There’s a shiny, new functional elevator in Harvard Square.

The MBTA announced the elevator servicing the lobby of the Cambridge station is back in service Thursday, after being closed for more than a year for a $3.8 million replacement project.

“Thank you for your patience while the elevator was rebuilt,” officials wrote on Twitter.

#MBTA #RedLine – Harvard Elevator Notice:

Harvard Square Elevator 821 (Lobby to Harvard Square) is back in service as of today, October 31. Thank you for your patience while the elevator was rebuilt. — MBTA (@MBTA) October 31, 2019

MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo told Boston.com the new elevator is almost 60 percent larger than the unit it replaced at the intersection of Brattle Street and Mass. Ave.

The old unit was an “unreliable, 35-year-old elevator” that measured about 19 square feet, he said. The new one is about 30 square feet.


The project to replace the old elevator started in early April 2018.

The transit agency is working to replace or repair several elevators and escalators across the system, including at nearby Central Square. According to the MBTA, starting Nov. 12 there will be no elevator access at Ruggles. Both elevators at the Roxbury station are being closed for replacement through summer 2020.

The project to replace the elevator at the Central Square station has encountered “unforeseen conditions” that have stretched the scheduled completion back a year from spring 2019. A shuttle service is being offered between Central and Kendall stations, but wheelchair users have decried the delay and the disruption it has caused to their commutes.

Pesaturo said work on the Central Square elevator servicing the Ashmont/Braintree platform is ongoing, with a target reopening date of March 2020.