MBTA "Transformation" (Green Line, Red Line, & Orange Line Transformation Projects)

The EGE said:
I also suspect its ridership may be artificially lower by the awkward transfer at Ashmont
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It really needs to be at least a timed transfer at a minimum.
The EGE said:
Given the difficulty of providing an accessible path from the outbound Ashmont platform to Radford Lane (without multiple elevators)
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If the trolley loop goes, as is the plan I believe, it should be a pretty straightforward overpass with elevators or ramps.
 
I think this is the main thread for slow zones and improvements but apologies if not.

It’s not listed on the MBTA or Transitmatters sites but there’s absolutely a slow zone over Longfellow in both directions as of this week. Sometimes there’s an announcement for traffic but headways demonstrate that’s almost certainly not the case. What gives, any insights?
 
Valley Road being eliminated would end a nearly-century-old oddity: the station is not and has never been at Valley Road. Valley Road is 450 feet to the west, while Rock View Road is half that distance. It's not a result of names being changed - the road names were in place decades before the station was. There are some anachronistic station names (Brandon Hall, Blandford Street, Nantasket Junction) and some questionably distant from their namesakes (Magoun Square, Quincy Adams, Cohasset), but this is one I've never understood.
 
TheRatmeister said:
It really needs to be at least a timed transfer at a minimum.

If the trolley loop goes, as is the plan I believe, it should be a pretty straightforward overpass with elevators or ramps.
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Correct, at least at the last meetings I attended they were talking about redoing Ashmont to be a cross platform transfer.

As for timed transfers: I promise I am not going to fly into a rant here, but, yes. At least inbound in the morning and outbound in the afternoon+night. It really, really shouldn't be hard to always have a trolley lined up and waiting at Ashmont for incoming red line trains after the morning (if prioritizing commuter patterns). The MBTA has all the tracking it needs to do it, and it blows my mind how many years (decade+?) later that they haven't done anything on timing the trolley with the actual red line. Such low hanging fruit. I'll stop now, as I realize I am about to fly into full rant mode.
 
The EGE said:
Valley Road being eliminated would end a nearly-century-old oddity: the station is not and has never been at Valley Road. Valley Road is 450 feet to the west, while Rock View Road is half that distance. It's not a result of names being changed - the road names were in place decades before the station was. There are some anachronistic station names (Brandon Hall, Blandford Street, Nantasket Junction) and some questionably distant from their namesakes (Magoun Square, Quincy Adams, Cohasset), but this is one I've never understood.
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If anything that makes me a little sad, what a wonderfully bizarre thing to have survived this long. Not sad enough to try and save a station with <10 riders per day, but still.
 
Justbuildit said:
I think this is the main thread for slow zones and improvements but apologies if not.

It’s not listed on the MBTA or Transitmatters sites but there’s absolutely a slow zone over Longfellow in both directions as of this week. Sometimes there’s an announcement for traffic but headways demonstrate that’s almost certainly not the case. What gives, any insights?
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Is there? Rode it on Saturday and didn't notice anything.
 
#bancars said:
Is there? Rode it on Saturday and didn't notice anything.
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The Longfellow backs up on the inbound side when there's station dwell delays at Park and DTX, and much more occasionally on the outbound side when there's dwell delays at Kendall and Central. The signal blocks laid out in 1988 with the installation of ATO aren't placed optimally, so adjacent-block occupancy induces an overly cautious excruciating speed restriction on the block that encompasses the bridge. And because the blocks are too long, this can manifest itself via bad timing even when the gap between trains seemingly exceeds the headway. The block layout flaw is going to be fixed when Red Line Transformation does over the signal system, so that shouldn't be an issue going forward. But that's literally been a "feature" for 35+ years, so it doesn't count as a track-related slow zone.
 
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Apparently, part of the reason they're rushing the BL flood doors is that flooding here has the potential to also knock out the Orange Line. Also, as part of this they're also decommissioning the OCS at Airport & extending the 3rd rail one stop to Wood Island, making that the new changeover point.
 
Stlin said:
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Apparently, part of the reason they're rushing the BL flood doors is that flooding here has the potential to also knock out the Orange Line. Also, as part of this they're also decommissioning the OCS at Airport & extending the 3rd rail one stop to Wood Island, making that the new changeover point.
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seems like a great opportunity to extend third rail all the way to wonderland and beyond? That way we don't need to order customized railcars for the next fleet.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
The Longfellow backs up on the inbound side when there's station dwell delays at Park and DTX, and much more occasionally on the outbound side when there's dwell delays at Kendall and Central. The signal blocks laid out in 1988 with the installation of ATO aren't placed optimally, so adjacent-block occupancy induces an overly cautious excruciating speed restriction on the block that encompasses the bridge. And because the blocks are too long, this can manifest itself via bad timing even when the gap between trains seemingly exceeds the headway. The block layout flaw is going to be fixed when Red Line Transformation does over the signal system, so that shouldn't be an issue going forward. But that's literally been a "feature" for 35+ years, so it doesn't count as a track-related slow zone.
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Excellent, thank you! All three times I experienced it were weekday rush hour but with 5 or more minutes of headway between trains. I guess it would end up being more frequent as service starts to tick back up vs the 10-15 minute headway period right around the slow zone repairs.
 
sneijder said:
seems like a great opportunity to extend third rail all the way to wonderland and beyond? That way we don't need to order customized railcars for the next fleet.
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IIRC that's under consideration in the longer term, they're just rushing to get the flood doors done which requires extending the third rail now, Wood Island is only 3000 feet away so it shouldn't be super costly, and they'll study the costs of dual-mode rolling stock and OCS replacement vs full third rail extension and single-mode rolling stock as the train procurement process inches along. I'd suspect that's included in the extremely vague "Blue Line Studies" item on the CIP.
 
Stlin said:
Apparently, part of the reason they're rushing the BL flood doors is that flooding here has the potential to also knock out the Orange Line. Also, as part of this they're also decommissioning the OCS at Airport & extending the 3rd rail one stop to Wood Island, making that the new changeover point.
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Where are these slides from?
 
How does extending the third rail one stop further make the line more resilient? Does the OCS need to extend a certain distance past the last station it's used at or is there is there a substation specifically for the OCS that's vulnerable?
 
BosMaineiac said:
How does extending the third rail one stop further make the line more resilient? Does the OCS need to extend a certain distance past the last station it's used at or is there is there a substation specifically for the OCS that's vulnerable?
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There's double third rail + OCS from Maverick to Airport because the changeover point has bounced back and forth between the two stops over the years, so they're looking to decommission the segment of OCS they aren't currently using and which has reached replacement age. Orient Heights is the big storage yard and shop so if there's a switching problem with raising or dropping the pantographs (it happens) it's effortless to yank the train out-of-service there without causing delays. Delays do accrue when there's a switching problem at Airport.

In all likelihood they are going to go full-bore with third rail to Wonderland and decommissioning the entire OCS, because it's all coming due for replacement soon. This can just be considered a prudent early-action item that they can wad up with the flood resiliency money.
 
www.dotnews.com

Latest Ashmont branch 'surge' has been a success, says MBTA's Eng | Dorchester Reporter

The shuttle buses are off the avenue and the trains are back on the rails today on the Ashmont branch of the Red Line after a nine day “surge” that MBTA general manager Phil Eng said “went extremely well.” “We’re pleased with the focus our team has building off last year’s successful work,” said...
www.dotnews.com www.dotnews.com
The “shuttles” — which have been in the plans all along—are needed to allow contractors and T workers additional time to fix a key section of tracks just beyond Ashmont station known as the “diamond crossover”— a complicated switch that has been in disrepair and needs to be totally replaced. That means removing a large section of inter-locking tracks and signals— and replacing them altogether in a timeline that will that weeks— rather than days— to complete.

Some other take-aways from this most recent T surge:

Two distinct contractors, along with vtrained T staff, have been deployed throughout the month to replace roughly 13,000 feet of rail. Eng noted that some of the work crews are full-time T employees who’ve been trained in “thermite welding,” a specialty skill that allows them to perform work that otherwise would have to be outsourced.
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It's definitely a pain in the ass, but as I have been telling my wife and friends "this is what we get for deferring maintenance and underfunding the T" (with a little bit of historical mismanagement). We rode into downtown on Saturday night and had to wait at Shawmut for about 35 minutes (display boards saying trains every 25 minutes) for a local train to come through. They are operating a single train set on their normal track, but the outbound train is offering express service Ashmont > JFk and the inbound train is offering express service JFK > Ashmont. Makes sense why they have the one train set seeing as they can't access the yard beyond Ashmont. Can't wait for normal service to resume in a few weeks.
 
$42M design-build contract awarded for C Branch accessibility:

Also an update on the Core Capacity Program:

The only thing that worries me is whether this will result in the E Branch platforms being delayed, since the current schedule on that is construction in 2027-29. (Note that the B Branch work in item #16 is a new phase that may include center platforms - it's separate from the short-term work that will be completed by 2027.)

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The EGE said:
$42M design-build contract awarded for C Branch accessibility:

Also an update on the Core Capacity Program:
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A consolidation of key parts of the Green Line Transformation program from these documents and others (some of which have been posted here before). Corrections are welcome.
Other interesting bits:
 
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