The Boston Globe:
After 15 years, the Orange Line is finally whizzing along again
Shannon Larson
November 8, 2024
“The ride is going faster,” she said after getting off one of the new-ish subway trains that’s come on board in recent years. “It’s better at getting me where I’m going.”
It took nearly 15 years — a period that has seen 12 different general managers at the helm of the MBTA, now led by Phil Eng — but slow zones on the Orange Line, which serves communities from Malden to Jamaica Plain, are no more. On Friday, officials including Eng, Governor Maura Healey, and Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt gathered at Haymarket Station to celebrate that milestone and thank the workers involved.
“It’s getting better and better every day,” Eng said as he handed out Orange Line stickers that said “And so we’re back,” calling the progress, which has involved cutting about 200 speed restrictions down to a handful systemwide and zero by the end of the year, a “phenomenal team effort.”
When the transit agency launched its track improvement plan last fall, aiming to eliminate all speed restrictions systemwide, promises of faster travel times on the Orange Line seemed far-fetched to many riders, particularly after a previous month-long closure actually resulted in slower service.
More closures and alternative shuttle service caused further irritation, while slow zones and signal issues added time to commutes.
Plenty of work remains. But the data and anecdotes from riders show that the replacement of the degraded rails and ties, necessitated by decades of maintenance issues that went unaddressed, is paying off. Today, less than 1 percent of the track systemwide has slow zones, according to T data.
This time last year, it took an average of 43 to 45 minutes to travel from Oak Grove to Forest Hills Station. This week, a trip covering the same ground lasted an average of 37 to 40 minutes, according to data analyzed by TransitMatters, a public transportation advocacy group. The T says a roundtrip ride today is almost 18 minutes faster compared with 14 months ago, before the track repair program was launched.
Despite the accolades and self congratulations on Friday, many, such as Dwaign Tyndal, were asking: “Why did it take so long?” Tyndal, the executive director of Alternatives for Community & Environment, an environmental justice and transit-oriented development nonprofit based in Roxbury, called the removal of speed restrictions “less of a celebration” and more of a time “to be critical.” Going forward, he said, the focus must be on whether the system can “sustain that level of service,” and how the T will handle a more than $700 million deficit. “I’m not seeing the alarms going off,” Tyndal said of the fiscal crisis that could affect the future of public transportation in the region.
Meanwhile, the speed of the Orange Line continues to edge closer to its historical maximum of 18 miles per hour (it reached 17.3 miles per hour this week). This week last year, the subway cars traveled an average of 14.2 miles per hour.
Back at Haymarket on Friday, one commuter embraced Eng, who has transformed into somewhat of an unlikely local celebrity. Clearing the Orange Line of speed restrictions for the first time since 2010 was an achievement he credited to the “whole workforce that we’ve been working so hard to rebuild,” one that had been beset by vacancies and a revolving door of employees.
Eng reeled off other stats: 185 trains running last spring will surge to 360 come December, wait times on the Orange Line will be reduced to 6 minutes, and new train cars are expected to last for over 200,000 miles, nearly seven times longer than old models.
“It really is just how we intend transportation to be: something that people don’t have to worry about,” he said.
That sentiment was echoed by Healey, who called the removal of speed restrictions “a big deal because we’re … giving people time back in their lives.”
Despite the accolades and self congratulations on Friday, many, such as Dwaign Tyndal, were asking: “Why did it take so long?”
Tyndal, the executive director of Alternatives for Community & Environment, an environmental justice and transit-oriented development nonprofit based in Roxbury, called the removal of speed restrictions “less of a celebration” and more of a time “to be critical.”
Going forward, he said, the focus must be on whether the system can “sustain that level of service,” and how the T will handle a more than $700 million deficit. “I’m not seeing the alarms going off,” Tyndal said of the fiscal crisis that could affect the future of public transportation in the region.
Healey acknowledged that the transit agency is “going to need a continuing source of operating revenue,” but didn’t offer specifics on Friday, saying that “we’re looking at that now on both a short-term and long-term.”
And more work needs to be done, such as improving the Orange Line’s signaling system.
Still, Friday was a time to celebrate. At State Station, Maggie Vaccaro, 21, who has been riding the subway for four years, said she used to have to wait 10 minutes or more for the Orange Line. But now?
“It’s changed for the better. It’s a lot faster and more consistent,” said Vaccaro, who lives in the South End. “I feel lucky to have it and live in a city in America that has it.”