The final round of weekend closures for the Orange Line started Friday as the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority continues to make improvements as part of its Capital Acceleration Plan.
Trains will not run between Sullivan Square and Tufts Medical Center, starting at 8:45 p.m. Normal service resumes Monday morning.
Crews doing maintenance on the Orange Line, which runs 11 miles from Oak Grove to Forest Hills, are working to replace over 800 feet of track at North Station, as well as 140 feet of track at State and another 200 at Haymarket.
During the fourth and final weekend of Orange Line service suspensions, shuttle buses will be provided between Sullivan Square and Haymarket stations only. They will not be provided to Orange Line stations at State, Downtown Crossing, and Chinatown.
The MBTA is urging riders to travel on the Green Line.
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Commuters who wanted to take the Orange Line on Saturday instead found themselves standing in line waiting for a shuttle bus.
"Not as good as the train," said Barbara Greene.
"Of course it's less convenient," another woman said.
"If there's traffic, I'm stuck in traffic," Chris Dischino said.
"I'm almost late going to work," said Diego Oyola.
These MBTA customers say the routine service disruptions are annoying enough, but waiting for a bus with temperatures in the teens just makes it even worse.
"That's a pain," Dischino added. "Hopefully it improves service in the long run. I don't know. I have my doubts, but we'll see."
The latest MBTA diversions come amid mounting frustration from customers, some of whom shared their concerns Thursday night during a public meeting.
“It would be really nice to get sort of more of an advanced notice on things that are changing," one woman shared. "So for example I take the Red Line, and I didn’t see anything about shuttles, I got no notification, and then suddenly I have to take a shuttle bus and that takes time.”
MBTA community outreach specialist Anthony Thomas addressed the crowd, saying, "We really need to learn from our customers and our riders about how they want us to be engaging them so we can kind of deliver on the projects and service that we need to deliver on.“
As frustrating as the service disruptions are for passengers, the MBTA wants to remind them that the weekend shutdowns are allowing the agency to complete work on the Orange Line almost a year earlier than originally planned.
