A plan to lift the speed restrictions on the MBTA will require time and more shutdowns.
Taking aim at an issue that has plagued service for eight months, MBTA General Manager Phil Eng on Thursday rolled out a comprehensive plan to repair tracks across the system and lift all speed restrictions by the end of 2024.
The proposal would deploy nearly two dozen multi-day closures of segments on each of the four subway lines over the next 13 months, ranging in duration from four days to 21 days. He said free bus service will be provided during any shutdowns.
"We want to bring our trains back to full max speed," Eng said. "We want to improve and enhance safety by rebuilding and restoring our track infrastructure. And we want to do this where we can start to deliver timely, reliable, consistent service -- not only serving the public that is using the system today but to be able to bring people back to the system knowing they can rely on the s ystem."
The goal is to remove 39 speed restrictions by the end of the year, with the remaining 152 being addressed in 2024.
Implementing that many closures would represent an unprecedented level of disruption, but it also reflects far more advance notice than MBTA officials have provided to riders in recent years and puts an estimated endpoint on the stretches of slow travel that have hamstrung travel.
Altogether, the plan involves 19 days of proposed diversions in November and December, then 188 days of proposed diversions in 2024 to lift all speed restrictions that currently blanket about 23% of the system. MBTA modeling estimates that work would eliminate a total of 86 minutes of current delays across all four lines.
Paraphrasing Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, Eng said the plan trades "short-term pain for long-term wins."
"This is about us tackling work in a new way of doing business, doing it most efficiently, getting it done," Eng told the MBTA Board of Directors' Safety, Health and Environment Subcommittee.
The work being done will include replacing rail, addressing deteriorated rail ties, excavating, addressing signals and switches if possible and fixing existing power issues. Some structural work is also needed in some of the tunnels along the Green Line.
Speed restrictions have been an ongoing issue for the last year. The restrictions have been in place on nearly every line, and at some point, that has slowed service to a crawl.
In many cases, they have been in place so crews could do necessary track work. But it has been extremely frustrating for riders.
The Red Line was the most recent to lift speed restrictions.
"We have a tremendous amount of work ahead of us," Eng said at a press conference Thursday. "The track improvement plan is a big, bold initiative, but we've gone too long with years and years of disinvestment. The time is now to give the public back the system they deserve... We're excited about where this could take us."
