General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

[Delvin4519]

We've got the new spring GTFS schedules posted. Here are the actual changes:

Here's the super unexciting changes for the new summer 2026 service change update.

All changes:
Orange Line weekday midday frequency decreases
Mattapan Line has more early morning service
Reduced frequency on the 34E bus and the 714 bus.
SLW partially replaced by the SL1 and SL2, except on weekdays where there is 1 fewer replacement trip.
More service on the 17 and 39.

And the updated map:
* Changed SL1 (Every 10-12 -> 10 or better), SL2 (Every 15-20 -> Every 12-15), and the 34/34E (Every 30-60 -> 15-20) (EDIT 2026-06-07 21:05: NOT THE 34E) corridors to reflect increased or coordinated service.

Old maps: Pre-COVID; 2023: Winter, Spring (Slow Zones), Summer, Fall; 2024: Winter, Spring, Summer (News), Fall; 2025: Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall 2026: Winter, Spring

 

[The EGE]

	1975	2026	2026 change
B Branch: Boston College to Park Street	35 minutes	45 minutes	+10 minutes (+29%)
C Branch: Cleveland Circle to Park Street	23 minutes	35 minutes	+12 minutes (+52%)
D Branch: Riverside to Park Street	43 minutes	48 minutes	+5 minutes (+12%)
Red Line: Quincy Center to Harvard	25 minutes	33 minutes	+8 minutes (+32%)
Red Line: Ashmont to Harvard	25 minutes	29 minutes	+4 minutes (+16%)
Red Line: Mattapan to Park Street	25 minutes	35 minutes	+10 minutes (+40%)
Orange Line: Forest Hills to Wellington	25 minutes	28 minutes	+3 minutes (+12%)
Orange Line: Forest Hills to Downtown Crossing	16 minutes	16 minutes	no change
Blue Line: Wonderland to Bowdoin	18 minutes	19 minutes	+1 minute (+5%)

The July/August 2025 issue of Rollsign, which just arrived in my mailbox, has a copy of a 1975 MBTA brochure that includes scheduled travel times. Comparing it to current midday scheduled travel times is interesting. The Orange Line and Blue Line look pretty decent (and the Southwest Corridor is actually slightly longer than the old elevated). The Red Line and Green Line, not so much. Some of the Quincy Center-Harvard difference is due to the worthwhile addition of JFK/UMass as a stop for that service.

 

[alewife]

Any idea how much the Harvard curve impacts these travel times? It probably doesn't account for all 4 minutes of the additional running time on Ashmont-Harvard, but it's another factor.

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

Any idea how much the Harvard curve impacts these travel times? It probably doesn't account for all 4 minutes of the additional running time on Ashmont-Harvard, but it's another factor.

The averages are probably getting a little bit skewed by the abysmal signal timings on the Longfellow Bridge that cause lots of extended holds during rush hour when the adjacent Park St. signal block is occupied. That's only been a thing since the 1988 installation of ATO signaling on the mainline, as prior to that the signal blocks were shorter and didn't have so many trains dragged down by Park St. dwells. Thankfully the Red Line Transformation signal upgrades are fixing that flaw in the signal layout, but it's been almost 4 decades of that routinely slowing down commutes.

 

[bakgwailo]

On Mattapan to Ashmont - I wonder if that was due to the platform to platform transfer from the Highspeed Rail in the old Ashmont station along w/ Red Line engineers waiting for the trolleys and syncing a bit better. Which is one of the more mind-blowingly low hanging fruit in the system today that the MBTA just ignores: syncing the High Speed Trolley w/ the Red Line proper, at least directionally for inbound and outbound in the morning and switching to outbound past midday (at the bare minimum).

 

[subway1500]

Here's the super unexciting changes for the new summer 2026 service change update.

Unfortunately, you may need to undo the change to the 34/34E corridor... they've made things slightly less bad, but Sunday service is still best characterized as every 20-30min due to many gaps throughout the day (as I mentioned over in the bus thread).

Not sure how you view exceptions when creating the map, but technically there is still a >30min gap on Sunday mid-afternoons (these are inbound arrival times at Forest Hills):

• 4:41pm (50)
• 4:44 (40)
• 4:44 (34E)
• 4:45 (34)
• 33min gap
• 5:18pm (34)

 

[Delvin4519]

Unfortunately, you may need to undo the change to the 34/34E corridor... they've made things slightly less bad, but Sunday service is still best characterized as every 20-30min due to many gaps throughout the day (as I mentioned over in the bus thread).

Not sure how you view exceptions when creating the map, but technically there is still a >30min gap on Sunday mid-afternoons (these are inbound arrival times at Forest Hills):

• 4:41pm (50)
• 4:44 (40)
• 4:44 (34E)
• 4:45 (34)
• 33min gap
• 5:18pm (34)

Good catch. Usually I only wait for the GTFS to be posted and not the PDF schedules. The past few instances, the GTFS was released before the PDF schedules and not the other way around, so I cannot always check easily (in such instances I opened the live bus tracker on the MBTA website to pull the future upcoming GTFS timetables for the 34/34E).

I reverted the changes on my Sunday map, Sunday map (alt view), and my 11pm Sunday service map.

I am really not sure why the MBTA has 34/34E service ending at 12:05am rather than the 1:19am it used to be pre-December 2024. I'm more confused by the 1+hour earlier shutdown of service than the schedules being uncoordinated. Even if the route is like 5-8 minutes longer, it should not mean the route should end over 1 hour earlier in the evening to still meet a 1:58am end of service. At most maybe a 15-20 minute earlier end, but not a full hour. The last trip should still be at 1:05am or so and not 12:05am.

 

[subway1500]

Good catch. Usually I only wait for the GTFS to be posted and not the PDF schedules. The past few instances, the GTFS was released before the PDF schedules and not the other way around, so I cannot always check easily (in such instances I opened the live bus tracker on the MBTA website to pull the future upcoming GTFS timetables for the 34/34E).

I reverted the changes on my Sunday map, Sunday map (alt view), and my 11pm Sunday service map.

I am really not sure why the MBTA has 34/34E service ending at 12:05am rather than the 1:19am it used to be pre-December 2024. I'm more confused by the 1+hour earlier shutdown of service than the schedules being uncoordinated. Even if the route is like 5-8 minutes longer, it should not mean the route should end over 1 hour earlier in the evening to still meet a 1:58am end of service. At most maybe a 15-20 minute earlier end, but not a full hour. The last trip should still be at 1:05am or so and not 12:05am.

Agreed on your last point. FWIW, up until March 2025, the 1:19am (weekday)/1:15am (Sat & Sun) last trip was always the 34 and not the 34E. Back then, the weekday bus would go out of service at Dedham Line and deadhead back to the garage, while the weekend buses would run in-service back to Forest Hills, with a scheduled arrival of 1:46am.

The route itself hasn’t changed, so no reason why the same can’t be true today (if the goal truly is to wrap up service by 1:59am). But the T’s willingness to maintain adequate service on this corridor certainly has changed…