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The more the T fixes speed restrictions, the more speed restrictions pop up
By adamg on Fri, 07/07/2023 - 10:40am
CommonWealth reports on the seeming paradox of the percentage of subway tracks subject to speed restrictions has actually been going up of late, although it's still less than when the T first announced it had some issues that needed immediate fixing.
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Comments
Article makes good point
This article makes a very valid point about the Lechmere Viaduct.
So when they shut the line down to connect the new line to the viaduct in 2021, and said they were doing track work to improve the speed of the viaduct. Then they said again they were doing more work in 2022, and now more work in 2023.
So what was the work you supposedly did in 2021? Or was it not done at all.
And yeah, the speed zones in general are getting worse. Used to not slow down on the Orange Line between N Station and Sullivan. Now it goes 2mph.
Somethings rotten in the state of demark and its not their cheese.
To say that it's a crawl
To say that it's a crawl would be an understatement.
We Need Transparency
Why doesn't the MBTA have a public plan and schedule to fix these issues? Why aren't they telling us exactly what went wrong and caused these slow zones in the first place? Why isn't the governing board or Beacon Hill advocating for the public here?
Shouldn't there be some kind of investigation into the reason for these shutdowns? The level of dangerous negligence from the MBTA management seems to border on the criminal here.
It's Summer.
Do you really think you are going to get an answer out of the T?
Yesterday's Blue Line ride by the Lt. Gov and the Transportation Secretary was comical. The Blue Line is free but the transit needs of a lot of people are being screwed over.
Lynn Station is shut. Lynn! You know the city with over 100,000 people. They have no train service from the center of town. You have to back track to Swampscott on a bus to get into town. There is a temporary platform being built which will be ready in September, September 2024. 15 months to build a temporary platform. I know I have been trying to paint the trim on my house but I can't get to it. The T probably could get someone to go faster.
Newton has 8 Green Line Stations and 3 Commuter Rail stations. It has more than 10k less people than Lynn. Wellesley has 3 commuter rail stations and a much higher per capita wealth than Lynn.
Lynn? Too bad immigrant. The "design work" for the new station, which is replacing a station built during the Bush Sr. administration is taking a while.
I see a whole lot of the Billy Bulger tacitly led 47 year rebuilding of Andrew Station back in the 90's to have, wait for it the exact same layout as before up in the other Central Square.
Bad work T.
Paywall
I wish the globe's paywall didnt suck.. I want to read the article about the Lynn CR station.
Did it really close? That platform has been pretty bad for years. Sad to think that when I moved here in 1999 that station was pretty new and the T has just left it to rot. No surprise. The overpass at Suffolk Downs has been out of service for almost 10 years now..
Lynn, like Chelsea, has gotten the raw dog end of the deal with transit and is the dumping ground for a lot of things other communities do not want.
Of course its easy to punch the T for this, but really the issue boils down to funding. The state has to open its wallet more so these 'deferred maintenance' projects can actually get done. There's always money for shiney new things like new stations or trains.. but never for fixing the backlog.
Now the chickens have come home to roost.
Archive dot is
You can check archive to see if the article has been archived already. I do have another paywall extension but I'm not home to try it out.
Is there some trick to get
Is there some trick to get around the Globe paywall using archive.org? Every time I try it, I get the same "you've been selected" paywall as when I go to bostonglobe.com directly.
The only trick I've found is viewing the HTML source. The full article text is buried in there. Usually not worth it unless I really want to read the article.
I archived it earlier
Got you.
Punch The Baker Administration's T for this
Yes, the issue comes down to funding, but recall during the Baker administration the T claimed it had more funding then it knew what to do with. They hid the fact that they were understaffed and undermaintained (according to the independent FTA investigation), either through criminal incompetence or for ugly ideological reasons (Baker hates public goods)
LOL
You think the "temporary platform" at Lynn will be temporary.
Probably about as temporary as the garage was.
Speed Restriction Constant
It's basic physics. As the number of existing speed restrictions drops, new speed restrictions are created to maintain service at the MBTA speed restriction constant.
Pathetic
I took the Red Line out to Quincy Center from Park St. today. It is basically an all-day excursion between waiting for the train to finally come and sitting there through all the slow zones.