Union Questions Train Safety; 'T' Denies Carmen's Charges

Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority management authorities earlier this week denied allegations by the Carmen's Union that over half of the Red Line cars running are unsafe.

Saying that the recent allegations are "not a dispute between union and management." Boston Carmen's Union President Paul M. Connolly called the Red Line dispute "a pure safety issue."

"Management sends trains out of the shop that are defective--from the brakes to things related to the oldness of the cars," he explained.

Calling management "very concerned," Director of Operations William G. Stead said that one-half of the Red Line trains have significant defects, but he denied that they were safety defects.

Connolly pointed to broken marker lights, rear doors that don't lock, faulty brakes and a computerized control system that "doesn't work" as the Red Line trains' primary safety problems.

The disagreement between MBTA management and the Carmen's Union began after a motorman wrote a letter to MBTA officials and three area newspapers saying that an error in a computerized train control system had nearly led him to run into another train parked in Harvard station.

Stead confirmed that the MBTA is having trouble with the control system from Porter Square to Harvard Square, a stretch of the Red Line that serves as a turn-around for empty cars but is not yet open to riders.

He added that management has not yet accepted the system and is working to discover and find the defect.