Starting in late April and into May, you can forget about grabbing a weekend train up to Boston for a jaunt to the museums or Back Bay shops. That’s because rail workers have resumed the $91.5 million project to replace defective concrete ties on 61 miles of commuter rail lines on the South Shore.

But suspending weekend rail service is just the beginning of the inconvenience for commuters who ride the Greenbush and Old Colony lines to Kingston, Plymouth and Middleboro.

Off-peak riders will have to climb aboard shuttle buses as the project moves northward in stages and forces the MBTA to keep portions of the tracks train-free while crews swap 147,000 defective concrete ties with wooden ties. The suspension of weekend service will not be supplemented by shuttle buses and begins March 25 for the entire Middleboro Line and late April for both the Greenbush and Old Colony Line to Kingston and Plymouth. Weekday service on the Greenbush Line will not be affected.

Source: The Patriot Ledger, March 22, 2011