Boston’s subway was running at less than half speed because it lost critical track inspection paperwork, an official said Friday.
At 10:20 p.m. Thursday night, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, which operates the T subway system among other entities, announced on Twitter it was instituting a systemwide maximum speed of 10 to 25 mph “following findings by the Department of Public Utilities during a recent site visit of the Red Line between Ashmont & Savin Hill.” The T typically operates with a maximum speed of 40 mph. It is very rare for a transit system to institute a blanket speed restriction outside of extreme weather events.
During a press conference Friday morning explaining the bizarre move, MBTA interim general manager Jeff Gonneville said the slow speed restriction was implemented because inspection crews could not find paperwork verifying that necessary track work had actually been done, so the MBTA leadership decided to slow down the entire system out of an abundance of caution.
Boston’s Subway Was Running at Half Speed Because It Lost Paperwork