Cable failure caused power outage that paralyzed MBTA trains for hours

BOSTON — After an afternoon of more problems on the T, power was finally restored and service was resumed normally.

But, for almost six hours, trains were experiencing severe delays on sections of the Blue, Green and Orange lines after a power outage paralyzed most of the Boston transit system.

At around 2:40p.m., the MBTA announced sections of Blue Line, Green Line, and Orange Line were experiencing delays due to a power problem.

It was only by 8:00 p.m. that power was restored to all lines and service had resumed normally, an MBTA spokesperson said.

According to the MBTA, the power problem caused "severe delays" for train service, and even causing some trains to hold at stations or operate under restricted speeds.

MBTA officials later said that what caused the problems was a failed cable to a North End substation that controls signals. The signal failed, which made it unsafe for trains to proceed.

Many of the systems used by the MBTA are decades old and in dire need of maintenance and replacement.

Eastbound Green Line C & D trains terminated at Kenmore Station. Riders were instructed to use westbound B service to Kenmore to transfer to C & D trains.

As of 7:30 p.m., the MBTA said the lines affected by the power outage were still experiencing residual delays of up to 15 minutes.

Riders, on the other hand, had a different account of how long the delays were taking.

After yet another frustrating day for commuters, many more riders took to Twitter:

Along with the power outage causing massive delays right around rush hour, The Red Line was experiencing problems of its own after a signal issue at Harvard caused delays of up to 20 minutes and a prior problem with a passenger falling ill at JFK/UMass caused delays of 15 minutes.

After the power outage headache many experience on Friday afternoon, Steve Poftak, General Manager for the MBTA, expressed his own frustrations with not being able to provide the best ridership experience possible.

Poftak mentions investing $170.5 million throughout the next five years to modernize the MBTA's power system.

This comes just days after massive attendance for the Patriots Super Bowl parade snarled service on the Commuter Rail and T and a week after announcing a plan to raise fares by 6.3 percent starting in July.

Cox Media Group