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Mattapan, Ashmont trains going faster miles an hour now, MBTA says
By adamg on Mon, 10/30/2023 - 2:31pm
Happy days are here again, rider tells MBTA's Phil Eng.
The T reports the 16-day shutdown of the two lines worked, at least so far: All 38 slow zones on the Mattapan Line and the Red Line's Ashmont branch have become normal zones again.
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Comments
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP
At 0:26 the video shows Eng on a new Red Line train which is parked at Ashmont with the doors open. Unlike other parts of the video, they didn't include the live audio, so they're not publicizing the horrible 10 minutes of BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP that never stops as long as the train is waiting.
Smooth
Not only the slow zones are gone, but the ride on the Ashmont Line is smooth, even in an old clunker train. I notice Eng got a new train today. I did not.
+1 on the Richman Reference
And also that the Mattapan trolley goes behind the house of the person who pushed for Roadrunner to be the state song.
But does it go by
a Stop 'N' Shop?
With the radio on?
.
If the radio was on
no one would hear it through the speaker distortion.
Radio on!
Radio on!
No, but pretty close to a Star Market
on River Street in Lower Mills
"I liked it much better than
"I liked it much better than walking past the Star Market"...no, doesn't scan. We're gonna have to reroute the train.
Is there where I note
The guy once worked at the Star Market by JFK/UMass.
I had the pleasure of seeing
I had the pleasure of seeing him at the Somerville Theater a few days ago, and even if you're only kind of lukewarm about his music, I recommend you see him if you get a chance. He's extra good live, which considering how much of his life he's spent playing out makes sense.
Did he do Road Runner?
Really ...
Not at Sunday's show, and I think not at all
The Modern Lovers band doesn't exist anymore. It's just Richman and his drummer, playing acoustically.
Roadrunner
I've seen him play a bunch of times and only seen him play roadrunner once when a little girl asked him to play it.
Same. Somerville Theater, 15
Same. Somerville Theater, 15-20 years ago. He usually focuses on new material and a few classics from his solo albums.
Yep
Likely we were at the same show
+1 on the Richman Reference
Correction: should be "is pushing" instead of "pushed." It's my life's work.
If this Really Works
Just shut them all down for two weeks in rotation. That's probably the plan anyway and they're just afraid to tell us.
Props to Governor Healey, she does seem to hire good people.
What's amazing
Is that they shut down the Orange Line last year as a poorly-planned publicity stunt and it failed completely. It's amazing what happens when you plan things in advance and actually fix what needs to be fixed. It's not 100% fixed: it's clocking in at 9:20 and back in 2018 it was 8:30, but down from about 15:00, and faster on Day 1, whereas the twice-as-long Orange Line shutdown was significantly slower for weeks. I wouldn't be surprised if this begins to build some goodwill for larger shutdowns.
Unfortunately this is probably the easiest portion of the system to shut down; anything else has much higher ridership and has no access to yards and because it's a branch operations are much simpler. The Orange Line can't really shut down the middle of the line for more than a couple of days without shutting down the whole portion south of it. Ditto with the Red Line: shut down anything north of Columbia Junction and it's cut off from any yard/inspection/maintenance (okay for a weekend, but not for two weeks). Blue can basically be split at Orient Heights, but can't, say, have Maverick to Bowdoin stay open without keeping it open out to OH, too.
So, yeah, they got this easier part done, but a lot of the rest might be weekend piecemeal work.
CEO Governor Charlie Baker Strikes Again
Heckuva job, Charlie!
May he ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston
He's a man who'll never return.
I hope this means more trains.
That was the nightmare last winter. I would get the station and the trains were 20 minutes apart during rush hour.
I’ll wait a few weeks and see …
… before shedding tears of joy.
Wait until it snows
Or gets too cold for most people to bike.
Then we will see how it handles the load.
and yet the commute was just as long
Between a bus to Ashmont that was 20 minutes late and "signal problems" at JFK, the commute in to Park Street this morning was slightly longer than pre-shutdown.
I took an early bus destined to a Braintree-line station during the shutdown. I had high hopes for today, but think I'm going back to that early bus and the Braintree line.
Whats the opposite
of Manspreading?
Not satisfied yet
Going south between South Station and Andrew still had some slow zones and took a while. And there are still long wait times between trains at rush hour. I assume this has to do with the hiring troubles they’re having.
Morning commute was some welcome relief but keep in mind daily riders have been dealing with “reduced service” (i.e. longer wait times for fewer, more crowded trains) for more than a year - then they added the slow zones to add insult to injury. Will we ever get to status quo ante?
Still slow
I live near Andrew station and regularly take the T between there and DTX. The trip from South Station to Broadway is slow, and the trip from Broadway to Andrew is e-x-c-r-u-t-i-a-t-i-n-g-l-y slow. Combine that with the escalators dead at Andrew (and one of the elevators not working today either) and it's really an awful trip. I've started spending more money on uber rides.
With improvements like this,
With improvements like this, perhaps they should call it the Ashmont-Mattapan High-Speed Line!
Leaf-peepin' line
I'll be on it this weekend.
When will the Braintree line
When will the Braintree line get rid of the slow areas. The slog to JFK is long.