Gov. Charlie Baker gave a response to a question about the train malfunction that stopped the Newburyport/Rockport Line on its tracks during the height of the Thursday morning commute.

A reporter asked Baker what he would tell the people who were effected by the delays. Read Baker’s full response, as provided by his office:

Yeah, I get the fact that until we get to the point where 100% of these things land when they’re supposed to land, we are always going to have issues we need to work on or resolve. I take some comfort in the fact that the commuter rail’s performance over the course of the past 12 months has been as good as it’s been since people started keeping score, 10, 15 years ago. And at the same time I totally get the fact that if a train doesn’t land and deliver when it’s supposed to, for the people who are on that train it’s an enormous inconvenience. And service has been resumed on a regular schedule at this point in time. People are looking into what happened to that train, but obviously we have a ton of work to do and we know that. It’s why we have an $8 billion capital investment plan to modernize the system and honestly I wish we could put it all in place tomorrow, but a lot of this stuff is just going to take a while and I know that’s cold comfort to people.

Christine Madore, the Salem city councilor who called Baker out on Twitter over delays with her commute back in December, again took to the social media platform.

Madore happened to be on the inbound train that got stuck in the Salem tunnel, she said.


“How are we going to achieve [Gov. Charlie Baker]’s net zero emissions by 2050 if we can’t even move people efficiently via public transit?” she wrote. “I ended up driving to Wonderland with my friend.”

Here's another ?: How are we going to achieve @MassGovernor's net zero emissions by 2050 if we can't even move people efficiently via public transit? I ended up driving to Wonderland with my friend @matthewosmith. — Christine Madore (@MadoreChristine) January 30, 2020

We know the answers to the Why but we need answers to the HOW. We don't need anymore studies to tell us what we already know. We need a bold action plan. #fixtheT — Christine Madore (@MadoreChristine) January 30, 2020