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By Darin Zullo
Even with Winter Storm Fern in the rearview mirror, this week has not been a good one for the Red Line.
Late Monday night, the MBTA reported half-hour delays due to the snowy conditions. The delays continued through Tuesday, this time due to “multiple disabled trains” being removed from service.
By Wednesday, the winter weather had taken its toll on the Red Line, and by about 2 p.m. that afternoon, the MBTA announced that it would be running with reduced service, leading to longer wait times.
Red Line Update: Due to lingering impacts of the recent winter storm, the Red Line will be running with reduced service. Riders may experience longer wait times. https://t.co/b6AtUzONFj
— MBTA (@MBTA) January 28, 2026
Data collected by the nonprofit organization TransitMatters showed that only 35.9 percent of scheduled Red Line trains ran Tuesday, a marginal improvement from 32.7 percent on Monday. The daily service fared even worse Wednesday, with only an estimated 17.5 percent of scheduled trains having run as of 10 p.m.
yikes—yesterday delivered only 36% of scheduled Red Line service, and today isn’t looking much better https://t.co/bqqqCQOwdp pic.twitter.com/0g50UecXmP
— Chris Friend (@friendchristoph) January 28, 2026
Along with plenty of local commuters, Cambridge City Councilor Burhan Azeem took note of the Red Line’s poor performance.
“There’s so much demand for a T that’s so fundamentally disappointing,” he said alongside a video on X of passengers waiting on the Central Station platform.
There’s so much demand for a T that’s so fundamentally disappointing. pic.twitter.com/razAmCtxtP
— Burhan Azeem, Cambridge Vice Mayor (@realBurhanAzeem) January 28, 2026
In light of the delays, the MBTA announced that it would cancel upcoming weekend work that was originally scheduled to take place along the line.
Red Line Update: This weekend's scheduled work has been cancelled due to the lingering impacts of the recent winter storm, and the potential weather for the weekend.https://t.co/JFwgjN44Tg
— MBTA (@MBTA) January 28, 2026
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