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BOSTON (WBZ) -- The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) wants to bring the Red and Orange lines up to the speeds they were designed for and one official said it could happen "within days."
The agency made the announcement at a board of directors meeting Thursday night.
New MBTA speed limits
MBTA General Manager Phil Eng said they're going to restore the two lines to their originally designed speeds. For the Red Line that's 50 miles per hour, a 10 mile per hour increase from the current limit. For the Orange line, it will be 55 miles per hour.
"We're within days from that goal, meeting that goal," Jody Ray, the T's Maintenance of Way senior director, said at the meeting.
"We did all the work, we then went out with a fine tooth comb to look for anything else that needed to be done to make sure we can do this properly, ran a bunch of test equipment out there."
Before it can happen, the MBTA will have to get approval from the Federal Transit Administration and ensure the new speed limits are safe for riders and operators.
"The city's growing, you're going to have a larger population taking the train, you have to improve service," said commuter Yannick Lewis.
MBTA ridership up
The T has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to fix several slow zones and it seems to be paying off. Eng said ridership was up eight-percent in December 2024 compared to December 2023.
"I'm a fan of public transportation, so I really enjoy taking the train to work every day," said Red Line rider Andria Sand.
Last week, in her State of the Commonwealth address, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey praised Eng for making the T slow zone free for the first time in 20 years. Healey has pledged to spend $8 billion on the MBTA in the next decade.
"Definitely enthused about them saying they're going to make it better," said Ariah Tucci, who rides the T daily.
"If they keep improving, then slowly, I think, we'll start seeing people's opinions start changing about it," said Lewis.
