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Red Line

By adamg - 3/23/23 - 12:30 pm
Slow zone on the MBTA

The black triangles show where trains can't go more than 10 m.p.h.

The MBTA has unveiled its speed restrictions dashboard so you can see where somebody on a bicycle can pedal faster than a subway train - like much of the Blue Line and the Green Line between Chestnut Hill Avenue in Brighton and the Lechmere viaduct.

The T promises to update the page every day so riders can follow along as the T clears, or doesn't, the slow zones that have long plagued riders and all the new ones that were added over the past couple months.

By adamg - 3/22/23 - 10:36 am
Nips on a new Red Line train

Billyinboston spotted this flock of pints on what is now a properly broken-in new Red Line car yesterday.

Earlier:
Councilor calls for ban on nips.

By adamg - 3/17/23 - 3:53 pm
Sloth locomotion

Interim MBTA General Manager Jeff Gonneville says the T is continuing to work through a morass of track defects across all four subway lines and that he hopes to lift the "global" speed restrictions on the Green Line with the start of service on Saturday. Read more.

By adamg - 3/12/23 - 9:10 pm
Trying to get snails to move

In 1875, Richard Doyle anticipated the T in "Triumphal March of the Elf-King."

The T sounded the alarm tonight: Nearly a third of the tracks on the Red, Orange and Blue Lines remain subject to snailish speed restrictions, which are in place along all the tracks on the Green and Mattapan lines. Read more.

By adamg - 3/12/23 - 4:49 pm

This morning, the MBTA reported delays of up to 20 minutes, atop the more usual delays, on the Red Line's Ashmont branch due to a "track problem" at Ashmont. You may recall that the decision to turn the entire T system into a slow zone last week was due to track problems state inspectors found on that branch.

By adamg - 3/10/23 - 11:05 am
Old Boston trolley

Rapid transit back in the day. See it larger.

The MBTA began slowing down all its subway trains around 5:30 p.m. yesterday after state inspectors filed reports that they found track problems on one Red Line stretch this week and the T couldn't assure them that repairs had actually been made because of problems with paperwork and decided it needed to check all its tracks. Read more.

By adamg - 3/9/23 - 10:25 pm
Turtles

The MBTA announced tonight that trains on all four subway lines will no longer go any faster than 25 m.p.h. - and that in some spots their drivers are being told to go no more than 10 m.p.h., following an inspection of the Red Line between Ashmont and Savin Hill by investigators from the state Department of Public Utilities, which has suddenly remembered it has the power to investigate T operations. Read more.

By adamg - 3/8/23 - 9:40 am

Christopher Schmidt reports that when the Red Line opened in 1912, some MIT students took measurements of how long a train took to get from Harvard to Park Street (then four total stops, since Charles/MGH hadn't been built): 7.3 minutes. Read more.

By adamg - 3/7/23 - 1:29 pm

The MBTA reports that over the weekend it inspected ceiling tiles between Central and Andrew this weekend to make sure none are about to fall on riders' heads. Meanwhile, the removed ceiling-tile count at Harvard, where a rustily connected, water-filled tile nearly did conk one rider, is now up around 100, the T says.

By adamg - 3/7/23 - 1:16 pm

Transit Police report arresting a Cambridge man they say played with himself while staring and laughing at the woman sitting across from him on an outbound Red Line train between JFK/UMass and Quincy Center around 9:30 a.m. yesterday. Read more.

By adamg - 3/3/23 - 4:34 pm
Panels fall inches from woman's head at Harvard

Panel falls in a cloud of dust in front of woman, who then looks up, in T surveillance video.

The MBTA has begun removing ceiling panels at the Harvard Red Line station after one of the 20-to-25-pound panels fell ten feet to the platform, narrowly missing a rider - and plans inspections of all its ceiling panels at all its stations to reduce the need for riders to worry about getting hit in the head with one, interim MBTA General Manager Jeff Gonneville said today. Read more.

By adamg - 3/3/23 - 12:15 pm

Surveillance photos via TPD.

A Red Line train at Ashmont had to be taken out of service at rush hour yesterday after some guy on the platform attempted to show his anger at somebody inside the train by slamming his shoulder and elbow into a window hard enough to crack it, Transit Police report. Read more.

By adamg - 3/2/23 - 11:20 am
Alleged creeper

Transit Police report that around 6 p.m. on Sunday, two girls - 11 and 12 - were standing on the Red Line platform at North Quincy when, they told police:
Read more.

By adamg - 3/1/23 - 1:00 pm

The family of Robinson Lalin, dragged to his death by a Red Line train leaving Broadway station last April, today sued the MBTA, alleging recklessness and wanton misconduct. Read more.

By adamg - 2/28/23 - 7:59 am
Empty, open Green Street

Open, non-functioning Green Street station at 7:44 a.m. Photo by Sunsan Ellsbree.

Update: GBH reports a transformer in South Boston failed, triggering a power surge that tripped a circuit breaker.

In the middle of rush hour, the MBTA lost power to the signaling systems on all its subway lines - and at some stations - leaving some riders stranded and others breaking out their phones to call a ride-share to work. Read more.

By adamg - 2/27/23 - 9:18 am

The MBTA reports what it says are 15-minute delays on the Red Line out of Braintree due to a deceased train at North Quincy. Riders, however, report 15 minutes in MBTA time is more like a half hour to an hour in real time. Read more.

By adamg - 2/24/23 - 2:50 pm
Men sought for attack

Surveillance photos via TPD.

Transit Police report they are looking for two men they say attacked an Asian-American woman both verbally and physically at the Davis Square Red Line stop around 5:40 p.m. on Monday. Read more.

By adamg - 2/24/23 - 2:33 pm

WFXT reports the MBTA is now close to having the minimum number of dispatchers it needs to restore more frequent service on the Orange, Red and Blue Lines, but that now it also doesn't have enough cars and drivers for them.

By adamg - 2/24/23 - 9:38 am

WFXT reports the T had to run shuttle buses between Harvard and Broadway after some maintenance equipment derailed at Park Street. The Red Line is now back to as close to normal as it gets these days.

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