Charlie Breitrose The electric trackless trolleys used by the MBTA in Watertown will be taken off line due to roadwork on Mt. Auburn Street and replaced at first by hybrid diesel and then battery powered buses. The projects require the overhead wires to be removed.
The following announcement was provided by the MBTA:
The MBTA, City of Cambridge, and City of Watertown announced today that five municipal and utility roadway projects in Cambridge and Watertown along Mt. Auburn Street, Belmont Street, and Huron Avenue are set to commence in spring 2022.
These projects will reconstruct municipal streets and sidewalks, making streets safer and more inviting for people walking, biking, and riding the MBTA. These projects require an anticipated five-and-a-half-year shut down of the overhead catenary wire system used to power the MBTA’s only remaining trolley bus service on Routes 71 and 73. While the trolley bus service on Routes 71 and 73 will be replaced with diesel-hybrid buses for the first two years of this shutdown period, the MBTA expects to begin operating battery-electric buses (BEBs) on Routes 71 and 73 beginning in spring 2024.
As a part of the five upcoming roadway projects:
– The Cities of Cambridge and Watertown will reconstruct approximately 1,100 feet of Belmont Street between Mt. Auburn Street and the Belmont town line. The project will take two years to complete.
– The City of Cambridge will reconstruct Huron Avenue between Fresh Pond Parkway and Cushing Street. The project will take approximately two years to complete.
– The City of Watertown will reconstruct Mt. Auburn Street between the Cambridge city line and Patten Street through the State’s Transportation Improvement Program. The project will take about four years to complete.
– In advance of Watertown’s Mt. Auburn Street project, National Grid will install a new gas main on Mt. Auburn Street from Belmont Street to Watertown Square (approximately two miles). This project will take two years to complete.
– In advance of Watertown’s Mt. Auburn Street project, the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) will install a new 20-inch water pipeline for 1,000 feet on Mt. Auburn Street in Watertown. This project will take one year to complete.
These planned roadway projects require the overhead catenary wire system to be de-energized so construction can safely proceed. As such, and in parallel with the MBTA’s plans for the new North Cambridge facility, the MBTA will remove the overhead catenary wire system in preparation for a BEB fleet. Removing the overhead catenary wire system allows construction to proceed and creates more design flexibility in these high-priority corridors, including opportunities for separated bike lanes, dedicated bus lanes, and transit priority infrastructure.
The MBTA also announced that the design process to convert the MBTA’s North Cambridge bus facility from an electric trolley bus facility to one able to accommodate BEB technology will continue in 2022. These roadway reconstruction projects make this the opportune time for the MBTA to advance the conversion of the North Cambridge facility without any additional impacts to T customers. The MBTA has set a goal to start construction by spring 2023, taking advantage of the shutdown in operations at the facility associated with the roadway projects in Cambridge and Watertown along Mt. Auburn Street, Belmont Street, and Huron Avenues.
In support of the MBTA’s goal to electrify its entire 1,150-bus fleet by 2040, the project will expand the North Cambridge facility’s capacity from 28 electric trolley buses to 35 BEBs. The project also includes the installation of overhead charging equipment, electrical infrastructure, an above-ground diesel storage tank for auxiliary heaters, and the removal of overhead catenary wires and poles in Cambridge and Watertown. When complete, this project will provide increased reliability for bus riders through BEBs’ more flexible technology, provide more equitable service and cost efficiencies through a standardized BEB fleet, and reduce vehicle emissions an estimated 72% as compared to the current operation.
“I want to express my gratitude to our partners in Cambridge and Watertown for coordinating with the MBTA on these complex projects,” said MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak. “This construction schedule will allow the MBTA to accelerate the work of retrofitting the North Cambridge garage and provide battery-electric bus service to these critical transportation corridors.”
The MBTA has advanced preliminary design for the North Cambridge facility conversion to position the Authority to quickly implement the project, reduce the number of years that diesel replacement service is operated out of the T’s Charlestown bus garage, and minimize additional costs and emissions associated with replacement service. The design for the facility conversion is currently at a preliminary (30%) level. The MBTA intends to fund the project in the FY23 MBTA Capital Investment Program. A public meeting on the MBTA’s BEB Program Strategy that includes the North Cambridge project and design is currently being scheduled and is anticipated for February 15, 2022. The design is scheduled to be completed by fall 2022 with construction scheduled to begin by March 2023. Initial operation of the BEBs from the new facility is anticipated in 2024, replacing the diesel-hybrid substitution service resulting from the five municipal roadway projects.
For more information, visit mbta.com, or connect with the T on Twitter @MBTA, Facebook /TheMBTA, or Instagram @theMBTA.
Did I miss something? The overhead wires and trackless trolleys are being removed permanently, according to the info in the article. The headlines are misleading. Instead of overhead wires and trackless trolleys there will be electric/ battery-powered buses returning them. There is no mention of restoring the catenary wires, nor the trackless trolleys.
Good question, I will see if they are coming back. They did bring them back in Belmont after taking them down for the Trapelo Road/Belmont St project.
The trackless trolley cars running along Belmont Street and Mount Auburn Street felt like such a luxury when I moved from Somerville to Watertown years ago. Their clean, quiet operation has been such a blessing to commuters and residents in this packed urban neighborhood!
I have hated seeing, hearing and breathing the increase in diesel on these routes. It’s so depressing to know that diesel service will be all we’ve got for at least two solid years starting next Spring.
The previous commenter is correct, the trackless trolley network is being permanently discontinued. This has been reported by the Belmontonian and Universal Hub. Commonwealth Magazine also had a very informative article about it that I would recommend checking out.
The T is using road construction as their impetus for disassembling the trackless trolley network for good, probably because they’d like to save money on catenary maintenance. The battery buses that will eventually replace them are less environmentally efficient because they rely on diesel for heat.
It seems like the T was also deceptive in their claim that the conversion will expand vehicle “capacity” at the garage. The truth is that the MBTA’s previous electric trolleybus fleet operating out of North Cambridge actually consisted of 50 vehicles. When the time came to replace those vehicles they chose to only order 28 trolley buses. It wasn’t like they suddenly lacked “capacity” at the facility, they just chose to downsize.
Maybe the reason they’re increasing the fleet size now is because they’ll need the extra buses to reach service levels of the 28 trolley buses currently in use. The incoming battery buses will have a finite amount of time they can serve on a route before having to return to the garage to recharge, particularly in cold weather. Of course they could have avoided that obstacle by either retaining the catenary and continuing to use trolley buses or by investing in an in-motion charging battery bus fleet.
But all that aside, as the article states it’s their hope to transition the fleet systemwide to 100% battery electric buses in the next 18 years. While that’s most definitely a positive piece of news given the alternative of diesel, I do have to question how they’ve gone about prioritizing the transition.
Just across the river from where the 71 picks up passengers in the square the T is running 100% pure diesel buses at Watertown Yard. The reason? The garage that the 57, 59, and express routes run out of (Albany) is so obsolete that they can’t even service the diesel hybrid vehicles, let alone accommodate a battery fleet. I would argue that the phasing out of those vehicles and making needed renovations at that garage should be a far more urgent priority than messing with the trackless trolley system, but it’s not nearly as high on their list. This whole thing is just another chapter in the T’s long-standing tradition of poor decision making.