It seems that they have this kind of inspection about once per month.
It has been more frequent at times (5 times between Jan 24 and Feb 3, for instance) and they didn't seem to report any delays before September of 2020. So maybe they used to do the inspections at night, or just didn't report the delays, or something.
Of course it's very MBTA to, you know, do it today and not last week. They'll probably do it the day before the shutdown ends, too.
Some of the Blue line cars have white paint sprayed on the pantographs (the power collection devices on the roofs). If a scratch or mark is found on one of the painted devices, suggesting it was struck by something, the wire car is sent out to look for any cable or wire that might be hanging and could cause a more serious issue later if not detected early.
Comments
If it'll prevent trouble on
If it'll prevent trouble on the Blue Line during this unusually busy period, probably worth taking the time. Of course, that's a very big "if".
This is SOP
It seems that they have this kind of inspection about once per month.
It has been more frequent at times (5 times between Jan 24 and Feb 3, for instance) and they didn't seem to report any delays before September of 2020. So maybe they used to do the inspections at night, or just didn't report the delays, or something.
Of course it's very MBTA to, you know, do it today and not last week. They'll probably do it the day before the shutdown ends, too.
Some of the Blue line cars
Some of the Blue line cars have white paint sprayed on the pantographs (the power collection devices on the roofs). If a scratch or mark is found on one of the painted devices, suggesting it was struck by something, the wire car is sent out to look for any cable or wire that might be hanging and could cause a more serious issue later if not detected early.