The MBTA is leaning toward shutting down the Blue Line each night at 7 for a month to remove the line’s remaining speed restrictions, work the general manager said would otherwise take six months with normal overnight track access.
General Manager Phillip Eng said Wednesday that the T is planning to lift seven of the 21 remaining speed restrictions by the end of May. By sticking to typical overnight track access, from 1-3 a.m., it could take the agency until the end of November to remove the remaining slow zones, he said.
The MBTA considered shutting down Blue Line service at 9 p.m. for two months to accelerate that work — by allowing crews three additional hours of track access per night — but is looking at a more aggressive plan that would speed up the remainder of the line in a month, Eng said.
“We wanted to try and see if we could do a little better here,” Eng told the T’s Board of Directors. “So we’re looking at starting at 7 p.m. That would give seven hours of opportunity for actual track time, production. It’s more cost-effective.
“We could take that work down from six-month’s time period to a one-month time period. And that’s what we’re proposing to do.”
The next step, he said, is communicating the potential month-long nightly shutdown to the public. Riders understand that diversions are necessary, and that “we have a lot of work to do,” he said. This construction will address 69 track defects across the Blue Line.
“But what we want to do is balance diversions with the need to provide service,” Eng said. “That’s what we’re trying to do here.”
As of Thursday, 43% of the Blue Line, or 5.37 miles of track, was covered in speed restrictions, an improvement from March 16, when 9.7 miles or 77% of the line was speed-restricted. Current restrictions are adding 15 minutes of time for a round-trip across the entire line, Eng said.
Seven slow zones, from Bowdoin to Aquarium, are targeted for removal by the end of May, which would leave 3.5 miles, or 28% of the line, restricted, Eng said.
The Red Line will be targeted next, according to Eng, who plans to share a timeline for when speed restrictions on the subway system’s slowest line will be removed “shortly.”
Work schedules are also being formulated for the Green and Orange lines, he said, the latter of which was shut down for a month last summer.