MBTA targeting Blue Line speed restrictions

MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng said speed restrictions could remain in place on the Blue Line until the end of November, but work to eliminate them could be accelerated by shutting down service earlier on weeknights.

Eng said Wednesday that the T is planning to lift seven of the 21 current speed restrictions on the Blue Line by the end of May, by suspending service at 7 p.m. on April 24-27 and May 1-4.

He told the Board of Directors that the T was considering shutting down the line each night at 7 for a month to lift the remaining speed restrictions, “saying that we could take that work down from six month’s time period to a one-month time period, and that’s what we’re proposing to do.”

However, the MBTA later walked back that statement, with a spokesperson stating that “his verbal remarks intended to show that this work could be accomplished within one month during evening diversions that start at 7 p.m., not for the entirety of one consecutive month.”

“There are additional opportunities for evening Blue Line diversions that the MBTA is exploring beyond these dates that will be announced once finalized, but the T will not shut down service for an entire month in the evenings,” an MBTA spokesperson said.

Rather, according to the spokesperson, Eng’s remarks were referring to the two diversions in late April and early May, where earlier track access at 7 p.m. would accelerate the removal of seven speed restrictions from Bowdoin to Aquarium, leaving this area slow-zone free.

That work would have otherwise taken six months with typical overnight track access from 1-3 a.m., or two months if these diversions started at 9 p.m., another time frame that had been on the table, an MBTA spokesperson said. In this case, crews will have seven hours of track access each night on those dates.

As of Wednesday, 43% or 5.4 miles of Blue Line track was speed-restricted, an improvement from March 16 when 77% of the line was covered in slow zones. But current numbers represent a significant uptick from March 1, when only 2% or 0.2 miles were speed-restricted, according to MBTA data.

Eng said upcoming construction will address 69 track defects on the Blue Line. Next steps include communicating future weeknight shutdowns to the public, which understands that diversions are necessary, he said, and that “we have a lot of work to do.”

“Ultimately, we are looking to remove all of the speed restrictions no later than November,” Eng said. “Right now, the team is still considering opportunities to progress this work and accelerate this further.”

The Red Line will be targeted next, according to Eng, who plans to share a timeline for when speed restrictions on the subway system’s slowest line will be removed “shortly.”

Work schedules are also being formulated for the Green and Orange lines, he said.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/fwCxTmv