“Thirty percent - that doesn't happen overnight,” said Thompson.

Human verification eventually did happen and by the end of March the T determined that about 30% of the system needed slow zones. How did the T realize 30% of the system required slow zones? This major blind spot prompted Jeff Gonneville, interim general manager at the time, to slow down the entire system out of an abundance of caution. It turned out that subway cars were moving over parts of the system at full speed when it was not actually safe to do so.

As the report revealed, this crucial verification step wasn’t happening for the last year.īecause of this, the MBTA was unaware of more than 100 problems on its tracks, Dolven said. However, people at the T then have to verify whatever the cars detect and determine what to do next, such as an immediate repair or a slow zone until a repair is made. These are machines that are deployed to inspect tracks for problems that humans could miss. Many of those folks retired, and that knowledge wasn't handed down to the next person.'Īs an example, Dolven highlighted the failure by T staff to act on data gathered by so-called geometry cars. 'There's nothing in writing that said, 'OK, we found something wrong, now this is the process to fix it,' ' Thompson said. One finding was a lack of a codified system explaining track maintenance processes at the T. What was one major finding of the Red Line slowdown report? We answer the basic questions about the report with insights shared by Stacy Thompson of the advocacy group Livable Streets and Boston Globe transportation reporter Taylor Dolven during a conversation with WBUR's Radio Boston. O’Reilly of Carlson Transport Consulting LLC. Why this happened was the subject of a report published on Aug.

(Jesse Costa/WBUR)Ī new independent report commissioned by the MBTA found that insufficiently trained track staff and a lack of clear roles around maintenance contributed to a massive backlog of repairs that culminated in the end-to-end speed restrictions that affected the entire subway system in March.Īt the time, T officials said they didn't have the confidence in prior inspections and repairs to allow the subway cars to move at normal speeds.

Facebook Email A Red Line train bound for Ashmont rolls slowly into South Station.

Middlemarch download the new