Boston, MA
‘Stay ahead': Inside the MBTA's final track improvement project of 2024
It’s no secret that the MBTA has faced a lot of problems over the years, from derailments to crumbling stations and, yes, those dreaded slow zones. While some issues do remain, there has been a lot of progress to make things better for riders.
NBC10 Boston was the only station invited down inside the final track improvement project of 2024. MBTA General Manager Phil Eng showed us the work being done on the Green Line at Haymarket Station.
“The amount of work we’ve done gives us the ability now to stay ahead,” Eng said.
One year ago, there were 226 slow zones across the transit system with rolling shutdowns. The T replaced 246,000 feet of rail during that time. The final two slow zones are set to be lifted after work is done on the Green Line on Dec. 20.
The scheduled closure between Medford/Tufts through Park Street is set to be the final service suspension under the MBTA’s Track Improvement Program
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Eng said the reason they were able to finally able to get this work done is because they were able to shut down lines instead of doing the work in small chunks.
“Trying to do it on the overnights — not enough hours,” said Eng. “We just got too far behind on the amount of work that needed to get done. The ability to tackle these with longer diversions allows us not only the ability to eliminate the restriction but, again, to do significant more repair in addition, a much more robust repair.”
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Over on the Red Line, the slow zones are gone. It’s the first time that’s happened in 15 years. The T said roundtrip travel time on this line alone has improved by nearly an hour.
“I get here in 40 minutes from East Boston, which I think is great,” said Mario Rojas, who takes the Red Line to JFK UMass Station. Rojas said his commute used to take about an hour and a half.
Another rider told us his commute is returning back to what it used to be: “Instead of an hour, it’s 45 minute.”
“I think the T is on the upswing,” said Jim Aloisi, a former Massachusetts secretary of transportation.
But Aloisi has concerns that much of the progress made over the last year could face a setback. The MBTA is facing a $700 million operating deficit for the next fiscal year.
The MBTA is headed toward a fiscal cliff and transit advocates say decisions on how to trim the budget need to be made by the end of the year or advocates say the outcome will be detrimental for the state.
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“There’s no solution to this,” said Aloisi. “You either cut back on service or you solve the fiscal cliff.”
He does remain cautiously optimistic that the funding will come through.
“Our Legislature and our governor really need to confront the reality that this is not a one-time fix,” said Aloisi. “We need a structural, long-term, permanent, fair solution that gives the T ample money.”
Eng said the T is fully funded through 2025.
“I’m confident, as the T, we’re doing everything we can to be more efficient,” he added.
While a lot of progress has been made, Eng doesn’t rule out more limited closures to fix future problems when they come up.
“We know there’s going to be another restriction ’cause there’s so many areas that need to be done, but we also know that we can tackle them,” Eng said.
It’s going to be a little while longer before Roman Anthony returns to action.
The Red Sox outfielder has suffered another setback in his recovery from a sprained right hand and will be shut down from swinging for a couple of days.
Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy told reporters in Cleveland that Anthony tried hitting off a tee Thursday for the first time since suffering his injury on May 4, but that he found doing so to be painful.
“He hit off the tee (yesterday) and had some discomfort, so we’re going to slow play it,” Tracy said, per MLB.com’s Henry Palattella. “It’s going to be day-to-day, or even the better way is ‘action-to-action.’ (We’re going to be asking), ‘What did he do today, is that uncomfortable and do we have to wait?’ ”
Originally thought to be a minor issue that might not even require a stint on the injured list, Anthony has now missed 21 games and likely won’t be back until early-to-mid June.
The recovery process has also been halting. Anthony has continued doing most other baseball activities, including running and throwing, but it wasn’t until earlier this week that he could swing a bat free of discomfort.
Once he was able to comfortably take dry swings — or swing a bat without hitting the ball — the next step was hitting off a tee. Now he’ll be given a couple more days to heal and likely won’t try again until the Red Sox return home from Cleveland and are back at Fenway Park on Tuesday following Monday’s off day.
Tracy acknowledged that the recovery hasn’t gone as smoothly as expected, but emphasized that isn’t because of anything Anthony’s done wrong.
“That’s not Roman’s fault, it’s not anyone’s fault,” Tracy said. “It’s just he got hurt, and it’s a nagging injury on a hand when he’s trying to hit.”
Speaking to Rob Bradford on the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast prior to Thursday’s game against the Atlanta Braves, Anthony clarified the exact nature of his injury, which was officially announced by the team as a right wrist sprain. Anthony said he has a partially torn ring finger ligament, specifically his ring finger CMC (carpometacarpal).
The sprain versus torn verbiage has generated some confusion among fans, though medically there isn’t a meaningful distinction between the two.
“I know stuff came out yesterday about tear versus sprain versus strain and all these different things, and I don’t know what to say other than any of those are a tear,” Tracy said. “You strain a hamstring and that’s a partial tear; fibers let go a little bit and they need to heal.
“I don’t think anything is portrayed differently or wrongly. If a guy strains his hamstring, I won’t come out here and say he tore his hamstring. That’s not how that works.”
Prior to suffering his injury, Anthony was batting .229 with one home run and a .675 OPS through his first 30 games this season.
Surprise: Another weekend and there’s more rain on the way. It’s bad enough we’ve had to post a First Alert.
For now, we’ll watch as clouds thicken today. We’ll squeeze out some drops later this afternoon and evening.
A weather maker is winding up in Canada, wrapping in cold air. All of that is going to dive down to New England.
We’re in the thick of it tomorrow. Rain will be coming at us in bursts with some dry time in between. Winds will likely push past 50 mph in Boston.
Those winds will eat away at temperatures; with wind chills barely above freezing. And no – not just in the morning – but the afternoon, too!
It’s so cold there’s the threat of snow as that rain bumps into colder air over the Berkshires, Worcester Hills and southern New Hampshire right up to Mount Washington.
The snow isn’t going to pile up but just know there could be some flakes flying over our highest hills.
The blue on our Futurecast map marks the spots where snow could mix with rain.
Rain spins out by Saturday evening but not before dumping about half an inch over Boston.
We’ll try to salvage the rest of the weekend with temperatures in the upper 60s by Sunday. Still, there’s the threat of bits and pieces of rain.
By the way, this isn’t any weekend, it’s the last weekend of spring. Meteorological summer starts on June 1.
The first day of summer remains drab and dreary with more rain chances and temperatures in the low 60 on Monday.
Federal immigration demands are once again centered on Massachusetts.
The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday sent three letters to Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox, Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins and Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden demanding, among other things, information on how many ICE detainers BPD has received and declined to honor from 2022 to 2026 and any communication between the three departments related to immigration.
House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said in a statement that “releasing repeat criminals back to the streets solely because of their immigration status is crazy, and that’s exactly what Boston is doing.”
But Democrats push back on that framing.
“You’re familiar with Jim Jordan and his antics,” said Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey. “This is more circus, it’s more theater and it’s not making our community safe.”
A spokesperson for the City of Boston wrote, “the city has provided this information many times…” going on to say “…these policies are part of keeping Boston the safest major city in America.”
The letters call for the documents to be sent to the House Judiciary Committee by June 10th at 5:00 pm. District Attorney Hayden’s office told NBC 10 they are reviewing the letter, neither Commissioner Cox or Sheriff Tompkins responded to requests for comment.
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