BOSTON — The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has outlined in more detail plans for an extended shutdown of Red Line rapid transit service between the JFK/UMass and Braintree stations, set for Sept. 6-29. The agency has also announced two weekends of commuter rail outages between South Station and Braintree, Sept. 7-8 and 14-15.
The Red Line outage was first announced in July [see “Extended shutdowns of parts of Green, Red lines on tap …,” Trains News Wire, July 19, 2024].
The outage, the only major project planned in September, will allow work on 18 miles of the Red Line and targets the removal of more than 20 current speed restriction. The MBTA says repairs will cut round-trip travel times on the Braintree Branch by as much as 24 minutes. The two weekend commuter outages on the Kingston, Middleborough, and Greenbush lines, which run adjacent to the Red Line, are part of the same project.
Except on those weekends, the commuter lines will offer fare-free service between Braintree, Quincy Center, JFK/UMass, and South Station. Commuter trains operate every 20 to 30 minutes, with a travel time between Braintree and South Station of about 24 minutes; extra coaches will be added to commuter trains to handle the expected increase in ridership.
Shuttle buses will operate between Braintree, Quincy Adams, Quincy Center, Wollaston, North Quincy, and Ashmont. There will be no direct shuttle service to or from JFK/UMass; riders are encouraged to use the commuter trains. Those using the shuttle buses should allow “ample extra traveling time,” the MBTA says, citing as an example an extra 40 minutes to travel from Braintree to Park Street.
More complete information is available here.
What is the source of all the money MBTA is using to make all these improvements now?
Perhaps the same source as rebuilding the Wollaston, Quincy Center, Quincy Adams and Braintree stations which reached the point of decay. The “new” Red Line South Shore extension is fifty years old to Quincy Center, almost as old to Quincy Adams and Braintree.