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

[New England Born & Raised]

The MBTA system, particularly the Orange Line, was a popular inspiration source for 2022 Halloween costumes.

The flaming Orange Line train is, by far, the most popular Boston costume this year

Halloween revelers have been embracing the most Boston costume in years: the burning Orange Line. Share your costume this year on Boston.com.

www.boston.com

 

[bakgwailo]

On a positive note adding onto nbcoram - with the overall slow-zone tracker for the Orange, it seems things are within about a minute of the best times for the past 2 years (excluding a short period after a derailment with little slow zones). At least things are progressing in the right direction... right?

 

[thepianoperson]

Great news for the orange line- only slow zone left is a small recently-added one northbound from North Station to Community College that hopefully will resolve soon. The Red Line on the other hand… oof

 

[Delvin4519]

The NB North Station - Community College segement seems to constutite 100% of the TransitMatters' slow zone of 0.29, currently at 1.8 min, before it was at 1.5 min.

 

[JeffDowntown]

View attachment 30783
Great news for the orange line- only slow zone left is a small recently-added one northbound from North Station to Community College that hopefully will resolve soon. The Red Line on the other hand… oof

Oh my! When's the Red Line full line shutdown coming?

 

[New England Born & Raised]

I used to remember track issues in the area of the Tufts and Chinatown stations when I used to ride it as part of my daily commute a few years ago. Was this fixed with the recent work during the shutdown?

 

[ant8904]

View attachment 30783
Great news for the orange line- only slow zone left is a small recently-added one northbound from North Station to Community College that hopefully will resolve soon. The Red Line on the other hand… oof

It's probably obvious to say this, but it seems the MBTA pulled all resources to fix all the slow zones on the Orange Line, but at the cost of a skeleton crew at best to maintain the rails at the Red Line.

Assuming the Orange Line has truly reach 0 slow zones, then I wonder if keeping it down means keeping that same resources there and thus an expansion of maintenance is needed to handle the Red Line or does it mean the focus can shift without slow zones slowly creeping back up. Somehow the Blue Line remains flat through all of this.

And of course, the above might not reflects how things work at all.

 

[Jahvon09]

I'm just dying to see who the new GM will be. Let's see what he or she might have in store for the T!! Hah!!

 

[Stlin]

Well, the RLT Transformation update does to some degree show that work is scheduled to address the slow zones on the Red Line. Also, not having the patience today to sift through the data, how much of the Red Line slow zones are on the branches? the Braintree Branch has been scheduled for a series of weekend closures to address track work, while the series of previous weekend closures between Broadway and Ashmont since the beginning of october also list "Trackwork" as part of their justification alongside the Dot Ave Bridge work. If its anything like the work they did during the OL shutdown, a lot of these new slow zones could be a result of them actually trying to get rid of them - and not communicating well.

 

[nbcoram]

There will also be a weekend diversion on the Braintree Branch on Sat 12/3 and Sun 12/4.

Well, the RLT Transformation update does to some degree show that work is scheduled to address the slow zones on the Red Line. Also, not having the patience today to sift through the data, how much of the Red Line slow zones are on the branches? the Braintree Branch has been scheduled for a series of weekend closures to address track work, while the series of previous weekend closures between Broadway and Ashmont since the beginning of october also list "Trackwork" as part of their justification alongside the Dot Ave Bridge work. If its anything like the work they did during the OL shutdown, a lot of these new slow zones could be a result of them actually trying to get rid of them - and not communicating well.

Going by the transitmatters tracker (pretty accurate though it can leave out minor slow zones, such as the residual minor slow zone from Back Bay to Tufts on the Orange Line), it looks like of the southbound slow zones it is tracking, 5 are on the trunk, 1 on the Ashmont branch, and 2 on the Braintree branch.

Northbound it's 2 on the Braintree branch, 2 on the Ashmont branch, and 3 on the trunk.

I can/should do a more detailed analysis based of the exact numbers at some point soon.

 

[bakgwailo]

Anyone know if they ever finished the floating slab work on the north side? That seemed to go on forever and be a big contributor to slowdowns. I've always been under the impression that for whatever reason the north side track was in much worse shape that the branches/southern end.

edit: also looking at TM's slow dashboard, the OL seems solidly around 0 delay now. I also find it interesting that it looks like past data changes? Does the MBTA revise datasets or something?

 

[sneijder]

Anyone know if they ever finished the floating slab work on the north side? That seemed to go on forever and be a big contributor to slowdowns. I've always been under the impression that for whatever reason the north side track was in much worse shape that the branches/southern end.

edit: also looking at TM's slow dashboard, the OL seems solidly around 0 delay now. I also find it interesting that it looks like past data changes? Does the MBTA revise datasets or something?

Red line approaching 20 min in slow zones.. looks like most of it is concentrated on the southern part of the line and in the downtown core (the floating slabs start past Harvard and those seem to be running at track speed).

Basically the entire downtown core (SS to MGH) is at 10mph right now in both directions. Ironically headways have been so poor that there isn't much of an issue with train bunching. But on normal rush-hour headways (13-14tph on the trunk) it was imperative that trains move through this section fast enough to clear the blocks for the train behind it. We really need a full line weekend shutdown (or weekday 9pm shutdown) asap.

 

[as02143]

Red line approaching 20 min in slow zones.. looks like most of it is concentrated on the southern part of the line and in the downtown core (the floating slabs start past Harvard and those seem to be running at track speed).

Basically the entire downtown core (SS to MGH) is at 10mph right now in both directions. Ironically headways have been so poor that there isn't much of an issue with train bunching. But on normal rush-hour headways (13-14tph on the trunk) it was imperative that trains move through this section fast enough to clear the blocks for the train behind it. We really need a full line weekend shutdown (or weekday 9pm shutdown) asap.

They've doing weekend closures of different sections practically every weekend since summer. These slow zones are actually probably the result of these weekend shutdowns which seem to be doing primarily signal work -- which means that the T is going to use the precautionary principle and drive slowly until they can be sure that the signals are actually OK.

 

[bakgwailo]

Seems to be more reported door problems with the new orange line rolling stock.

 

[Brattle Loop]

Seems to be more reported door problems with the new orange line rolling stock.

Now that'd be interesting data to see (not that the T would likely make it available), whether they're actually having more problems, and whether they're having problems at a higher rate than other equipment when it was similarly-aged. It's entirely possible that there are more problems (as was seen with the side bearer pads in the trucks, some problems only show up after a while in service), or, alternately, it's also possible that the rate is not particularly unusual, but getting extra attention at present. (Once something's getting attention, it tends to get more of it for a while, which can create a perception of a growing problem even where the rate of an issue is unchanged.)

Not having encountered this particular malfunction on the #14* cars, I would be curious to know if it's less of an issue with the wider doors than on the old fleet (where it was really annoying). It's still not good when it happens, but at least it's not quite as narrow a space as on the #12 cars with one leaf closed.

*It's off topic, but I can't quite get why these things are the #14 cars rather than #13, but I've reluctantly adopted the official numbering for lack of another reasonable shorthand form of reference.

 

[ulrichomega]

*It's off topic, but I can't quite get why these things are the #14 cars rather than #13, but I've reluctantly adopted the official numbering for lack of another reasonable shorthand form of reference.

Isn't it because there were more than 100 of the 1200 series, so their naming schema went up into the 1300s? Seems silly, but that would make sense.

Similarly, the next series would be the 1600s, right?

 

[BosMaineiac]

Isn't it because there were more than 100 of the 1200 series, so their naming schema went up into the 1300s? Seems silly, but that would make sense.

Similarly, the next series would be the 1600s, right?

That’s correct. According to NETransit MBTA vehicle inventory, the #12 cars were numbers 1200-1319. Similarly, the #14 cars will be numbers 1400-1551 once they’ve all been delivered. Here’s the site with this info: http://roster.transithistory.org/

 

[as02143]

Unlucky 13 is also a thing that may be present as well.

 

[nbcoram]

Isn't it because there were more than 100 of the 1200 series, so their naming schema went up into the 1300s? Seems silly, but that would make sense.

Similarly, the next series would be the 1600s, right?

Yes, this is correct. Don't want to mix up the incoming rolling stock with the rolling stock it will be replacing on the same line; naming the new series the 13's would definitely cause some confusion with overlapping numbers on the same line.

 

[Brattle Loop]

Isn't it because there were more than 100 of the 1200 series, so their naming schema went up into the 1300s? Seems silly, but that would make sense.

Similarly, the next series would be the 1600s, right?

It was probably the thought process, though it doesn't really match historical practice, which is what throws me. The Main Line type numbers were always sequential (though the #9 and #11 series departed from direct-sequential car numbering in ways that matched the type numbers), and with the exception of the Green Line (where it basically happened by coincidence), there's not really any other correlation between type number and car number. (I think part of what bothers me is that they stuck to their sequence with the #4 Red Line cars while simultaneously changing the Orange Line sequence, which is just weirdly inconsistent.)

Yes, this is correct. Don't want to mix up the incoming rolling stock with the rolling stock it will be replacing on the same line; naming the new series the 13's would definitely cause some confusion with overlapping numbers on the same line.

Weirdly, they used to just keep numbering cars sequentially, even ones of different series. At some point they clearly changed philosophies on that one (though until recently that didn't impact the actual type numbering).