General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

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Just an interesting observation, for the first time in my life I saw an MBTA employee radar speed checking blue line trains. Knew that was a thing on the green line but I always assumed the signal system enforced speed limits on the heavy rail system.
 
HelloBostonHi said:
View attachment 66062
Just an interesting observation, for the first time in my life I saw an MBTA employee radar speed checking blue line trains. Knew that was a thing on the green line but I always assumed the signal system enforced speed limits on the heavy rail system.
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Red and Orange have an absolute speed limit set by the ATO system's 1-bit pulse code that the train can never physically exceed. Blue uses a more archaic mechanical trip-stop system that uses a timing mechanism to set and lift the mechanical trip arms at the signal heads. The timing of the trips is set to the speed limit via the number of seconds it takes to go between trips, with speed penalties incurred by physically striking a set trip. You can, however, overspeed all you want between the trips, though if you don't slow down enough at the next trip you're going to get penalized with an absolute stop. So it's not easy to speed on Blue, but the signal system can be cheated against to a degree if you've got enough skill at working the throttle. Some operators absolutely do it.
 

QUINCY ‒ More than six years after construction began, North Quincy's MBTA parking garage at 189 Hancock St. will open to commuters on Monday, Sept. 15, according to a T webpage. Existing T parking accessed from Newport Avenue Extension will close permanently.

Of the garage's 1,600 spaces, 852 are reserved for commuters, with the rest allotted to residents of the massive mixed-use complex known as The Abby, which stretches over 7.2 acres along the the Red Line and contains over 600 apartments, a Paris Baguette bakery and a PNC Bank.

[...]

The Newport Avenue parking lot will be used for MBTA "internal operations" and no longer provide parking for commuters, the spokesperson said. However, pedestrian access from Newport Avenue to the North Quincy Center T station entrance will remain open.

In addition, a "park and pedal" bike cage is in the works, although it may not be ready for the Sept. 15 opening, according to the spokesperson.
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I sure hope North Quincy gets their bike cage in more timely fashion than Quincy Adams has.
 
My notes from the Lynnway meeting tonight:

Stated goals: (In no particular order)
  • Faster travel times on public transport between Lynn and Wonderland
  • Make the Lynnway less dangerous
  • Build out transit for ongoing and future redevelopment of the commercial areas
  • Preserve a major private vehicle access road to Nahant, Swampscott, and Marblehead

About the design:
  • They don't have a plan, they have concepts of a plan. Nothing is final.
  • There will be a minimum of 2 private vehicle travel lanes between the bridge and Market St
  • No commitment to center-running bus lanes but at least some form of bus priority seems very likely, the MBTA's Bus Priority Project Manager was the presenter after all.
  • Technically a different project but the replacement for the General Edwards bridge will feature a bi-directional shared use path. Continuation of this path along the Lynnway seems overwhelmingly likely.
  • The presenter was fairly pessimistic about pedestrian overpasses but as mentioned, nothing is final.
  • Stated preference to avoid eminent domain so don't a complete overhaul of the entire area.
General participant sentiments:
  • Both pro and anti bike/bus lane speakers, some more well stated than others shall we say.
  • Lots of confusion about the redevelopment plans, and a lot of people not aware that there is any redevelopment at all
  • Nahant was wildly over-represented in speakers. Lynn folks need to come out! Your town, your politicians and planners, your vote!

Subjective opinions about the meeting:
  • There really was not a lot to present, it makes me question the utility of having the meetings at this stage.
  • If these meetings are happening, the format is absolutely terrible. This should be an open-house, interactive style event where people can see models and diagrams of what is being considered for the area. Without that there's just a lot of generic talk that could be a 2 sentence email.
  • If the format is going to be this, the presentation was not very good. Way too much time was spent talking about abstract goals of safety and equity, not enough time was spent talking about (and no time was spent showing) present and future conditions, and what impacts that is having on the process.
 
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TheRatmeister said:
My notes from the Lynnway meeting tonight:

Stated goals:
  • Faster travel times on public transport between Lynn and Wonderland
  • Make the Lynnway less dangerous
  • Build out transit for ongoing and future redevelopment of the commercial areas
  • Preserve a major private vehicle access road to Nahant, Swampscott, and Marblehead

About the design:
  • They don't have a plan, they have concepts of a plan. Nothing is final.
  • There will be a minimum of 2 private vehicle travel lanes between the bridge and Market St
  • No commitment to center-running bus lanes but at least some form of bus priority seems very likely, the MBTA's Bus Priority Project Manager was the presenter after all.
  • Technically a different project but the replacement for the General Edwards bridge will feature a bi-directional shared use path. Continuation of this path along the Lynnway seems overwhelmingly likely.
  • The presenter was fairly pessimistic about pedestrian overpasses but as mentioned, nothing is final.
  • Stated preference to avoid eminent domain so don't a complete overhaul of the entire area.
General participant sentiments:
  • Both pro and anti bike/bus lane speakers, some more well stated than others shall we say.
  • Lots of confusion about the redevelopment plans, and a lot of people not aware that there is any redevelopment at all
  • Nahant was wildly over-represented in speakers. Lynn folks need to come out! Your town, your politicians and planners, your vote!

Subjective opinions about the meeting:
  • There really was not a lot to present, it makes me question the utility of having the meetings at this stage.
  • If these meetings are happening, the format is absolutely terrible. This should be an open-house, interactive style event where people can see models and diagrams of what is being considered for the area. Without that there's just a lot of generic talk that could be a 2 sentence email.
  • If the format is going to be this, the presentation was not very good. Way too much time was spent talking about abstract goals of safety and equity, not enough time was spent talking about (and no time was spent showing) present and future conditions, and what impacts that is having on the process.
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I do find it strange that the top goal is:
  • Faster travel times on public transport between Lynn and Wonderland
The Lynnway (3 travel lanes) is not the bottleneck to that travel time. North Shore Road (2 travel lanes) in Revere is the bottleneck.

A center running bus lane on the Lynnway would improve travel times between South Harbor/West Lynn and the Lynn Central Square Station for commuter rail access to Boston. But the travel time improvement to Wonderland would be negligible.
 
JeffDowntown said:
I do find it strange that the top goal is:
  • Faster travel times on public transport between Lynn and Wonderland
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Goals not listed in any particular order. Safety was talked about more.
JeffDowntown said:
A center running bus lane on the Lynnway would improve travel times between South Harbor/West Lynn and the Lynn Central Square Station for commuter rail access to Boston. But the travel time improvement to Wonderland would be negligible.
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I would not call 5-8 minutes of time savings during peak hours negligible.
 
JeffDowntown said:
I really doubt you can get 5-8 minutes of improvement with the stop frequency on the Lynnway.
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If people pass the buses while they're pulled over to stop, which I can't speak to personally but knowing MA drivers seems pretty likely, then the number of stops is irrelevant, the total time spent waiting in traffic is the same as anyone else driving that stretch.
 
TheRatmeister said:
If people pass the buses while they're pulled over to stop, which I can't speak to personally but knowing MA drivers seems pretty likely, then the number of stops is irrelevant, the total time spent waiting in traffic is the same as anyone else driving that stretch.
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But the point is the traffic doesn't really back up on the Lynnway. It is somewhat metered by all the traffic lights, but buses do not wait a long time to reenter traffic (partially because they never really leave traffic, they effectively block the 3rd travel lane at the stops, the stops do not have curb cutouts). Traffic backs up on North Shore Road in Revere, when the 3 lane Lynnway becomes 2 lanes crossing the General Edwards Bridge and beyond. The bus lane on the Lynnway does nothing to address the real backup.
 
Yeah this from JeffDowntown with the Revere Street intersection on North Shore Road being wholly inadequate to clear the traffic volumes (either on Revere Street or NSR). And it’s an incredible constrained area so I don’t know what the solution could be without property takings.
 
TransitMatters just updated their monthly data from May 2025 to August 2025, and it is clear now with the new data that the so called track "improvement" program has made the Green Line much slower than before, not faster.

Green Line trips are even slower than it were than when the slow zones were present!!! Trips are slower today with today's fixed Lechmere viaduct than when the Lechmere viaduct was speed restricted to 16 km/hr. The Green Line slowed down so much that the MBTA implemented 7% weekend service cuts on the GLX this Fall 2025!!!

Note that I downloaded the data manually to create the charts, doing a range durectly in the TransitMatters dashboard itself creates an error if you do more than 14 months in the GL tunnel, or 3 years on 1 line. A manual download allows me to create graphs of 8 and a half years of daily data.

Here's the data for Medford to Haymarket:
18 minutes in 2024. After the weeks long shutdown in December 2024 at the end of the TIP program, trips began slowing, and now the median is 20.5 minutes, 2.5 min slower, or 13% slower trips.
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From North Station to Kenmore:
17 minutes in Spring 2019. Now it's almost 20 minutes. 16% slower than before.
1758244727243.png

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And Kenmore to Haymarket:
14 minutes in Spring 2019 is now 17 minutes. 20% slower trips
1758244851524.png
 
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There has to be some other issue causing this, because it can't possibly be non-existent slow zones. Any ideas for other possible causes? The pattern is actually quite consistent that there is a slow down between March and October. I wonder what might be happening with Green Line utilization during those six months....
 
Delvin4519 said:
TransitMatters just updated their monthly data from May 2025 to August 2025, and it is clear now with the new data that the so called track "improvement" program has made the Green Line much slower than before, not faster.

Green Line trips are even slower than it were than when the slow zones were present!!! Trips are slower today with today's fixed Lechmere viaduct than when the Lechmere viaduct was speed restricted to 16 km/hr. The Green Line slowed down so much that the MBTA implemented 7% weekend service cuts on the GLX this Fall 2025!!!

Note that I downloaded the data manually to create the charts, doing a range durectly in the TransitMatters dashboard itself creates an error if you do more than 14 months in the GL tunnel, or 3 years on 1 line. A manual download allows me to create graphs of 8 and a half years of daily data.

Here's the data for Medford to Haymarket:
18 minutes in 2024. After the weeks long shutdown in December 2024 at the end of the TIP program, trips began slowing, and now the median is 20.5 minutes, 2.5 min slower, or 13% slower trips.
View attachment 66994

-----
From North Station to Kenmore:
17 minutes in Spring 2019. Now it's almost 20 minutes. 16% slower than before.
View attachment 66995
-----
And Kenmore to Haymarket:
14 minutes in Spring 2019 is now 17 minutes. 20% slower trips
View attachment 66996
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Speed limits have been reduced in some locations (Park to Boylston EB + WB, Haymarket to Govy WB) and signaling rules have changed in some locations to be less permissive (Haymarket, Gov't Center). Even absent of policy changes, there's been a decrease in things like following the train into a station on a double yellow light. To me, the issues are operational in nature to a large degree, without commenting too much to keep myself out of hot water.

Another issue is disabled trains. Some days, it seems like there are more disabled trains than ever, and the T often doesn't post a single alert about them.
 
Large spans of the day I watch my TrainTrackr board show the central subway as wall to wall trains between Hynes and Government Center. It’s not scientific by any means, but the central subway is at capacity.
 
@Electric_Brooke almost certainly knows more as an operator, but I've consistently gotten the impression from city and T officials that improving safety practices on the Green Line is a much higher priority than speeds currently. For example, Boston is studying a redesign of Comm Ave and is considering adding some pedestrian only crossings of the B line to improve connectivity. However, the T has a policy (not FTA) of limiting trains to 10 mph at these crossings and city planners described them as currently unwilling to budge on that. I assume similar factors are at play along the rest of the line, and GLTPS (new GL signals) installation is one of the few things that could make a meaningful difference.
 
BeansTheCat said:
@Electric_Brooke almost certainly knows more as an operator, but I've consistently gotten the impression from city and T officials that improving safety practices on the Green Line is a much higher priority than speeds currently. For example, Boston is studying a redesign of Comm Ave and is considering adding some pedestrian only crossings of the B line to improve connectivity. However, the T has a policy (not FTA) of limiting trains to 10 mph at these crossings and city planners described them as currently unwilling to budge on that. I assume similar factors are at play along the rest of the line, and GLTPS (new GL signals) installation is one of the few things that could make a meaningful difference.
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Wouldn't installing crossing gates remove that 10 mph restriction?
 
BOS2BON said:
Wouldn't installing crossing gates remove that 10 mph restriction?
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This wouldn't be totally unprecedented, Rotterdam has these signals at crossings:
1758307907460.png

There are no gates but the lights flash and make the dings any other RR crossing would. The main concern there would be noise pollution.
 
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