Lechmere Viaduct Progress

Robert Paniagua wrote:I think they are allowed there, now that the line has been rebuilt, although the only line that's there, the E does not possess any M8's due to that notorious accident at Northeastern a year or so ago.

What happened?

A Type 8 derailed at Northeastern last year, thus causing then MBTA to have to pull them off the E. Hopefully they'll be back on the E soon.

mattster wrote:

Robert Paniagua wrote:I think they are allowed there, now that the line has been rebuilt, although the only line that's there, the E does not possess any M8's due to that notorious accident at Northeastern a year or so ago.

What happened?

The Type 8's were returned to service for the first time on the E since the early (pre-2000) days and haad only been in service for a couple days when a Breda derailed at Northeastern, took our a large tract of fencing, and "ran aground" on the platform. No injuries, but that could've been a bad scene if someone were standing right there. The train was towed back on to the tracks by the Boeing rerailer work car, but then the Breda derailed again as it was being towed through Park St. to a pocket track and took out a light fixture.

That's basically when the T threw up its hands and confined the Type 8's only to one line at a time (at the time they were relegated to the C, then eventually shifted en masse to the B once their numbers became greater...and they've stayed there since). There are no real technical challenges to getting them back up on the E. This was a stretch of reservation trackage, not street-running, so it's the same setup as on the B. They just haven't bothered trying until the cars get a whole lot more reliable than this. For one, the damage done to Northeastern was to a brand new ADA-upgraded station they'd just finished work on...so if the things are going to derail, let them screw up crappy old stations and not something the T just sunk millions into upgrading.

If they're resuming car orders, there's no reason why Type 8 service won't be restored to Heath Street. They've performed well in street-running, where speeds obviously aren't an issue. And because that line is short it almost makes more sense to run them there and on the C instead of the longer and already-slow B. I guess my only concern is whether they can keep full speed in the Huntington subway...that Copley-to-Prudential stretch gets the average Type 7 going at near-max speed, so it would suck to have speed restrictions there for slowpoke Bredas.