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Slow zone after slow zone after slow zone
By adamg on Thu, 03/23/2023 - 12:30pm
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.
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Comments
I don't want to hear one more
I don't want to hear one more asshole politician talk about equity until their top priority is the T.
some west of 495 type is
some west of 495 type is cuing up a real hot take about the state funding things in metro boston while pretending like the greater Boston area doesn't subsidize the entire state with its tax base.
Also ...
Although the city of Boston itself is relatively small compared to other big cities, thanks to our long history of home rule, the Boston area alone has like half the state's population.
Correct:
If this were in most other parts of the country, minimum the immediate surrounding cities & towns of Boston would have been consolidated into one city. And of course one county. People from other parts of the country are confused that Boston almost completely surrounds Brookline, but not only is Brookline a separate municipality, it's a different county! And Cambridge is a different county from Brookline and Boston!
Brookline
Had its chance and they voted against annexation (and then West Roxbury voted for annexation, cutting Brookline off from Hyde Park and the rest of Norfolk County, back when Hyde Park was still a town).
what about counties?
I already knew about how Brookline voted against annexation, and there's a good discussion of it in this book: http://www.bahistory.org/BookTransition.html
But what I don't get is why Brookline couldn't have at least been moved into Suffolk County while still retaining its independence from Boston.
Lol
.
Why does the Blue Line have slow zones?
Everything on that line is brand new.
Solidarity
/s
The track isn't.
The track isn't.
It's pretty straight, though
Nothing like the Boylston curve on the Green Line, or the Harvard curve on the Red Line, that should require a slow zone.
A lot of the track is new,
A lot of the track is new, last summer they installed all new welded rail from Aquarium to Maverick eastbound, yet they are creeping along at 10 MPH on this stretch right now. They did actual work last summer because the ride was much smoother and quieter after the work was completed.
Last year the T shut down the
Last year the T shut down the stretch of Blue Line for the month of April to do repair work. Yet, it has been the slowest section.
We have to consider the
We have to consider the possibility, outlandish as it may seem, that when the T did that it may not have done a very good job.
And we did have a governor
who wanted to _say_ a good job was done, because that's what all those task forces were for.
I suspect that, as in other dysfunctional organizations, exaggerated data was passed up the chain because results were expected from above, and Charlie The Great Manager wasn't going to question the numbers.
And those people that falsified data should be fired
Immediately. Case study in ethics 101 over here if that happened.
The contractor,
Railworks Track Services LLC,
Needs to be questioned as to why that stretch is still restricted.
See:
https://www.enr.com/articles/54148-equipment-cart-derailments-delay-mbta...
I took the red line for the
I took the red line for the first time in awhile. Last night it took 1.5 hours from Davis to Quincy center. 2 hours returning. It's a national emabarament.
I usually show up here to
I usually show up here to lose my shit with the T but that site is pretty well done.
How many
How many low wage workers have been fired for being late because of all these added slow zones?
good question
here are some others-
how many students have been late for school? or late getting home? or late for an after school job?
how many workers with flexible office attendance policies have chosen to stay home rather than take 2x as long to get to and from work?
these "slow zones" have a material impact on lots of Greater Boston individuals and businesses (through students and workers who are late, and customers that aren't commuting).
I really hope a fix comes soon, but this is a problem decades in the making, so it's hard to remain hopeful at the moment.