On April 7, the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) announced it will suspend service on parts of the Green Line for infrastructure upgrades from April 22 to April 30.
The B branch will be closed between Kenmore and Boston College stops. The MBTA will offer free service on the 57 bus between Kenmore and Packard’s Corner between April 22 to April 24, and April 27 to April 30. Due to accessibility issues, shuttle buses on the B branch will not stop at Packard’s Corner, Griggs Street, or Allston Street, according to the MBTA website. During the weekend of April 25, Green Line shuttles will also replace service between Copley, Boston College, Brookline Hills, and St. Mary’s Street for more infrastructure upgrades.
According to a statement from MBTA’s Deputy Press Secretary Lisa Battison, the MBTA is planning to update train infrastructure, continue installing the Green Line Train Protection System (GLTPS). The MBTA official website says that the GLTPS “combines vehicle and wayside equipment to avoid train-on-train collisions, provide stop signal overrun protection, and incorporate speed enforcement for the Green Line.”
In a statement written to Allstonia, Battison wrote that the MBTA’s upgrades during the closure will “build on the success” of the Track Improvement Program.
“This regular, planned renewal and revitalization work is ongoing and continuous, ensuring the long-term stability of our infrastructure and preserving the system for future generations of riders.”
According to Battison, the infrastructure upgrades will also include the replacement of 130-year-old troughs near Kenmore station. Previously, the MBTA had closed train service for two weeks along a larger portion of the Green Line for similar trough replacement.
These upgrades to the Green Line come in the wake of a newly proposed capital budget plan that will span 2027 to 2031, and aims to increase efforts to modernize the public transit system in Boston to build for the future, according to the MBTA’s Capital Investment Plan (CIP).
The CIP aims to upgrade “inaccessible above-ground Green Line stations” on the line, while also being able to increase service capacity. The CIP’s goal is to make sure that all stations on the Green Line’s B and C branches are fully accessible.
While the closure of the stops along the B line will be supplemented with free shuttle service and additional free service on the 57 bus, it will affect thousands of people who rely on the Green Line.
Liam Tuohey-Kay, a Boston University student, lives off campus and relies on the Green Line to commute to school and work.
“It adds at least another forty five to an hour of travel time per day,” he said. “We have six stops here on campus, and at least twice a year, all of those stops are unusable because of maintenance.”
Aidan O’Kane, another BU student living off campus, found the closure inconvenient due to the fact that it is planned right before finals week at Boston University starts. While he has stopped using the Green Line to commute, he said that it is generally not helpful.
“I kind of stopped taking the T earlier in the semester because it was just so inconsistent, so overcrowded, it was just making me late to class every day. It was too stressful,” he said.
O’Kane also feels that shutdowns occur on the Green Line too frequently. He says that he thinks the shutdowns don’t help much with improving the Green Line as a whole.
“I don’t understand what kind of public transport needs to be shut down four times a year,” he said. “Since I’ve been here, there’s been a lot of infrastructure things. They’ve shut it down a bunch of times, and I don’t think it’s got any better in any way.”
Both O’Kane and Tuohey-Kay say that they were not aware of the closure until recently. While the MBTA announced the closure on their website, they did not make any other posts on their social media accounts like X or Instagram.
“I think they should do a way better job at communicating when things are going to be down, because it does affect a lot of people’s lives, including my own,” Tuohey-Kay said. “They do, quote, unquote, infrastructure updates every couple months, and the T is still, it’s always late.”