fb-pixelSpeed restrictions lifted for most of Green Line on Sunday night - The Boston Globe Skip to main content

Speed restrictions lifted for most of Green Line on Sunday night

About 18 percent of track remains under block speed restrictions, MBTA said

A Green Line train arrived at the Blandford Street Station on Saturday.Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff

The MBTA lifted speed restrictions on most Green Line tracks Sunday night, just in time for Monday’s morning commute, but some areas will continue to see slow travel, the agency said.

The restrictions, which limited all Green Line trains to no more than 25 miles per hour, were implemented more than a week ago after the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority could not verify that its tracks were safe.

The restrictions were lifted for all but 18 percent of the track that is now under “block speed restrictions,” the MBTA said in a statement Sunday night. A block speed restriction is for a length of track “that may include multiple defects that need to be investigated or mitigated,” the statement said.

Advertisement



“As each defect is validated and corrected as needed, the length of the block speed restriction will be reduced until the block is fully removed,” the MBTA’s statement said. “System-wide speed restrictions were previously replaced with block restrictions on the Orange, Blue, Red, and Mattapan lines.”

The agency encouraged riders to continue planning for longer travel time on the Green Line.

On Friday afternoon, MBTA Interim General Manager Jeff Gonneville had expressed optimism that the T would lift its speed restriction on the entire Green Line by Saturday morning.

But the T kept those measures in place throughout the day Saturday, after it said in a Twitter post that some issues were discovered with the locations of speed signs while running a Green Line test train. The agency later said it identified 30 speed limit signs that needed to be relocated on the Green Line.

In its statement Sunday night, the MBTA said, “test trains have confirmed that all speed signs on the Green Line are in place to safely implement block speed restrictions.”

Advertisement



The MBTA and MassDOT did not respond to questions Sunday.

Gonneville, the MBTA, and Governor Maura Healey’s office have not released any information on how the transit agency misplaced or failed to create documentation that verified track safety.

“While initial review indicates that staff vacancies contributed to the documentation issue, the Governor has directed the MBTA to conduct a thorough review of this situation and take immediate corrective actions to ensure accountability,” a Healey spokeswoman said in a statement Friday night.



John Hilliard can be reached at john.hilliard@globe.com. Nick Stoico can be reached at nick.stoico@globe.com.