It’s a Christmas miracle’: MBTA is slow-zone free for first time in decades

BOSTON — MBTA riders will start saving time on all train lines now that a project to remove slow zones is finished, according to officials.

The MBTA said Monday that the T is one hour 30 minutes faster across all lines.

The project to replace 248,000 feet of rail was finished in a little over a year.

“It’s a Christmas miracle. For the first time in 20 years slow zones are removed from the T,” said Governor Maura Healey on Monday morning.

Governor Healey acknowledged the completion of the track improvement programming, saying it will now save riders 2.4 million minutes every week.

“We’re making it better for riders, we’re giving them back time in their lives, we’re getting them where they need to go more reliably and at a faster pace,” said Healey.

The Governor added that the state was losing one million dollars every day because of slow zones.

200 slow zones have been eliminated on all lines.

MBTA CEO Phil Eng said that doesn’t just improve travel times but wait times as well.

“So we have less dropped trips, we have more frequent trips, we have faster trips, all that adds up to improve quality of life and the ability to use the T,” said Eng.

Officials said what riders see in efficiency is also a step forward in making the T as safe as possible.

While this project was about restoring the track, MBTA officials are also focused on signals and power, with signal upgrades already in progress.

“We’re going to be very, very aggressive in 2025,” Eng added. “The target is to finish in early ‘26 before the World Cup because that’s a key component to a transit system.”

Boston Carmen’s Union, Local 589 did the work to rebuild the rails and fix the switches.

President  Jim Evers spoke about the project Monday morning and said, “I’ve been here at the MBTA a long time and I’ve never seen the agency in better shape.”

The MBTA estimates travel times to now be:

• 60 minutes faster on the Red line
• 21 minutes faster on the Orange line
• 9 minutes faster on the Green line
• 4 minutes faster on the Blue line

Governor Healey petitioned riders, “Come back to the T. Come back to the commuter rail. We know this has been really frustrating, long number of years and that is not lost on us.”

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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