Red Line service south of the JFK/UMass station will be unavailable due to maintenance beginning Sept. 6.
Service is expected to resume Sept. 29, according to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. These repairs will affect every Red Line stop between the Braintree and JFK/UMass stations, which will be unavailable during this time period.
To reduce the inconvenience for riders, the MBTA will waive fares for service between Braintree, Quincy Center, JFK/UMass and South Station. The Greenbush, Kingston and Middleborough/Lakeville commuter rail will pass through these stations. For students traveling to campus from north of JFK/UMass, this route will be the ideal method of transportation. Commuter rail service will also be unavailable Sept. 7-8 and Sept. 14-15.
In addition to the commuter rail, there will be shuttle bus services from Braintree to North Quincy which then bringing riders to the Ashmont station. From the Ashmont station, riders then get on the Ashmont line to ride to JFK/UMass. Students traveling to campus from North Quincy, Wollaston, Quincy Center, Quincy Adams or Braintree can use these shuttle buses to make their commute.
Trains will be able to run up to 40 mph once repairs are complete, reducing commutes by up to 24 minutes. Although more steps will need to take place in the future to allow travel beyond that speed, according to the MBTA website, it will still be a significant increase.
According to the Conservation Law Foundation, the speed restrictions have been in place since the winter of 2022. After repairs were rushed during 2022 maintenance, inspections revealed more than 100 defects. The MBTA enacted dozens of slow zones in these areas to ensure passenger safety. Since then, these slow zones have gradually increased in speed in some areas, and disappeared entirely in others.
MBTA General Manager and CEO Phillip Eng stated that short-term delays are necessary to improve the system for the future.
“The MBTA is committed to not only restoring our system to deliver safe and reliable service, but we are focused on building it back better,” he said in a press release.
If all goes according to plan, the track maintenance will remove over 20 speed restrictions, a major step toward reaching this ultimate goal. According to reports from CBS, the MBTA plans to have all slow zones removed by the end of this year.
UMass Boston student Danny Pick is looking in a positive direction when it comes to the shutdowns, saying, “I’m kind of excited because the commuter rail will be free, and I find that to be more reliable anyway. But, I have trust in Eng’s vision moving forward.”
Said Eng, “I look forward to returning faster, safer, more reliable Braintree branch service to our riders on September 30.”
