop also have the alternative of heading instead to the next upstream stop at Bal­lardvale, where an ex­press train will run to North Station.

“Buses will replace regular train service between Reading and Oak Grove on the Haverhill Line. Trains will make regular stops between Haverhill and Ballardvale, stop at An­der­son/Woburn on the Lowell Line, and operate express to North Station,” MBTA officials elaborated in a re­cent presentation forwarded to Town Hall managers.

“Express trains will op­erate between North Sta­tion and Ballardvale, and regular train service will operate between Ballard­vale and Haverhill,” the MBTA explainer further reads.

Town residents should also take note of the following other details in­volving the ATC system testing stoppage:

• Those who choose to continue leaving their cars at Reading Station are advised that no parking fee discounts are plan­ned;

• That bicycles will not be allowed to be carried onto the alternative shuttle buses heading to Oak Grove and Malden Center;

• and that the final sche­dule detailing shuttle bus arrival and departure times is still being finalized and should be re­leased in the coming days.

The new ATC safety system is being put into place in order to comply with federal “positive train control” or PTC mandates. Per the federal di­rective, the commuter rail needs to be equipped with a safety control system that can monitor all trains’ location, direction, and speed in real-time.

The ATC equipment is controlled by a network of sensors along railroad tracks that communicate with approaching and pas­sing trains and can alert engineers in advance about potentially unsafe operating conditions. The system also includes an override function which will automatically slow or halt a train, should the conductor not respond to hazard warnings.

MBTA officials have ad­vised residents in the area to expect noise impacts from the commissioning work, as test trains will be activating crossing gates and bells along the railroad tracks. The state’s PTC test train may also be sounding additional horns and warning bells while passing through the area during the testing phase.

“A test train is the same as commuter rail trains, just a smaller set. There may be additional horns during the testing and commissioning,” MBTA ma­na­gers advised town officials earlier this summer.

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