MBTA Unveils New Snow Fighting Equipment

BOSTON (CBS) - After last year's record-breaking winter, the MBTA says it has a plan and it comes in the form of new snow fighting equipment.

The new machines add up to almost $9 million and the T is hoping they will prevent the travel Armageddon that happened last February.

"We want to be able to push the snow back so that so drifts can't come back right away and that's what these big pieces of equipment are capable to do," says MBTA General Manager Frank DePaola.

It was an epic winter, one that the T and its riders would like to forget. A winter so terrible the National Guard had to shovel the tracks. Some Commuter Rail lines were shut down, but now the T and Keolis, which operates the commuter trains, have spent $33 million on equipment and communication.

"I can tell you right now there's not a day that goes by where we don't think about snow," Gerald Francis, Keolis general manager explains.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Kim Tunnicliffe reports

Twelve million dollars has been spent on the Red Line alone replacing rails and old equipment. But the question still remains. What about all those employees who called in sick when it snowed, compounding the problem? DePaola says this is a part of the plan.

"Going into this winter when we know a storm's coming people will be here before it snows," he says. "People will be put in position before the snow starts so that they won't be traveling from home when it's snowing."