General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

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MBTA to shut down part of Red Line for repairs in October

The MBTA announced Thursday that it plans to suspend service on part of the Red Line for repairs for two weeks in October. The T said in a press release that it will shut down the Ashmont Branch between JFK/UMass and Ashmont stations and the Mattapan Line between Ashmont and Mattapan stations...
www.nbcboston.com www.nbcboston.com

Red Line Ashmont Branch and Mattapan HSL both shutting down for 2 weeks for repairs in October. 10/14 to 10/29 the dates in question.
 
Mattapan line shutdown seems a bit out of left field. Don't remember reading about track issues/slow zones on it before.
 
Graphic from today's GM report:
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#bancars said:
This was a fun read. Ward Maps is a treasure!

www.bostonglobe.com

Change is what cities do — and nothing drives that change like mass transit - The Boston Globe

A city’s defined not just by its boundaries but how it moves within them.
www.bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com
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Beaucher has curated a show of local transit maps, “Getting Around Town: Four Centuries of Mapping Boston in Transit.” It opens at the Boston Public Library’s Leventhal Map & Education Center Sept. 9 and runs through Apr. 27. The show includes some 125 items — not just maps, but also guidebooks, pamphlets, and other ephemera.
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Oooooooooh!
 
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It's funny how the Ashmont closure is widely publicized but these frequent closures of the braintree line get much less attention. These closures have been going on for a while.
 
It's probably because Braintree is a weekend closure" but Ashmont is multi-week closure that has a similar sound to "ripe the band-aid". Both again, I hope we actually see a payoff - a full and undeniable one too. The OL shutdown might have given us a payoff (maybe OL would would be RL bad or worse if it wasn't done), but the fact it is slower now than before the shutdown makes it full of asterisks and clauses.

I also find it interesting they are explicitly noting 12 hour shifts. I think it does give hope they are serious in using the time. One thing the Orange Line shutdown never answer (officially, I did asked a friend who works for the MBTA as a project manager, but given I'm just a random internet dude, it doesn't matter that much to say it), was did they actually took advantage of the 24 hour day by doing triple shifting rather than just free to do repairs during the daytime. That note clearly communicate they plan to use the time to the hour.
 
Slow zones on the Orange and Red lines are pretty much back to square one at the initial slowzone order where they were in March and April 2023. All progress since March and April 2023 undone and reverted back to the slowest speeds of this year.

If not there yet, then by next week at the current rate. Right at back to school time perfectly.

Also, bus service frequency reductions on the 137, 57, 504, 69, 77, 83, and 86 buses take effect today. Most of these service frequency cuts are concentrated in the Brighton and Cambridge areas, which will now see reduced bus service. Orange Line and Green Line branches will have reduced weekend service as well, beginning today.

For the "glass half full" optimists, at least the Blue Line is okay, and a new OL railcar trainset will enter service soon-ish.

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Hello Everyone,

This is probably the wrong thread to ask this question.

But I was wondering why a portion of the eastbound platform on the Green Line at Government Center is fenced off?

Thank You
 
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Green Line tunnel at Haymarket to close for 25 days from mid September to mid October.

Trains every 20 - 30 minutes on the GLX when North Station is the terminal, but..... GLX stations don't have realtime predictions heading southbound until Gilman Sq. or East Somerville. ProximiT only updated today or yesterday, or it's because my phone is too old.

Had this screen running for 15 - 20 mins. Ball Sq., only has predictions counting from 11 seconds if there are predictions.

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I really wish they would just run a shuttle bus from Union Square to Lechmere and encourage most who could do the walk to just go over to East Somerville and then run all the service to Medford/Tufts. The headways would still be bad but it wouldn't be as unusable as now, and even with the shuttle to Lechmere or the further walk, Union Square would still be better served.
 
I was thinking about something this morning. How is it that the Commuter rail which has just as extensive of a rail network if not more expansive than the subway, does not have all of these track issues?
 
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beck4537 said:
I was thinking about something this morning. How is it that the Commuter rail which has just as extensive of a rail network if not more expansive than the subway, does not have all of these track issues?
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Do we know CR doesn't have issues that are simply undiscovered? If you don't look you don't see the problems.

Or is it because CR is under FRA regulations, perhaps making inspection and repair (or speed restriction) more rigorously enforced?
 
Blue Line to Lynn said:
I really wish they would just run a shuttle bus from Union Square to Lechmere and encourage most who could do the walk to just go over to East Somerville and then run all the service to Medford/Tufts. The headways would still be bad but it wouldn't be as unusable as now, and even with the shuttle to Lechmere or the further walk, Union Square would still be better served.
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Seems like they will be closing the Union branch from September 18- Oct 12 for the squire bridge work which lines up with the Government Center Garage Closure which means that the headways will be between 10-16 minutes on the Medford Branch.
 
beck4537 said:
I was thinking about something this morning. How is it that the Commuter rail which has just as extensive of a rail network if not more expansive than the subway, does not have all of these track issues?
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Don't take this as more than vague speculation but:

- I don't think the wear is anywhere near as significant on most of it - wider radius curves + far less volume on much of it.

- A lot of it has some other entity that's got legal rights to use it and does, and will probably cry foul if the state isn't keeping up it's responsibilities. Amtrak, freights, etc.

- I believe Keolis does a lot of the work/a lot of the work is done through Keolis, their name is on a lot of work announcements. Are they facing the same staffing issues the MBTA is? I feel like I haven't seen reports of CR trains getting canceled for lack of crews - while that doesn't mean their track crews are also well staffed, it's notably different from the MBTA.

- I certainly don't have a number, but I feel like there have been a lot of different trackwork projects over the past 10-15 years or so all over the place and like I've seen lots of different announcements go by regarding them. (plus basically every line getting a new/majorly upgraded signal system) They also often seem to be at larger scales than we often see for subway track work - for example, the Haverhill Line got about 30 track-miles replaced in 2021 and you can find a project in of that kind of scope in many years.
 
beck4537 said:
I was thinking about something this morning. How is it that the Commuter rail which has just as extensive of a rail network if not more expansive than the subway, does not have all of these track issues?
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I listened to the radio Boston podcast yesterday with Brian Kane the executive director of the MBTA advisory board and he basically summed it up as they deferred routine maintenance for over 30 years so it got to the point now where they have to rip entire sections out and redo them, where if they had been doing the routine maintenance required you can fix the small issues as they come before they compound into major issues. He estimated that we have 4 years until the MBTA is back into a “new” normal state of repair where there aren’t slow zones or large shut downs.
 
And it's a lot easier to do maintenance on CR since ridership on weekends is so low it's NBD if you take it out of service to do work then.
 
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