MBTA Red Line Update: Work Completed On 'Key Area Of Signals'

BOSTON (CBS) -- The MBTA gave an update on the Red Line service Friday since work on a "key area of signals" has been completed. They said "progress results in average time savings of approximately five minutes" since the June 11 derailment.

Prior to the derailment, 14 trains were running per hour during rush hour. Currently, 12 to 13 trains run during morning rush hour and 10 to 11 trains during evening rush hour. This means trains are arriving every five to six minutes.

Three more trains are running midafternoon as well. After the derailment, only five trains were running per hour but nine or 10 used to run during that time before the incident.

Three signal bungalows were significantly damaged during the derailment, forcing the MBTA to manually dispatch and move trains along the Braintree branch from Broadway to North Quincy and on the Ashmont branch from Broadway to Fields Corner. This required 57 people in the field each day.

"With the restoration of the signals between Broadway and JFK/UMass, the area of manually dispatching and moving trains between stations has been shortened and scaled back to two areas between JFK/UMass and North Quincy on the Braintree branch and to between JFK/UMass and Fields Corner on the Ashmont branch," said the MBTA. It now takes 41 people.

Repair work is expected to continue through October.