BOSTON — The shuttles are doing dry runs as the MBTA gets ready to shut down the Orange Line and a part of the Green Line for a month. Yankee Transit was on parts of the route getting their drivers familiar with the roads.
In just one week, yellow will be the new orange when these Yankee Charter busses shuttle orange line riders for a month-long shutdown. “I’ll just probably have to get up a little bit earlier but yeah, it is going to make life hard,” said a rider. “It’s definitely going to increase the how long it takes for me to get in and out of work,” said a rider.
Yankee Transit spent Friday navigating the shuttle routes in some of the very tight Jamaica Plain neighborhoods. Dan Nickerson is assessing how he is going to get to work when the shut down begins. “It’s tough that it is happening during these hot summer months but it’s just kind of the nature of the beast,” said Nickerson.
Riders are now taking a look at the MBTA’s final plan that was just released. “Now it will take me an hour to and from. It is a little bit unfortunate,” said a rider “the transfer and stuff like that. We are all just going to have to figure that out as we go along”.
Yankee Transit tells Boston 25 they had to move some of their busses and drivers up from as far away as Texas and Florida. In a statement, the manager wrote, “we’re on pace to log over 5,400 training hours over the next several days leading up to this project. Accessibility and rider experience is at the forefront of our training as we prepare for providing replacement Orange Line shuttle service while this critical work is being done.”
Full training runs will happen through next week as they also finalize detours and bus lanes and whether streets will need to be closed.
Additional coverage:
[ MBTA unveils ‘Rider’s Guide to Planning Ahead’ as Orange Line shutdown looms ]
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