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That was fast: MBTA removes most speed restrictions on the Green Line, but warns riders to keep leaving extra time

A cheetah

Not quite up to full sprinting speed yet.

The MBTA announced tonight it's cleared a bunch of track problems and put up the proper signs for trolley drivers so it's lifting the "global" speed restrictions on the Green Line, just a few hours after it said the entire Green Line would remain a slow zone for awhile.

But not so fast there: The T also said about 18% of Green Line tracks are in possible troublesome "blocks" and so speed restrictions will remain in place at those points until they can be re-checked and, if needed, fixed. And that's on top of the longer times between trains because they T still doesn't have enough dispatchers.

Riders should continue to plan for longer headways and additional travel time.

The T did not specify if these include the previous slow zones that were already increasing travel times on parts of the Green Line even before the recent hubbub spurred by those state inspections on part of the Red Line.

Cheetahs are the world's fastest land animals, except when they are on a leash and taken out for a stroll by a handler at the Institute for Greatly Endangered and Rare Species in Myrtle Beach, SC. Photo by Carol Highsmith.

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Comments

If only they updated the locations that are currently speed restricted. The MBTA is the least-transparent government body in MA and that's saying something, considering all the state police scandals!

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They probably don't want someone pointing out that, when you have a normal block between two slow blocks, you basically have three slow blocks.

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Ahh yes blocks and MPH signs and the like, 18% you say! That's a number!

MBTA dudes?

a) How long will it take me to get from Maverick to Aquarium and how often will the trains come?
b) whatever your answer is I can assure you it's unacceptable, but that is no excuse to babble incoherently to us about "blocks and 18% of wtf ever" have some pride in your work

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If you insist I will engage on the blather, I imagine the impact of the bad blocks depends a great deal on where they are including how far apart they are. Are they bunched? Where? What is necessary to fix them? Do you have what you need? If not why not? When, specifically, will each block be fixed? What is the impact, specifically, on people's commutes?

"Add 20 minutes" is ridiculous if we did that the city would cease to function.

That would be bad. If the city ceased to function that would be bad. Carty out.

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It was super slow coming from Somerville this morning. About 10 minutes behind

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What I'd love to see is a map of the Green Line with the *actual* max speeds that the trains ever experience along the way.

Between the streetcar sections and the stop-every-3-blocks-underground sections (you can literally see Park St from Government Center and vice versa), it never feels like the Green Line gets above 20 mph for more than like a few hundred feet between underground stations anyways.

I'd love to take a fraction of the NYC subway map and overlay it on the city of Boston. You'd be able to go from like West Roxbury to City Hall in like 5 stops. 5 stops on the B Line doesn't get you past St E's from BC!

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It's worse than that. On some lines in NYC, 5 stops gets you 10 miles. That's like Park Street to Dedham.

And the NYC subway would never stand for things like making every Green Line train stop before entering a station. They have a whole department dedicated to removing unnecessary slowdowns, while the Green Line has the opposite.

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