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

[bigeman312]

Speed restrictions remain in place for 5-7 days after track work typically. Some of them may stay in place longer due to the scope and sensitivity of the work. They are in the process of lifting some of them currently, and will eventually clear all slow zones in the coming days.

The MBTA initially communicated a 5-7 day period of settling. Now that we are on day 9, has there been any updated communication? I can’t find any. This inclination to downplay any inconvenient truth erodes trust in the MBTA.

 

[ulrichomega]

There also doesn't seem to have been any movement on the Transit Matters data dashboard in the past few days. So they removed a few slow zones late last week, but haven't done anything since then.

EDIT: Needless to say this is unacceptable. The MBTA shut down a line used by hundreds of thousands for an entire month and just made things (from a user-facing perspective) worse. And there's not the slightest bit of communication about what's going on.

 

[nbcoram]

I'm beginning to suspect that some of the work may have been botched. The MBTA told WGBH's Jeremy Siegel last night that they had eliminated all slow zones except between Assembly and North Station. There are still a handful of slow zones outside of that area, including Tufts to Back Bay southbound (northbound, Back Bay to Tufts is running at about 1.4 minutes as of yesterday evening, which is a significant improvement from before the shutdown). It is true that they said a few slow zones would remain, but I'm mostly comparing to pre-shutdown conditions.

What is really suspicious to me is what happened between Assembly and North Station southbound on Friday morning. It had been running at, generally, 13-14 minutes the whole week up until that point. All of a sudden, it looked like the slow zones in that stretch had been lifted: from the start of service until around 11:30 Friday morning, that stretch was running in the 5.5 to 6.5 minute range, which was close to on par with the pre-shutdown numbers. But inexplicably, that slow zone was then reinstated (and is still in effect now)! I'm no expert but this is all starting to not add up, especially given that new rail usually should have settled by now. See below screenshots of Assembly to North Station southbound, including a more detailed look at Friday (which is already super obvious on the broader graph given the massive dip in the interquartile range).

(FWIW, there was not a similar drop in travel times observed from North Station to Assembly northbound - that slow zone has only modestly improved by about a minute, from 15 to 14 minutes, since the shutdown ended.)

But this is the same agency that needed two months to lift the work-related slow zones under Boston Harbor on the Blue Line after that work got botched, after all (see below), so who knows?

Anyone with more knowledge on the process of rail settling or anything else I mentioned, if I got anything wrong here, please feel free to correct me.

 

[bigeman312]

Transitmatters is a godsend. Imagine how in-the-dark we’d be if we had to rely on the MBTA to accurately report their own service.

 

[nbcoram]

Transitmatters is a godsend. Imagine how in-the-dark we’d be if we had to rely on the MBTA to accurately report their own service.

Oh, absolutely.

The Red Line slow zones looked completely ridiculous on their Slow Zone tracker, until the Orange Line reopened and made the Red Line look fast on the chart by comparison.

 

[Riverside]

A colleague at work today was telling me how he commuted via the OL for the first time in a while today, only to discover that trains were running incredibly slowly. To be honest, if they were going to need 5-7 days to settle the tracks (and yes, we are now in Day 9), then they should’ve baked that into the shutdown schedule. This is destroying any remaining goodwill they might have accrued during the surprisingly-well-executed shutdown.

 

[Brattle Loop]

A colleague at work today was telling me how he commuted via the OL for the first time in a while today, only to discover that trains were running incredibly slowly. To be honest, if they were going to need 5-7 days to settle the tracks (and yes, we are now in Day 9), then they should’ve baked that into the shutdown schedule. This is destroying any remaining goodwill they might have accrued during the surprisingly-well-executed shutdown.

It really doesn't seem like they understand how to manage the PR of all of this stuff very well at all. I'm not sure I entirely agree with you that they should have baked a settling period into the shutdown, because that would either have required them to finish the track work a week-plus ahead of the end of the four weeks (reducing the amount of time for work) or required extending it (to accomplish the same work), and a slow-as-molasses Orange Line is still better than no Orange Line. The problem is that they pitched the shutdown as a dramatic, transformative necessity, meaning not only is their credibility going to go from poor to nonexistent if they have to shut it down (even for shorter durations) anytime soon, it also means that people expect to see improvements, not helped by their mistaken (or outright false) claims about how long the slow zones would persist. It now appears as they outright lied to us; that's what the sentiment will be if things don't improve quickly. And all of that could have been minimized if not outright avoided if they'd done a better job of explaining exactly why they needed the shutdown, exactly what it was doing and what it was not doing, and if they'd accurately painted a picture of what the resumed service looked like, and made sure that they would be able to show significant, tangible improvements quickly. Is it really so hard that they can't do any of these things right?

 

[Riverside]

a slow-as-molasses Orange Line is still better than no Orange Line.

Agree with your whole post, but I’ll voice a note of skepticism here. The shuttle service seemed to run surprisingly well, and at least people had learned what to expect. Clearly it still was a severely degraded form of service, but… well, I’d say this is a pretty degraded form of service as well, and frankly it looks like the buses were more comfortable. So… probably I agree that molasses-Orange is better than no-Orange, but…

 

[nbcoram]

Agree with your whole post, but I’ll voice a note of skepticism here. The shuttle service seemed to run surprisingly well, and at least people had learned what to expect. Clearly it still was a severely degraded form of service, but… well, I’d say this is a pretty degraded form of service as well, and frankly it looks like the buses were more comfortable. So… probably I agree that molasses-Orange is better than no-Orange, but…

FWIW, slow-as-molasses Orange is still considerably faster than shuttled Orange. End-to-end, it takes in the vicinity of 50 minutes to traverse the line right now compared to somewhere in the ballpark of 100-120 minutes via the shuttles, depending on traffic. 50 minutes was also about what it took to get from Oak Grove to Government Center on the shuttles. To be fair, most riders don't traverse the whole length of the line, but even in the slowest stretches of the line, it's still faster than the shuttles.

You are definitely right that this is a significantly degraded form of service, the shuttle buses are more comfortable than the trains, and the shuttles weren't as big of a disaster as many anticipated. The real issue here is the MBTA lying about how long slow zones would persist - regardless of why the slow zones are persisting, the communication has been horrific.

 

[Brattle Loop]

Agree with your whole post, but I’ll voice a note of skepticism here. The shuttle service seemed to run surprisingly well, and at least people had learned what to expect. Clearly it still was a severely degraded form of service, but… well, I’d say this is a pretty degraded form of service as well, and frankly it looks like the buses were more comfortable. So… probably I agree that molasses-Orange is better than no-Orange, but…

Yeah, fair points, though the connectivity was a significant downgrade. That doesn't take away from the fact that the shuttle was handled decently, better than I for one expected at the outset. Atrociously-slow as the OL might be at the moment, it at least has its proper transfers back and doesn't require a transfer to cross downtown.

You are definitely right that this is a significantly degraded form of service, the shuttle buses are more comfortable than the trains, and the shuttles weren't as big of a disaster as many anticipated. The real issue here is the MBTA lying about how long slow zones would persist - regardless of why the slow zones are persisting, the communication has been horrific.

Definitely part of why we're even comparing the shuttles (as decently-implemented as they were) to the OL is that we were led to believe that OL service would be improved. Some of that was somewhere between misdirection and an outright lie from the get-go, because we knew there was no way they'd fix the OCC staffing issue that led to the severe cut in service levels, but they also made an outright statement about how long the slow zones would last which clearly was not accurate. So we're dealing with still-poor service with little tangible to show for the slowdown; ideally the speeds will increase soon and this will just be an annoying dispute over the accuracy of their statements, but if the problems persist, it'll look absolutely disastrous, because there's no reasonable world in which there should even be a contest between shuttles and an HRT line.

 

[Jahvon09]

The MBTA has another problem that still has yet to be taken care of! One that has plagued T commuters for at least several years now. Orange Line commuters are frustrated & wondering why, JUST WHY this wasn't taken care of during the the time that the line was just shut down for it's redo. The escalators at some of the stations. The T said 6that it's waiting for parts to fix them. There were at least 2 incidents at the Back Bay Station that weren't fixed yet. The one & only one at Bowdein Street has been down for what seems like eons!! Why is this train wreck allowed to continue?!!

‘Chaos': After MBTA Escalator Malfunction, Couple Recalls Similar Failure in 2011

The NBC10 Investigators found more than 50 lawsuits tied to escalator injuries at MBTA stations around the Boston area, including an incident in 2011 that was eerily similar to a recent malfunction at the Back Bay MBTA station.

www.nbcboston.com

 

[sneijder]

I'd love to be educated on this - how do other rapid transit systems deal with this? Just anecdotally riding the Tube in London, the Metro in DC, or even the NYC subway we don't hear much about slow zones - even directly after weekend track work, the line immediately resumes running at track speed - just thinking about NYC's 2/3/4/5 express runs from 42nd st to 96th street - those always seem to be running 20 trains per hour at 40mph fairly seamlessly. How come the MBTA struggles with this so much?

 

[bigeman312]

MBTA Hopes to Lift Remaining Orange Line Slow Zones In Coming Days

The slow zones on the MBTA's Orange Line should soon be a thing of the past, the agency said Wednesday.

During the recent 30-day shutdown, one of the MBTA's goals was to get rid of six slow zones on the track - at Jackson Square and Stony Brook, State and Downtown Crossing, Tufts Medical Center and Back Bay, Community College and North Station, and two zones between Assembly and Wellington along Dana Bridge.

Though the shutdown ended last Monday, the slow zones were still in place. An MBTA spokesperson said typically slow zones are kept in place for about a week after construction as the new track and ballast settle when the trains run over them.

All of the slow zones south of North Station and north of Assembly Station have been eliminated. There are still temporary speed restrictions between Assembly and North stations while workers complete routine maintenance work. The MBTA intends to lift those restrictions in the coming days.

Looking at transitmatters' data, here is the current status of each of the defined slow zones that were in place to start the week:

• Wellington -> Assembly: Mostly lifted last Friday (3.6 minutes -> 1.6 minutes), but still slower than pre-shutdown (1.0 minutes).
• Assembly -> Sullivan: Briefly mostly lifted last Friday morning, before returning (3.3 minutes -> 1.2 minutes -> 3.3 minutes), but even that was slower than pre-shutdown (0.8 minutes).
• Sullivan -> Community College: Briefly lifted last Friday morning, before returning (5.2 minutes -> 1.4 minutes -> 5.2 minutes), which matched pre-shutdown (1.4 minutes).
• Community College -> North Station: Briefly lifted last Friday morning, before returning (2.2 minutes -> 1.5 minutes -> 2.2 minutes), which matched pre-shutdown (1.5 minutes).
• Chinatown -> Tufts Medical Center: Yet to be lifted (1.1 minutes) compared to pre-shutdown (0.4 minutes).
• Tufts Medical Center -> Back Bay: An existing slow zone (1.2 minutes -> 2.8 minutes) that was partially lifted last Friday (2.5 minutes).
• Mass Ave -> Ruggles: An existing slow zone (0.9 minutes -> 1.2 minutes) that was lifted yesterday evening!
• Jackson Square -> Stony Brook: A new slow zone post-shutdown (1.1 minutes -> 3.0 minutes) that was mostly lifted last Wednesday (1.4 minutes), before finally being fully lifted yesterday afternoon!

So, some progress was made yesterday, but six slow zones remain (three slow zones if you count Wellington -> North Station as one big slow zone).

 

[nbcoram]

MBTA Hopes to Lift Remaining Orange Line Slow Zones In Coming Days



Looking at transitmatters' data, here is the current status of each of the defined slow zones that were in place to start the week:

• Wellington -> Assembly: Mostly lifted last Friday (3.6 minutes -> 1.6 minutes), but still slower than pre-shutdown (1.0 minutes).
• Assembly -> Sullivan: Briefly mostly lifted last Friday morning, before returning (3.3 minutes -> 1.2 minutes -> 3.3 minutes), but even that was slower than pre-shutdown (0.8 minutes).
• Sullivan -> Community College: Briefly lifted last Friday morning, before returning (5.2 minutes -> 1.4 minutes -> 5.2 minutes), which matched pre-shutdown (1.4 minutes).
• Community College -> North Station: Briefly lifted last Friday morning, before returning (2.2 minutes -> 1.5 minutes -> 2.2 minutes), which matched pre-shutdown (1.5 minutes).
• Chinatown -> Tufts Medical Center: Yet to be lifted (1.1 minutes) compared to pre-shutdown (0.4 minutes).
• Tufts Medical Center -> Back Bay: An existing slow zone (1.2 minutes -> 2.8 minutes) that was partially lifted last Friday (2.5 minutes).
• Mass Ave -> Ruggles: An existing slow zone (0.9 minutes -> 1.2 minutes) that was lifted yesterday evening!
• Jackson Square -> Stony Brook: A new slow zone post-shutdown (1.1 minutes -> 3.0 minutes) that was mostly lifted last Wednesday (1.4 minutes), before finally being fully lifted yesterday afternoon!

So, some progress was made yesterday, but six slow zones remain (three slow zones if you count Wellington -> North Station as one big slow zone).

Thank you for this! I wanted to do a deeper analysis than what I gave yesterday - just like this - but work got in the way yesterday and today.

It's good to see at least some progress on some of the slow zones but it's clear they still have some work left. I'm off work tomorrow and might make a spreadsheet comparing the times between every stop.

For now since I'm exhausted, out of curiosity, I looked at times in the opposite direction to your analysis...
Stony Brook to Jackson Square: was lifted last week. Existing slow zone was 2.2 minutes pre-shutdown and remained as such initially post-shutdown, before going to 1.1 minutes
Ruggles to Mass Ave: Still considerably slower than pre-shutdown, though was partially lifted today. Was just under 1.3 minutes pre-shutdown, then went to about 2.8 minutes before dropping to 2 minutes today.
Back Bay to Tufts: As I noted yesterday, this is considerably faster than pre-shutdown. Ran at about 2 minutes before, was at about 1.9 minutes initially post-shutdown before going to 1.4-1.5 minutes in the last several days. This segment ran at 1.2 minutes back in 2018 so it's not perfect, but still a notable improvement in this direction.
Tufts to Chinatown: Ran just shy of 0.5 minutes pre-shutdown; now is at about 1.3 minutes and has not budged through 10 days.
North Station to Community College: This segment ran in the neighborhood of 3.5 minutes, with fluctuations of +/- ~0.2 minutes, pre-shutdown. The pre-shutdown slow zone here was instated on July 28; prior to that it ran consistently at ~1.5 minutes. Post-shutdown, it initially ran at about 3.7 minutes, then went down to 2.8 minutes on Friday... before the median went up to over 3.2 minutes today.
Community to Sullivan: Ran at 1.8 minutes pre-shutdown, though this was a slow zone; prior to the slow zone being instated on July 21 it ran at about 1.3 minutes. Went up to 5.2 minutes post-shutdown and has stayed at that level since.
Sullivan to Assembly: This area was subject to a slow zone in the spring that got mostly corrected, and then another (slightly less egregious) one was instated but fully corrected a few weeks before the shutdown. This led to a travel time of just under 0.9 minutes pre-shutdown. Post-shutdown, it is running just below 3.3 minutes.
Assembly to Wellington: Travel times were just under 1.0 minute pre-shutdown; post-shutdown, it initially ran at about 3.7 minutes, before going down to (and staying at) just under 1.4 minutes on Friday.

TL;DR: They're still lying about some of the slow zones beyond that magical North Station to Assembly zone going northbound, too. And in that NS-Assembly range, I have so, so many questions for them.

 

[bigeman312]

Thank you for this! I wanted to do a deeper analysis than what I gave yesterday - just like this - but work got in the way yesterday and today.

It's good to see at least some progress on some of the slow zones but it's clear they still have some work left. I'm off work tomorrow and might make a spreadsheet comparing the times between every stop.

For now since I'm exhausted, out of curiosity, I looked at times in the opposite direction to your analysis...
Stony Brook to Jackson Square: was lifted last week. Existing slow zone was 2.2 minutes pre-shutdown and remained as such initially post-shutdown, before going to 1.1 minutes
Ruggles to Mass Ave: Still considerably slower than pre-shutdown, though was partially lifted today. Was just under 1.3 minutes pre-shutdown, then went to about 2.8 minutes before dropping to 2 minutes today.
Back Bay to Tufts: As I noted yesterday, this is considerably faster than pre-shutdown. Ran at about 2 minutes before, was at about 1.9 minutes initially post-shutdown before going to 1.4-1.5 minutes in the last several days. This segment ran at 1.2 minutes back in 2018 so it's not perfect, but still a notable improvement in this direction.
Tufts to Chinatown: Ran just shy of 0.5 minutes pre-shutdown; now is at about 1.3 minutes and has not budged through 10 days.
North Station to Community College: This segment ran in the neighborhood of 3.5 minutes, with fluctuations of +/- ~0.2 minutes, pre-shutdown. The pre-shutdown slow zone here was instated on July 28; prior to that it ran consistently at ~1.5 minutes. Post-shutdown, it initially ran at about 3.7 minutes, then went down to 2.8 minutes on Friday... before the median went up to over 3.2 minutes today.
Community to Sullivan: Ran at 1.8 minutes pre-shutdown, though this was a slow zone; prior to the slow zone being instated on July 21 it ran at about 1.3 minutes. Went up to 5.2 minutes post-shutdown and has stayed at that level since.
Sullivan to Assembly: This area was subject to a slow zone in the spring that got mostly corrected, and then another (slightly less egregious) one was instated but fully corrected a few weeks before the shutdown. This led to a travel time of just under 0.9 minutes pre-shutdown. Post-shutdown, it is running just below 3.3 minutes.
Assembly to Wellington: Travel times were just under 1.0 minute pre-shutdown; post-shutdown, it initially ran at about 3.7 minutes, before going down to (and staying at) just under 1.4 minutes on Friday.

TL;DR: They're still lying about some of the slow zones beyond that magical North Station to Assembly zone going northbound, too. And in that NS-Assembly range, I have so, so many questions for them.

Thanks! I was intending to hop on and do the same analysis for northbound but you beat me to it. I appreciate you!

 

[Highwayguy]

Nothing to add except that over 5 minutes Community to Sullivan is banana land.

Honest question, does the B branch have a higher average speed than the OL North Station-Wellington?

 

[Brattle Loop]

Honest question, does the B branch have a higher average speed than the OL North Station-Wellington?

Good question, I'll tack on another; does the B's average speed vary based on time of day/traffic conditions? (I feel like that section around the BU Bridge could get...gridlock-y)

 

[bigeman312]

Honest question, does the B branch have a higher average speed than the OL North Station-Wellington?

BC - Government Center is approximately 6.4 track miles.

Wellington - North Station is approximately 2.8 track miles.

Yesterday:

• BC -> Government Center had a median trip time of 45 minutes, which amounts to 8.5 mph.
• Government Center -> BC had a median trip time of 47 minutes, which amounts to 8.2 mph.
• North Station -> Wellington had a median trip time of 17 minutes, which amounts to 9.9 mph.
• Wellington -> North Station had a median trip time of 16 minutes, which amounts to 10.5 mph

So, Wellington - North Station isn’t quite as slow as the B-Branch of the Green Line, even with these speed restrictions. Let’s check the most egregious section, Assembly - Community College, which is about 1.4 track miles.

• Assembly <-> Community College had a median trip time of 10 minutes in either direction. This amounts to 8.4 mph. Slightly slower than a median inbound B-Branch run.

So, over two consecutive stop segments (Assembly - Sullivan - Community College), the Orange Line’s average speed is as slow as the B-Branch of the Green Line.

If anything, this exercise puts in perspective just how slow the B-Branch is.

 

[bakgwailo]

Let's not forget one of the big things here was removing the existing slow zones - so, it's rather even worse. It should be faster than the pre-shutdown averages, not just shooting to get back to on par with what it was in the various slow zones they defined.

 

[bigeman312]

Let's not forget one of the big things here was removing the existing slow zones - so, it's rather even worse. It should be faster than the pre-shutdown averages, not just shooting to get back to on par with what it was in the various slow zones they defined.

Thank you! My girlfriend is a driver first and foremost and she asked me a couple days ago, “how is the Orange Line doing after the shutdown?”

I responded, “it’s about 12 minutes slower from Forest Hills to Oak Grove.”

Her response: “that’s not bad.” That’s a fairly typical gut reaction from the general population, for whatever reason.

No. It’s very, very bad. I don’t think non-T-riders understand the situation. If they closed a highway for a month to pave potholes and when it reopened there were more potholes, that would be unacceptable. If MassDOT lied (including double speak: “the slow zones have been lifted …. (speed restrictions remain in place)”) about the presence of these new potholes and how long they’d be in place, that would not be acceptable.

Any amount slower than pre-shutdown at this point, day 11 of service returning, is a complete, unmitigated disaster.