To see the MBTA interchange as it is today, look no further than the Red Line.
On the Ashmont branch of the line, the average southbound journey takes about 40 minutes end-to-end. Fast forward to October 2023 and the same trip took almost half an hour longer.
More than a year has passed since then the MBTA was launched an ambitious plan to hand over deferred repairs in the hope of lifting around 200 speed restrictions by the end of 2024.
And what a year it has been.
To free up train tracks and stations for 24-hour maintenance, officials shut down large blocks of the transit network for sometimes weeks at a time, leaving commuters at the mercy of shuttle buses and Boston’s circus-like streets.
However, for the first time in more than two decades, the MBTA is free of slow zones.
“This is as far back as our records go,” MBTA CEO Phillip Eng said this month.
MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng walks near a Green Line train at Riverside Station on March 27, 2023. (Chris Lisinski/State House News Service)
How much faster do trains run?
For those who live or work in the Boston area and commute on the T, a typical commute is likely to be faster than it was a year ago. Data collected by TransitMattersa transit advocacy group, shows that trains arrive more frequently and get to their next stop faster, though to varying degrees depending on the subway line.
Each line is traveling as fast or faster this month than in October of last year, before the year of maintenance the MBTA called Track improvement program.
The Red Line averaged about 19 mph in the first week of December, compared to 13.2 mph in the first week of October 2023. The Orange Line traveled at 17.9 mph, up from 14 .5 mph, and the Blue Line hit 18.9 mph, up from 16.3 mph. After two weeks of repairs this month, the Green Line averaged 10.6 mph, slightly faster than in October of last year.
Even so, the average rider probably can’t tell the difference of a few miles per hour on a moving train. What they can see is the difference on the clock when they get home earlier than a year ago.
On the Braintree branch of the Red Line, round trips are almost 35% faster southbound (from one hour and 18 minutes to about 52 minutes) compared to October 2023. In northbound, the line takes about 54 minutes to travel, compared to 70 minutes last October.
To put that into perspective, a person commuting from Braintree to Boston South Station saves about 24 minutes a day. For a commuter, that’s an extra two hours each week spent at home, instead of on the Red Line.
State officials said the repairs collectively save riders 2.4 million minutes every weekday. They estimated that the economic benefit to Massachusetts is nearly $1 million each day.
Every minute saved “is time back to the people of Massachusetts to spend more time with their families, pick up the kids from school, make that doctor’s appointment they’ve been putting off for too long or make a stop at a small local. business,” Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll said last week.
Seth Kaplan, a software engineer who volunteers with TransitMatters managing its MBTA data collection, said he had friends who missed a stop on the Red Line because it was faster than they were used to.
“They were going to get off at South Station and they looked up and it’s Andrew Station,” two stops down the line, he said.
On the Orange Line, a full southbound trip that took more than 43 minutes before the last year of maintenance now takes about 37 minutes. End-to-end northbound travel times are faster by more than eight minutes.
On the Blue Line, outbound journeys are 12% faster (about three minutes less) than last year. Inbound trips are 5% faster.
The Green Line, which runs in some areas at the foot of the street, has had varied effects since the year of work.
Its B branch is about three to four minutes faster end-to-end, while its D branch is seven minutes faster to Union Square, a 10% improvement compared to last October.
Although trains are running faster and more frequently, subway ridership has not recovered to pre-pandemic levels. For example, an average of 94,000 people got on the Red Line every weekday during the first week of December. Five years ago, that number was about double, they said Data from TransitMatters.
An MBTA Blue Line train pulls into Suffolk Downs Station. (Courtesy of Lavery/MassLive)Tréa Lavery/MassLive
What’s next for T?
The most recent year of work closed on December 20 when maintenance crews finished two weeks of work on the Green Line.
Since the Track Improvement Program was launched in November 2023, the T has fixed the 191 slow zones then in place, plus another 35 that popped up along the way.
But the slow zones have not disappeared for good.
Things break. Although the MBTA has cleared its huge backlog of repairs, slow spots could still appear as individual or environmental maintenance issues arise. But the transit agency is better prepared to make needed repairs quickly, officials said.
However, there will also be some track closures planned in 2025 T officials said they expect to schedule fewer repairs on weekdays and take other measures to limit inconvenience to motorists.
Next year will be nothing like 2024, said Ryan Coholan, MBTA chief operating officer.
One of the T’s priorities will be improving its signal system, a vital but hidden network of equipment that collects data on train locations and controls how trains move along the tracks.
The Red and Orange Line signal systems were installed as early as the 1970s with an expected lifespan of about 40 years, according to the MBTA. The systems are safe to use, but need modern replacements that would require less labor and save time and money on maintenance.
Signal work on the Red and Orange lines should be done by early 2026, said Eng.
Other work will include improving station accessibility and maintaining a good state of repair throughout the transit network, to ensure the system doesn’t “fall behind,” said Eng.
“As things come up, plans are immediately put in place to address them,” Coholan said. “We’re not going to wait for it to be composed into something else. … That’s the new mantra.”