Local News

Here’s what happened with the Blue Line train that got stuck under Boston Harbor

“Safety is still our top priority.”

Firefighters assisted with the evacuation of 500 people from a Blue Line train stranded under Boston Harbor. Boston Fire Department

By Dialynn Dwyer

July 16, 2025

2 minutes to read

A decades-old cable that fell inside a subway tunnel Tuesday caused the halted Blue Line train that stranded hundreds of passengers under Boston Harbor, officials said Wednesday.

Hundreds evacuated after Blue Line train gets stuck under Boston Harbor

MBTA general manager Phil Eng issued an apology to riders about the incident, speaking to reporters at an event on Wednesday.

“We apologize to our riders, these are not the things that they expect, and we don’t expect that is the level of service we want to provide,” Eng said.

The downed cable was reported around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Passengers said they heard a “snap” or “pop” before the Blue Line train stopped and lost power, WCVB reports.

Eng credited the train’s operator with spotting the cable, estimated to be between 50 and 60 years old, after it came down.

“Safety is still our top priority,” he said. “They did exactly as they should do, they stopped the train.”

Eng said power to the third rail was cut off so passengers could be evacuated safely from the train. It took firefighters, Transit police, and MBTA personnel about an hour to help the estimated 465 riders aboard the halted Blue Line train out of the tunnel. Shuttle buses replaced rail service between Government Center and Airport stations for hours while work was done in the tunnel.

Eng said that crews performing “interim repairs” on the downed cable Tuesday afternoon and evening noticed “other areas of cable that we want to proactively address.”

He said the MBTA will be going back into the tunnel “over the next few nights” to “permanently replace significant sections of this cable to ensure that the future reliability, particularly in a hard [inaccessible] area like under the harbor, is addressed now.”

“While we’re doing that, we’re going to take a look at other needs in the area,” he said.

Eng, speaking to reporters at an event marking the completion of accessibility improvements at the Winchester Center Station, said failure of the cable on Tuesday underscores the importance of investing in the T’s infrastructure proactively.

“These are the things, why the investment in our infrastructure, the need to accelerate work, is such a priority,” Eng said. “These deferred types of work, replacements is leading to larger scale needs instead of doing them on a right cycle and at the right time. Spending now is the right thing to do to invest in the future. That will actually allow us to get back to where we can do preventive maintenance.”