State officials, MBTA workers celebrate the end of T slow zones (photo by governor's office).
State officials this morning officially celebrated the removal of the last official slow zone on the MBTA, on the Green Line specifically - after more than 20 years of subway slow zones. Not all riders were able to join in the celebrations, though, because they were outside shivering in the cold waiting for a Red Line shuttle bus due to a cracked rail near Wollaston. Read more.
Patrick Snyder captured this evening's sunset over the Charles from an outbound Red Line train on the Longfellow Bridge.
MBTA workers have fixed whatever was wrong with the Red Line tracks just north of Savin Hill and so the "speed restrictions" number for the line is once again at 0.
Red Line trains can only go 10 m.p.h. on part of the Ashmont branch. Map by MBTA.
A new slow zone emerged on the Red Line this weekend, just one week after MBTA officials had declared the line free of speed restrictions for the first time in two decades. Read more.
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." Read more.
I knew it would be bad, but oh my god. It took an hour to get from Broadway to Kendall yesterday, and this was before rush hour proper. Find some alternate route instead.
I guess the insane loop is to avoid a tight left turn, but it costs 30 minutes!
A 16-year-old was arraigned today on charges he opened fire on the Red Line platform at Broadway during rush hour last Friday, sending one man to the hospital with gunshot wounds to his thigh, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.
The MBTA is reminding riders that it's halting Red Line service between Harvard and Broadway at 8:30 p.m. this Sunday and continuing through Nov. 23. Well, actually, Nov. 24 - when service will be halted between Harvard to JFK/UMass. Read more.
So far today, the MBTA has reported delays on the Red Line due to four trains giving up the ghost. Or maybe it's just one train that's keeps practicing for a remake of Sanford and Sons all the livelong day - at Quincy Center, Andrew, Broadway and Alewife.
Update: Suspect arrested.
A man was shot in the leg on a platform at the Broadway Red Line station around 5:30 p.m. Read more.
WCVB reports "numerous employees" have been put on leave as the MBTA investigates, well, something, at the Cabot Yards, which stores and maintains Red Line trains and buses.
On Monday, the Red Line was zip-zip-zippee. This morning, though, the MBTA announced delays of up to 15 minutes on trains out of Braintree because it turns out you can replace all the tracks you want, but the trains are going to go slow again if there are signal problems at JFK/UMass.
The MBTA reports the latest extended Braintree shutdown and a briefer Ashmont closure let workers lift 37 slow zones across 18 miles of track - getting the Red Line up to such speed it's shaved 10 minutes off the duration of a one-way trip between Braintree and downtown Boston over last month. Read more.
The MBTA announced today the Ashmont branch of the Red Line will be closed on Saturday so workers can remove one of those slow zones - and to make sure there aren't any potential problems left over from the Peabody Square lake that formed last week after a National Grid crew cracked open a BWSC water main there.
Trains will be replaced by shuttle buses - like for the previously announced shutdown of the Braintree branch - which will remain closed on Sunday.
Boston firefighters responding to a medical call found a man stabbed in the chest and stomach at the Charles Street entrance to the Fields Corner MBTA stop in Dorchester around 8:05 p.m. on Sunday. He was taken to a local hospital with injuries not considered life threatening.
It's the second stabbing near the station in less than a week.
A roving UHub photographer snapped the situation this morning at Porter Square, where both escalators - and one of the stairs - were blocked for some sort of repair work.
The Dorchester Reporter details the longest of this year's MBTA "surge" repair shutdowns: The 24-day closing of the Red Line's Braintree branch, which starts Friday.
The tracks are getting better and better, but, oops, something blew out all the power on the Red, Orange, Green and Blue lines around 1:30 p.m. The MBTA reported about 15 minutes later that Johnny plugged the power cord back in, except, oops, briefly not on the Orange Line between Stony Brook and Forest Hills.
Except: Read more.
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
