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What went wrong with the Orange Line train at Back Bay

BOSTON — When an MBTA Orange Line train began experiencing issues Wednesday, the motor person failed to follow emergency protocol, says the MBTA.

The employee will be re-trained in emergency procedures, says the MBTA.

Around 5:00 p.m., Back Bay station filled with smoke and people began breaking windows and finding other ways out when the doors didn't open.

The train was partially out of the station when the smoke started. Because of that, the motor person was not able to open the doors remotely. They either open all at once, or the motor person has to do each one manually. This prevents people from evacuating onto the third rail, which carries 600 volts of electricity.

"It's the way those cars were designed. We are talking about 1970's technology," said Paul Regan, a member of the MBTA advisory board.

The T says the motor person did everything correctly except for communicating what he was doing, saying "…the motor person failed to make the proper announcements.  If he had followed his training, the customers would have heard that he was walking through the train to open each door.  This employee will be re-trained… for handling emergency events."

The Commuter Rail was shut down for about 10 minutes, but riders on the Orange Line had to wait nearly two hours before service resumed.

Gov. Charlie Baker says safety and security is a top priority and he appreciates the patience of riders who were inconvenienced.

"Glad I wasn't there. Obviously, we need better emergency systems in place," said rider Margaret Lias.

Riders said they didn't know what was going on - whether it was a larger fire or even terrorism.

Wednesday's incident was another in a long line of problems the MBTA has had; the transit system hasn't had a serious upgrade in years, while ridership continues rising.

There are improvements scheduled for the Orange Line, whose cars first went into service in 1979-1980. Their design life was reached in 2004-2005. The MBTA is in the process of getting 152 new vehicles. The first of the pilot cars is expected in 2018 and the full fleet won't be available until 2022.

The Orange Line averages 211,993 weekday trips, which is 17 percent of the system-wide ridership.

The MBTA is conducting a full investigation into the incident, but believes it was a motor that cause the smoke.