The trains began traveling 50 miles per hour to parts of the MBTA red line early on Friday morning. It was the first time in more than twenty years that they reached the speed for which they were designed, said the public transport agency.
The T spent much of the last year and a half tackle a decline of repairs which had significantly reduced the speed of the train on its network. In December, The agency fulfilled his promise To remove all slow areas at the end of the year.
When some trains rolled up to 50 miles per hour Friday, 10 miles per hour faster than they could soon run, MBTA’s CEO, Phillip Eng, pledged, “This is just the beginning.”
“We committed to the public to constantly improve the service and, with an attitude to do it, our labor force was delivered,” he said.
The trains reached 50 miles per hour on the Brainree branch of the red line, said a T. spokesman.
Traffic officials had said in January They hoped that the recent repair drink would allow the red line tracks to adapt soon at speeds of 50 miles per hour.
With the important volumes of work completed, it was the red line that benefited the most, the data collected by the Public Transport Defense Group was shown at the end of last year. The average speed of the red line increased from 13.2 mph in October 2023, before the great repair effort of the MBTA began, up to 19 mph this past December.
This was translated into significant reductions in travel time for passengers.
In the Ashmont branch of the red line, the average trip south took about 40 minutes from the end to the end of the year. Review until October 2023 and the same trip took almost half an hour.
In the Brainree branch, the round trip in December was almost 35% faster south, going down from an hour and 18 minutes to about 52 minutes, against October 2023. To the north, a complete route of the line took 54 minutes compared to 70 minutes in October 2023.
In January, ENG said he was waiting for a section of the orange line to accommodate 55 -mile train speeds.
Increasing the speeds significantly in the green stop line, where trains work by sections extended on the floor next to cars, was less feasible.
“But where we can, and it makes sense, and it is safe for the operators, we will do it,” ENG said in January about increasing speeds. “Where we can shave minutes of journeys, this will go hand in hand as we increase the number of trains we direct.”
The T needed a registration of the regulators of the Department of Public Utility and the Federal Traffic Administration to increase the speed, according to T -officials in January.
But Jody Ray, the main director of maintenance of the agency, said that his “level of comfort is there, that the tracks are in very good condition”.
State news service material was used in this report.