Dear Franklin Line Passengers

Dear Franklin Line Passengers:

We want to offer our sincere apologies for the difficult commute you experienced last night. For those of you who experienced delays as a result of the fatality on Tuesday evening, this marked two consecutive nights of major inconvenience during your evening journey.

Here’s a short recap of last night’s events:

* Franklin Line Train #715 (3:55 p.m. outbound to Forge Park) experienced a mechanical problem approaching Readville. Crews were unable to resolve the issue despite their best efforts.

* Train #717 (4:20 outbound to Forge Park) went out as scheduled with the plan to hook up to #715 to operate as one train. The two trains were physically hitched together, but there were technical issues with the connection that meant #717 was pushing #715 versus operating as one train. Because of this, the train speed was restricted to a maximum of 30 mph, and each station stop actually required two stops to de-board passengers safely onto the platform.

* Had we continued to operate Train #715/717 at such a slow speed, with double stops, it would have taken two hours for that train to reach Forge Park. For this reason, we made the difficult decision to de-board passengers at Norwood Central. Unfortunately, it was raining and there was inadequate shelter for that many passengers.

* Train #737 was waiting at Norwood Central and some passengers from #715 were able to board that train, but there was not enough capacity to accommodate all the passengers from #715/#717.

* Train #719 was directly behind and was able to pick up all remaining passengers. We fell short in communicating this to the passengers from Train #715, who waited outside in the rain for as long as 30 minutes, which we deeply regret.

* Just when it looked like things were moving again, signal problems between Walpole and Franklin forced us to slow trains to speeds of 16 to 20 mph for safety reasons.

A total of 10 trains on the Franklin Line were delayed as a result of these multiple issues, with some passengers delayed by as much as three hours.

We know there is no apology or explanation that can replace the time you lost as the result of these issues. However, we want you to know that we are very sorry for what has been a terrible commuting week on the Franklin Line and are taking a close look at how we can improve our performance.

Sincerely,

Keolis Commuter Services