MBTA under fire for leaving Green Line riders alone after derailment: ‘Failed the passengers’

The MBTA is under fire for leaving riders alone after a trolley derailed earlier this month on the Green Line, an incident that residents, elected officials, and even the beleaguered agency, called “unacceptable.”

Somerville resident Maggie Norcross-Devin is pressing the agency to revamp how operators respond to derailments and other incidents in their immediate aftermath. She was one of the roughly 50 riders who experienced the “serious accident” on Oct. 1.

Norcross-Devin relived the “shocking” incident Thursday night in front of the Somerville City Council, which is slamming the MBTA for a lack of transparency and effective communication.

Passengers evacuated from the rail’s right of way and exited through an emergency exit before standing on a bridge near Lechmere station. Riders took pictures of the scene, but “it was very quiet,” Norcross-Devin said.

“One thing that struck me was that the operators of the train stayed with the train,” she said. “They left the train but they never came to check on the passengers.”

After about 10 minutes, operators came from the Union Square side and directed riders to the exits.

“As I was crossing the tracks,” Norcross-Devin said, “one of the operators had said to me ‘I’m sorry for the inconvenience.’ I thought ‘This is not an inconvenience. This was a serious accident.’”

Seven riders were transported to local hospitals with what were described as “minor injuries,” MBTA Chief Operating Officer Ryan Coholan confirmed later that evening. Preliminary findings ruled out problems with the track structure, with the investigation focusing on “human factors,” he said.

The derailment occurred on what’s known as the “red bridge,” which interlocks where the Medford/Tufts branch and the Union branch of the Green Line intersect. Shuttle buses replaced service between North Station and Medford/Tufts, with full operations returning two days later.

An operator told riders to walk on an access road to Lechmere where they’d wait for shuttle buses, Norcross-Devin said. Another operator told her he didn’t want their contact information, she added.

In the days following, the MBTA legal team sent Norcross-Devin a compensation form asking for her salary and other information after she contacted the agency to inquire about safety policies.

She would only get that information if she mailed a letter to General Manager Philip Eng.

“In my mind, the MBTA failed the passengers,” she said. “I understand that accidents happen, we can’t avoid accidents, but we can have policies and procedures in place to ensure passenger safety in the immediate aftermath of the accident. And that’s what was lacking.”

The MBTA continues to apologize for the derailment.

“We apologize to all riders aboard this trolley and to those who were injured for their experience last week,” an agency spokesperson told the Herald in a statement Friday evening. “We are fully committed to continuously improving, including during incidents such as these.”

The spokesperson added that COO Coholan called the rider who testified and apologized personally. He also expressed his and MBTA General Manager Philip Eng’s commitment to investigating problems and “identifying areas of improvement.”

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident and said last week it would release a preliminary report within 30 days.

Somerville City Council President Ben Ewen-Campen said he’s been in contact with an MBTA outreach team, requesting information on what’s supposed to happen in such incidents.

“There has been no response,” he told his colleagues, “or I should say there’s been a response that they’re working on it … they’re trying to find where it’s written down what that exact policy is.”

“I don’t know what to make of that,” he added. “I can’t believe that there has not been a policy that can be shared with members of the public.”

City Councilor Willie Burnley Jr. recounted the excitement he shared with other councilors when the Union Square stop and the Medford/Tufts branch opened in 2022.

The past two years, though, have not been smooth, as a series of closures have interrupted service more than imagined.

“In so many ways, we are curtailed by the state,” Burnley said, “and we know they supersede us, and we don’t have jurisdiction over them. But there has to be a limit of accountability where we’re saying, ‘If you are harming our residents, we are going to demand transparency and action from you.”