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  1. alewife

    Green Line Extension to Medford & Union Sq

    I believe it’s unrelated, because there are several hand-throw crossovers posted at 25 or 30 mph. But as F-Line noted, they’re unlikely to change it any time soon given the recent derailment.
  2. alewife

    Green Line Extension to Medford & Union Sq

    Green Line rules only allow a maximum speed of 10 mph within interlocking limits (i.e. over automatic switches), so 10 mph is the “normal” maximum speed there. (My hope is that the T eventually changes this rule, because that section in particular is brutal.)
  3. alewife

    Green Line Type 10 Procurement

    Single Type 10s are shorter than a 2-car train of current vehicles, so there are no platform length issues for those. As noted above, Lake Street will need to be rebuilt and some modifications made at Reservoir before Type 10s can run on the B or C because the Type 10s have a larger minimum...
  4. alewife

    General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

    Shuttle buses were a mess this morning…they're serving Union Square as a deviation off the main route to Medford/Tufts. That added at least 20 minutes to my trip from Gilman to North Station. Hopefully they figure out how to streamline things a bit.
  5. alewife

    General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

    The extremely useful "Changes to Transit Service in the MBTA District" notes that the 66 previously operated in this way from 1998 to 2004, but reverted to the surface routing to accommodate the operation of CNG buses (which are banned from the Harvard bus tunnel due to safety concerns) on the...
  6. alewife

    MBTA Buses & Infrastructure

    It's likely associated with the (supposedly temporary) cutback of the 85 from Spring Hill to Union Square due to street construction on Summer St. and Central St.
  7. alewife

    New Red and Orange Line Cars

    I rode on 1512 this morning, so at least 2 more cars have now entered service since the NETransit roster was updated a few weeks ago. It's good to see some movement on acceptances. And…one of the doors was already broken 🫠. The more things change, the more they stay the same… Also a curiosity...
  8. alewife

    General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

    The Technical Provisions (warning: 1,300+ page PDF) for the new Red and Orange Line cars include the route profile diagrams for both lines as an appendix, including speed information. The signaling specs in the document ("ATP & ASR") also include the speed codes used on each line, which top out...
  9. alewife

    General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

    Lechmere Viaduct update: The 10 mph speed signs have been taken down, strongly suggesting it was indeed a heat related restriction. (It’s still on the dashboard, but it may not have been updated yet.)
  10. alewife

    General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

    In unfortunate news, I saw a 10 mph speed restriction posted on the southbound/westbound Lechmere Viaduct this morning (that my train absolutely did not observe lol). The sign had a yellow background, which I haven’t seen before and which may or may not have any significance, but the dashboard...
  11. alewife

    General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

    All subway car deliveries for at least the past 30 years have been by flatbed truck, including the Type 8s, 0700-series Blue Line cars, Type 9s, and CRRC Red/Orange Line cars.
  12. alewife

    General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

    A 2-car train of Type 10s at 225' long won't fit on either the inner or outer loops at Heath Street. This presentation from 2018 gives the length of the inner loop platform as 131'. The outer loop isn't used in revenue service as the platform is not accessible, but some rough estimating using...
  13. alewife

    MBTA Buses & Infrastructure

    The transfer between the new 86 and 109 seems relatively convenient to me—northbound/eastbound, both routes will use the Harvard busway, and southbound/westbound, both routes serve Dawes Island and the Eliot St @ Bennett St stop. Hopefully the schedules are somewhat coordinated, especially for...
  14. alewife

    Fairmount Line Upgrade

    Stringing wires on the Fairmount Line should be a no-brainer—it connects to the electrified NEC on both ends and won't need any substations of its own. It also provides redundancy to Amtrak as an alternate route should there be any disruptions between Readville and South Station. If the T won't...
  15. alewife

    General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

    By their very nature, the tracks are constantly deteriorating. Keeping them in good order is a constant, Sisyphean task. In my opinion, the key thing to look for is not whether new speed restrictions are imposed after inspections, but how quickly they’re cleared. The big problem is that for...
  16. alewife

    New Red and Orange Line Cars

    The roster page got updated yesterday with some new information. On the Orange Line, 2 more cars (1502/1503) were accepted for service and 4 more cars (1506/1507 and 1508/1509) were delivered last month, bringing the total number of cars in service to 104 and the number of cars on the property...
  17. alewife

    MBTA Buses & Infrastructure

    It’s not so much a sign of AFC 2.0 as the last component of AFC 1.5. I believe the “Change Tickets” issued by fare boxes are the last remaining use of the old magstripe CharlieTickets that were otherwise replaced by tappable RFID tickets in AFC 1.5. When fully implemented, AFC 2.0 will phase out...
  18. alewife

    MBTA Buses & Infrastructure

    The BNRD changes the 455’s route between Wonderland and Lynn to match the 442’s through Point of Pines. That’s the portion getting the “frequent service” designation.
  19. alewife

    General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

    And maybe this is just my bias because it's my home station, but I think (at least based on predicted ridership numbers) Gilman Square is the busiest station north of Lechmere (except maybe Medford/Tufts). It feels like it would make more sense to express from there instead of East Somerville...
  20. alewife

    MBTA Buses & Infrastructure

    The static PDF map of the Bus Network Redesign does give the combined 35/36 between Forest Hills and West Roxbury the same visual treatment as the frequent-service "T" routes (which I believe also implies that headways are coordinated on the shared section). Other combined corridors getting the...

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