How the Red Line Could Increase Its Capacity

BOSTON, MA — Officials at the Mass. Bay Transportation Authority have seen the jam-packed Red Line trains, crunched the numbers and come to believe it might be worth spending "hundreds of millions of dollars" on a new fleet of cars, increasing its capacity by half.

That was the gist of MBTA Chief Operating Officer Jeffrey Gonneville's pitch Monday to the MBTA's fiscal control board, suggesting they not only replace 86 older cars, but add 24 news ones as well. Trains with better brakes and other systems could mean a Red Line train every 3 minutes, rather than every 4.5 minutes, Gonneville told the board, according to The Boston Globe.

All well and good, especially given the demands put on the Red Line, but as usual with the MBTA, the funding question looms large.

According to the paper, this marks a "significant shift" from current plans. The MBTA has earmarked $200 million to refurbish 86 cars, the Globe reports, and it's already spending $566 million to replace nearly 300 Red and Orange line cars.

>>> Read the full story from The Boston Globe here.

Image by Alison Bauter, Patch staff