MBTA to lift global speed restrictions on Green Line for Saturday

BOSTON — MBTA riders covered in green for St Patrick’s Day weekend will be able to take the Green Line into the city without global speed restrictions in place.

The MBTA plans to lift the last of the global speed restrictions put in place last week, MBTA interim general manager Jeff Gonneville announced at a press conference Friday afternoon. The global restrictions on the Mattapan Line have already been lifted.

In an unprecedented move following the discovery of several violations, the MBTA implemented speed restrictions on the Red, Orange, Blue, and Green Lines on March 9, adding additional travel time for commuters.

The speed restrictions were the result of several safety violations that were discovered by Department of Public Utilities inspectors during a recent site visit of the Red Line between Ashmont and Savin Hill.

Between March 3 and 5, the DPU said it found the following:

• A couple of trains overshot a station platform
• Defective track conditions on the red line
• Subway operators weren’t using headlights when required
• Several third-rail insulators were defective
• Signal control boxes and access panels weren’t securely closed
• Inspectors observed a worker not wearing a hard hat worker wasn’t wearing a hard hat

The Red, Blue and Orange Lines had their global speed restrictions lifted last week. Certain areas remained as slow zones.

Subway trains on those lines were limited to 10 to 25 miles an hour. Normally, the trains travel up to 40 miles an hour.

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