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No Red Line slow zones for first time in two decades, MBTA says

The MBTA reports that the most recent Red Line shutdown means the Red Line "is now completely free of all slow zones for the first time in at least 20 years."

The T had earlier announced similar goal reaching with tracks on the Blue and Orange lines, and says the Green Line will lose its last speed restrictions next month.

Of course, as Orange Line riders learned last week and Red Line riders learned on Nov. 11, slow zones are far from the only problems on the T.

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Comments

A round of applause for the crews and other MBTA workers who made this maintenance campaign possible. I am anxiously waiting to see what will be done about the fiscal cliff and ongoing maintenance, but the Authority has made a huge turnaround that is worthy of celebration.

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62

Full Speed Ahead!

...just in time for wet-leaves season.

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27

Great now they can go faster when they aren't broken

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17

… at least north of Columbia Junction.

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12

Will it last long enough?

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11

From the releases and statements I read, it sounds like they'll still need to be somewhat aggressive with shutdowns next year to both keep on top of deferred maintenance as well as get some clear track to work on their signal replacement for Red and orange lines... In addition to this they'll be accepting delivery of and rolling out new red and orange line cars over the next 2 years.

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23

How is shutdown better than a slow zone?

Slow zones just mean trains going slowly, not that any work is able to get done. Shutdowns are what are needed to get the work done most effectively.

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The Orange cars are all here (AFAIK). We're still waiting on the Red Line cars that should have been here years ago.

But yeah - now that track is generally fixed (minus maintenance and unforeseen issues), it's time to work on the signals and switches.

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13

According to the MBTA inventory I read (http://roster.transithistory.org/), there are 30 cars remaining to be built - 28 brand new and two that received extensive damage after a derailment. Then CRRC will begin concentrating on building more Red Line cars.

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Without the slow zones the trains will now go from 5mph to 8mph. Best be ready for that by holding on tightly.

Last two times I rode the Orange and Green lines it went much faster than I expected.

You should try it sometime.

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I wish the Orange Line and Red Line would peak out at 50mph outside of Downtown.

What's their highest-ever official peak speed?

Or at least... in the last couple of generations of rolling stock? 35 MPH?

Correctly the highest speed allowed is 40 mph.

Some sections of the red line previously went 50 mph, and some of the orange went 55.

The T is working to restore those speeds, and has said so publicly.

but I have noticed a big improvement on the Red Line lately.