Starting this weekend, an impromptu shutdown of the T will impact thousands of riders in Boston.

The T will undergo maintenance for the next six weekends and many riders seem to recognize that upgrades are needed.

“I think it’s a reasonable approach. It’s an old system and it needs maintenance,” one T rider told WBZ.

The T will close the orange line between Sullivan Square and Tufts Medical Center starting at 8:45 PM tonight. The closures will happen every Friday and regular service will resume on Monday mornings at 5 AM.

“If we had to do these just on overnights, it would take us months and months to do the same amount of work that we could just do in one weekend,” said MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak.

Poftak says while Boston has experienced weekend closures before, it hasn’t been to this scale. Riders say they’re okay with the change as long as it doesn’t impact their work schedule.

“During the week – no, that would be a disaster,” said one T rider.

Improvements will be made in areas like Downtown Crossing, Haymarket, State and Chinatown stations. These improvements include painting, tile work, new signage, and new tracks.

“I think it would be great because the ride is rather bumpy,” said a T rider.

“It’ll a little inconvenient for people, but we’ll just haver to make it through,” said another rider.

You can also catch the green line if you must make it to one of the areas where contractors will be working on maintenance. Everything is set to be finished by Nov. 10.