With all of the slow zones having been lifted on the Orange Line, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll wanted to thank the MBTA and its riders.
They joined state transportation officials and MBTA workers at Haymarket Station on Friday morning to celebrate the achievement.
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It's the first time in 15 years that there have been no speed restrictions on any stretch of the Orange Line.
The T announced earlier this week that it had completed critical track work on the Orange Line, removing the final nine speed restrictions.
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"We're here at Haymarket Station to celebrate a very big deal," Healey said. "For the first time in 15 years we've eliminated slow zones on the Orange Line... This is a big deal because we're giving people time back in their lives because we know for far too long, people would have to wait on the T due to these slow zones."
"We're working hard every day to improve service," she added. "I think we've made a lot of headway. There's a lot of good stuff happening, and it's a huge credit to the workforce at the T. Thank you all."
MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng said in spring of last year, the T was running 185 trains a day, and come December they will be running 360 a day.
"That's nearly double the amount of trains we were running just last year," he said.
And the wait time between trains has also been drastically reduced, Eng said, from 12 minutes when he started to six minutes come December.
"That's really important," he said. "The ability to know if you miss a train another one is just a few minutes away really takes away a lot of the frustration of traveling."
"People got hundreds of hours back in their life," Driscoll said. "That's what gives us the most satisfaction."
Next up for the T, Eng said, is more work to improve service, including addressing the signaling system, power and accessibility issues.
