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With slow zones conquered, MBTA is eyeing much faster speeds on the Red and Orange lines
Transit officials say the Red Line will be raised to 50 mph, as the Orange Line will move at 55.
Transit officials say the Red and Orange lines will be restored to their original design speeds as the MBTA works to remove speed restrictions across the transit system.
Currently, the Red and Orange lines are both running at 40 mph, according to Jody Ray, senior director for the T’s Maintenance of Way department.
In the next week or two, the Red Line’s speed will be raised to 50 mph, Ray said. Part of the work on the Red Line includes “vegetation control” to ensure that operators are able to see ahead once trains move faster.
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Only one speed restriction — an area where trains run at slower speeds due to track problems — remains on the Green Line underneath Brookline High School which Ray said would be difficult to remove.
“Speed restrictions are not a repair, they’re a temporary situation until we can affect the repair,” he told the MBTA’s Board of Directors.
Ray said the department has replaced 252,000 feet of rail, which is about 80% of what needed to be substituted. It also added 100 new staff workers and three additional superintendents.
The department aims to bring the Orange Line back to its design speed of 55 mph between Oak Grove and Assembly Square.
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“I take the orange line almost every day,” board member Mary Skelton Roberts said at the meeting. “I got in here today and I was raving about how fast that train is moving. People see the difference.”
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