Red Line Construction

I was riding the RL inbound today from Ashmont. Right after South Station there seemed to be a big chunk of the wall missing. Does anybody know whats going on down there. Also there were these New wires running along the wall. These same wires are also at DTX on the OL on the Oak Grove side. Are these wires for the new signaling system. Also why would they be down in the Red Line.

I'm guessing your talking about the new vent shaft and fans between south station and downtown. also all of the wires for the new orange line signal system have to be run from the orange line to the Operations Control Center at 45 high st.

I guess this is a better topic title than the 01800 topic to announce that 'bustitution' is gonna take place between Quincy Ctr and Braintree this weekend (October 1 & 2) for track work. (Rob, maybe a few more sections capable of going more than 5 miles per hour? !)

fm535 wrote:I guess this is a better topic title than the 01800 topic to announce that 'bustitution' is gonna take place between Quincy Ctr and Braintree this weekend (October 1 & 2) for track work. (Rob, maybe a few more sections capable of going more than 5 miles per hour? !)

You're right, I just got the flyer(s) that were dropped down on the seats this morning announcing the ling awaited diversion between QUI and BRN, so that eventually we can have those 10-codes lifted in the Quincy Adams thru Braintree Area. So again, I'm glad they are shutting down that line completely so that we can have a faster ride.

I got on a 01700 this evening at 6:30pm at Braintree. We did not do a single ten code the entire trek to JFK!!!! We pulled out of Braintree and that typical and usual crawl along that first .5 mile was eliminated! We slowed down a little bit over the Neponset River Bridge, but not anything like it has been. Sweet speeds along the entire route!

are there a lot of places on the T that have speed restrictions on them? like, on commuter rail and on the subway?

On the CR there aren't many. The only one that is very noticeable is the Columbia Road undergrade bridge on the Dorchester Branch which is a 10mph permanent restriction.

The Braintree branch of the Red Line seems susceptible to 'ten' codes on a regular basis because of poor track maintenance. Between dried and splintered wooden ties near some stations, and poorly designed versions of the concrete ties that have fallen apart because of the 'flat' wheels and constant pounding, the entire branch for the two years I have used it, has been prone to slow downs and creepy-crawling along. Robert loves to talk about 50 mph speed limits along the strtecth, but in the past two years, there has only been two, between Quincy Ctr & Braintree. Lately, I have seen them hit 50 between small sections between JFK and N.Quincy. It seems to be getting better! One can only hope!

(And I am sure others will submit the slow downs around the Cambridge side of things because of new sections joining old sections at impossible angles!)

I've noticed this past week that when pulling out of Braintree before getting to Rte 3, the speed have returned to normal for the most part, I'm glad about that...

Also, as you said, I have noticed a bit faster speeds between JFK Columbia and North Quincy. A sign of things to improve, maybe?

FYI, Harvard (or should I say near Harvard) still has its Code 9. That is for the same reason why it's always been there for a few years now.