The Green Line will be closed from Dec. 6–20 between the Medford/Tufts and Park Street stations, along with Union Square, as the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority continues repairs on tracks across the system.
Shuttle buses will replace service between Medford/Tufts and North Station, though the MBTA advises riders to budget an additional 35 minutes to their regular commute in order to compensate for shuttle speeds and transfers. Commuters can also access Park Street using the Red Line from Davis Square.
Jason Novsam, the associate director of transportation at Tufts, said that his team was aware of the Green Line closure and that students can utilize the Tufts SMFA shuttle in addition to MBTA shuttles. The SMFA shuttle runs from the Medford/Somerville campus to the SMFA campus in Fenway, with a stop at the New England Conservatory.
The closure will complete the MBTA’s year-long Track Improvement Program, which intends to eliminate speed restrictions or slow zones — areas where trains must run slowly due to track wear and tear — and ensure tracks are in a “five-year state of good repair.”
Portions of the Green Line were suspended last month as part of the program, though the December closure will be the first scheduled interruption since July to include Medford/Tufts. Service was, however, suspended following a train derailment on Oct. 1. Small, multilingual signs containing information about the service change were posted on the street-level elevator entrance of the station, though they were out of sight from the main staircase.
Quentin Meslier, a rider at Medford/Tufts, said that he was unaware of the closure but that it could interfere with potential trips downtown. Generally, though, he felt that MBTA service was unreliable. “I would rather bike 45 minutes than take the T,” he said.
“The MBTA understands how these service changes affect riders’ daily travels during this period, but we are committed to improving your travels long term with more reliable, timely, and safe service,” the agency wrote in its November announcement. The MBTA held several public meetings throughout the year to discuss the project.
According to the MBTA website, “good repair” means the infrastructure is “structurally sound, functional, and meets all applicable safety and performance standards.” The agency says track repairs will “deliver timely, reliable, and consistent service for riders.”
MBTA construction crews are expected to be working 24/7. Laurel Senger, the deputy director of the Track Improvement Program, said in a public meeting that noise levels, vibrations and dust will be monitored and mitigated whenever possible.
The program is classified as a Corrective Action Plan, which resulted from a safety management inspection from the Federal Transit Authority. The MBTA says a restricted area’s age, defect severity and “overall impact to riders” determine the priority of repairs.
In a presentation to the MBTA Board of Directors, General Manager Phillip Eng suggested that the program had been a strong success.
“At the end of the day, it’s not just about removing the restrictions, it’s about giving the riders, the public, improved service — that reliability that they count on so they can use the system every day.”
Eng said that the project had remained within its set budget and that more work had been accomplished than expected within each suspension. He also announced that headways and wait times were down on several lines and that weekday trips had increased to pre-pandemic levels.
While the Track Improvement Program is expected to be completed by the end of the year, slow zones will not be eliminated forever. Restrictions may be needed periodically if track conditions change, though they should remain infrequent.
“It won’t be to the level we had this year and the public can really be able to now start to enjoy the fruits of what we’ve been able to put together for 2024,” Eng said.
He added that track and infrastructure plans for 2025 will largely center on signaling. Doing so will improve internal communication and services like the new MBTA Go app, which allows users to track trains in real time and be notified about service changes.
The Green Line Extension, which fully opened in December 2022, brought T service to much of Somerville and has allowed for easier access to the area surrounding Tufts’ Medford/Somerville campus. However, it has since faced several challenges.
Last year, the MBTA revealed that large portions of track were “too narrow,” causing shutdowns. And in October, a speeding train derailed after leaving Lechmere station, injuring several. Still, there was a roughly 10% net increase in weekday ridership from October 2023 to October 2024, according to MBTA metrics.
