Green Line Extension Lechmere to Medford

I hope you weren't enjoying the new Green Line extension too much!

https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/mb ... d/2800556/

Brief quote

The MBTA announced Friday that it will be shutting down the new Green Line Extension for four weeks and that the opening date for the Medford Branch has been delayed from late summer to November of 2022.

The Boston Globe and its other site Boston.com seem to be only news sources to exclude the Govt Center Garage demolition as part of the reason the extension is shutting down. Their articles only state it is for the Medford extension work, must want to get readers even more riled up.

At the very least the 10 mph restriction over the viaduct will be gone when it's all said and done. Just a shame that years of neglect and disinvestment have made these diversions necessary.

Looks like they want to close Haymarket again for some garage demolition work.

Is there still a 10 MPH speed restriction over the Lechmere viaduct?

There is and the T says after it will go up to 25. But the extension documents said it would be 50.
https://twitter.com/meptrsn/status/1555 ... yzCee6qbPw

Well hell! I was planning a vacation this Fall to Boston to ride the new Somerville Extension and hopefully the new Orange and Red Line cars .

Guess I'll be going to Philadelphia to ride there instead. Hope MBTA gets its act together over the Winter so maybe I can do Boston in the Spring of 2023.

I understand the need for the work, but you can not justify the work ongoing during the Orange Line closure.

1. I'm not sure how much crossover there is or can be between heavy rail and Green Line track crews, but the Orange Line could use all hands on deck.

2. Last I saw there would NOT be shuttle buses between North Station and Tufts. This is predicated on folks being able to ride the Green Line as an alternative. And now the Green Line won't be running between NS and Govt Ctr...

Is it safe to assume that the Union branch was not quite ready for prime time, but opened regardless at 10 MPH, because politics?

wicked wrote: ↑Fri Aug 05, 2022 10:29 pm I understand the need for the work, but you can not justify the work ongoing during the Orange Line closure.

I'm pretty sure most of the justification for doing the Orange Line and Green Line closures simultaneously is that there won't be any trains running through Haymarket, and therefore they can make progress on the Government Center Garage demolition.

wicked wrote: ↑Fri Aug 05, 2022 10:29 pm 2. Last I saw there would NOT be shuttle buses between North Station and Tufts. This is predicated on folks being able to ride the Green Line as an alternative. And now the Green Line won't be running between NS and Govt Ctr...

While the Green Line is closed, the Green Line shuttles should be going all the way to Gov't Center (MBTA announcement), so at worst riders should be able to do: Orange Line shuttle to North Station, Green Line shuttle from North Station to Gov't Center, then the actual Green Line from there on (definitely not ideal though; I haven't heard anything one way or another, but I wonder if they'd extend the Orange Line shuttles all the way to Gov't Center too during this period?)

rethcir wrote: ↑Sat Aug 06, 2022 7:42 am Is it safe to assume that the Union branch was not quite ready for prime time, but opened regardless at 10 MPH, because politics?

The 10mph speed restriction was only over the Lechmere Viaduct over the Charles river (which was being rehabilitated as part of the GLT project, not directly as part of GLX, although it was moreorless a requirement for decent service over GLX). None of the newly-built parts of GLX seem to have the issue that's causing the speed restriction over the Lechmere Viaduct.

Allegedly, the Lechmere Viaduct speed restriction was due to poorly-installed catenary, which would line up with this quote from the T announcement I linked above:

Scheduled activities include:

• Adjustments to the overhead wire on the East Cambridge Viaduct that will eliminate a temporary 10 mph speed restriction ...

Head-end View wrote: ↑Fri Aug 05, 2022 7:48 pm Well hell! I was planning a vacation this Fall to Boston to ride the new Somerville Extension and hopefully the new Orange and Red Line cars .

Guess I'll be going to Philadelphia to ride there instead. Hope MBTA gets its act together over the Winter so maybe I can do Boston in the Spring of 2023.

These closures will be complete before September 21, so a fall trip would still work for riding both lines.

Disney Guy wrote: ↑Fri Aug 05, 2022 6:22 pm Looks like they want to close Haymarket again for some garage demolition work.

Is there still a 10 MPH speed restriction over the Lechmere viaduct?

Could someone explain why there is such a speed restriction to begin with. I figured with brand new track, the LRVs would just zip-zip from Science Park to Union Square.

The restriction WAS for the structure rather than the track, who knows what today’s excuse is.

If I remember correctly, the viaduct had two color (green and red only) block signaling back in the 1960s. Not sure whether speed restrictions were the motive but the signal indications were changed to yellow and red in later years.

In any event, operators familiar with three color block signals should have no difficulty in two color yellow and red signal territory.

Two years out of service completely and I don't remember how many millions of dollars to reconstruct and reinforce that viaduct. Visually it looks better than it has in my lifetime. The concrete is repaired right, the rail and ties are new, there are enough steel anchors holding everything together that it'll stand longer than a Roman aqueduct. And my reaction was and still is "WTF?" when I rode it after it reopened, crawling at ten miles an hour until we reached the new alignment. That is inexcusable. I don't buy "the overhead is set wrong" - that's something that can be fixed with a wire car over a few nights, not another two month outage. All that money spent. Where is it?

HenryAlan wrote: ↑Tue Aug 09, 2022 9:44 am

Head-end View wrote: ↑Fri Aug 05, 2022 7:48 pm Well hell! I was planning a vacation this Fall to Boston to ride the new Somerville Extension and hopefully the new Orange and Red Line cars .

Guess I'll be going to Philadelphia to ride there instead. Hope MBTA gets its act together over the Winter so maybe I can do Boston in the Spring of 2023.

These closures will be complete before September 21, so a fall trip would still work for riding both lines.

My understanding is that the opening of the Green Line Somerville Extension which was planned for September is now postponed again 'til late November? That will be too late for a Fall trip, but I'm hoping everything will be back to normal for a Spring trip.