The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is considering an anticrash system for its streetcars on the accident-prone Green Line.
But the "T," as the transit system is known, would have to pay around $700 million and take nine years to implement it. The MBTA already has at least $3 billion in unmet repair and replacement needs, according to the Boston Globe.
The Green Line, which consists of four routes that run surface and through the underground core, is the busiest light-rail system in the United States, transporting as many as 250,000 riders on weekdays through a series of two- and three-car trains.
Consulting firm HNTB Corp. produced two reports on MBTA safety. HTNB and MBTA engineers used a computer model to simulate technologies including a buzzer system when trains get too close.
Some MBTA board members were aghast over the cost and the timeline when they met earlier this month.
"My van has this little thing on the side mirrors that when a car comes up to me, it beeps and I pay attention. If there is something that will notify those guys that isn't this nine-year, $750 million ... put it on the things now," board member Janice Loux said, as quoted in the Globe.
Three headline-grabbing crashes have occurred on the Green Line in four years, including a fatal accident in 2008 in Newton, a Boston suburb, when one train slammed into another at 38 miles per hour.
