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After previously delaying the start of South Coast Rail passenger service by about six months, MBTA officials now say they are reassessing the schedule and do not have an updated timeline to share.
The T has also hired a new manager for the project, Karen Antion, who previously served as an MBTA project manager for safety system installations.
The Herald News reported Thursday that an MBTA official declined to share a timeline during a community meeting in Fall River, and said that “July is unlikely” for service to begin.
A T spokesperson appeared to confirm that the already-delayed start date is now in limbo.
“In conjunction with a recent change in the project’s management, a new project executive has been tasked with evaluating all aspects of the project, including the schedule,” MBTA spokesperson Joe Pesaturo told the State House News Service. “The MBTA will share more information once this review is complete.”
T officials declined to answer additional questions Thursday about what prompted that decision.
Paul Chasse, leader of the Rail to Boston Coalition, said he had been in touch with T officials and understood that the delay was related to safety testing.
“We’re anxiously awaiting the opening, as well as even a date for the opening at this point,” he said. “But we’re confident that it will happen sooner rather than later.”
The $1.1 billion first phase of the South Coast Rail project, which will add commuter rail service linking Boston to New Bedford, Fall River and nearby communities, was originally slated to open to passengers by the end of 2023.
In September, MBTA officials pushed the target launch date to summer 2024.
New Bedford Light reporter Grace Ferguson provided material for this report by the State House News Service.
Email Grace Ferguson at gferguson@newbedfordlight.org.
Trains will be running by late fall 2023! Yeah Right! How many broken promises is this now? Now some time in July until that doesn’t happen either! Oh yeah we know. Problems on the Red Line, problems on the Green Line, Problems in Lynn. yup yup keep pushing south coast to the bottom. Meanwhile construction crews have finished framing a 5 story apartment building downtown while in the same time the T workers have not been able to finish framing a 2 story elevator platform at the T station. Massdot says they work from 7-7 Never saw anyone on the job after 2:45PM. We know! They can only swing a hammer just so many times a day- union rules!
Noticed the subtle dig at unions. You must be a 1%er? This world, your world, existed before workers rights were established!
You probably like a sixteen hour, six day work week. No healthcare, no retirement, no paid sick time along with a work till you drop mentality. Then the call goes out for, next! Oh let’s not forget child labor. All this, provided by the
work system, before unions. You are making a big mistake if you think the work environment of today was benevolently provided for us by business owners. If you’re not a 1%er, enjoy these protections for you and your future generations, and think about ways to improve them, because there are individuals always planning on ways to take them away!
Howie you are the one usually taking the anti-union stance. I worked 25 years for a union utility so I know exactly how it works. I know the good and the bad. You can save the sermon.
So you are saying the blame is on the unions because you know how the system works? Please tell us how the system works. I have been in bad unions and very good ones, yes there is decadence in some. But anyone with an IQ of 100 knows it is the contractors that bleed the state and don’t get me started on the politicians. I’m sure you heard of pay to play?
Honestly should we be surprised at yet and again another rail delay in connecting Boston to the,Southcoast by the MASSACHUSETTS BOARD OF TRANSPORTATION FAILURE? Southcoast and the Berkshires the two Apartheid corners of the Commonwealth where the buck $never stops EXCEPT when it’s passed for pay raises for our legislators who claim a lot but accomplish little for our corner of the state.50 years 50 days 50 weeks 50 months They’ve got more excuses than ways to leave your lover! After,all they should be happy the,Brahmins of Boston gave them a little crumb of hope at all..at this point it would have been faster to have run a,second track to Providence and rebuilt that rail line..bcuz,all we get out of Boston is the finger🖕..meanwhile at the crossing of deny delay and derail even if we finally get rail I’ll continue to climb in the car and take my chances on 24 and 93..at least I’ll get there!
The more the MBTA changes the schedule for the commencement of South Coast rail, the more they look like incompetent boneheads.
While things happen to derail (pun intended) plans, this happens much too often. I grew up in N B and remember talk about rail coming to town back in the 50s. This is not a new problem, but a condition of placing the South Coast on the back burner. It’s time that it stops.
I tell my friends that are not from around here “New Bedford is the gutter of Mass. Sh*t that rolls down hill all stops here because there is no where lower to go.”
Now I have another solid example to show them that I’m not wrong about this statement.
Thank you Maura and Jon Mitchell!
I thought she was your best pal from Hahvahd? Guess not, cause the train ain’t build and you are still around here.