Lessons from Boston’s Orange Line Shutdown

When Boston’s busy Orange Line shut down for a month this summer for long-awaited repairs, commuters braced themselves for massive disruptions. Governing’s Jared Brey spoke with Boston’s chief of streets, Jascha Franklin-Hodge, about the city’s strategies and what they learned.

To give subway riders alternative options, the city responded by “dedicating bus-only lanes, changing the direction of streets or closing them to cars, creating temporary bike lanes, designating queuing areas for shuttles, offering free 30-day passes to its Bluebike bike-share system and many other adjustments.” During the shutdown, Boston’s Bluebikes bikeshare system saw its highest ridership ever.

Franklin-Hodge admitted the line never should have gotten to the point where the shutdown was necessary. “I hope it leads to a real renewed commitment on the part of MBTA leadership to never allow the system to get to a point where we have to shut it down for 30 days.”

Franklin-Hodge also noted that the city should “try more stuff” on a short-term basis to test innovations and understand how they function in the real world. “I think it’s a reminder that we can move quickly, we can try things, we can learn from them, we can adjust them, we can use temporary materials in a lot of cases to refine a design rather than going straight to permanent, and if our goal is supporting transit, and it is, then we have to not lose that speed and that sense of urgency.”