The Red Line will soon hit 50 mph between JFK and Braintree

More Red Line passengers can soon expect faster travel times, MBTA General Manager and Interim Transportation Secretary Phil Eng said Thursday as he also touted higher top speeds along a swath of the Orange Line.

"I want to tell our Red Line riders that in the next few weeks, we will be again increasing speeds from North Quincy to JFK to 50 miles an hour," Eng told the MBTA Board of Directors. "That will mean from JFK to Braintree, 50 miles an hour for our riders — shortening trips, speeding up their trips, giving them back time in the day."

T officials in January 2025 hinted they were eyeing travel speeds of 50 mph for parts of the Red Line, representing a 10 mph increase over current levels. The Red Line was designed to run at 50 mph between the JFK/UMass station and Braintree station, a T leader had said.

The MBTA achieved part of that goal last year. Red Line speeds climbed to 50 mph on the Braintree Branch, between Braintree and North Quincy, on March 14, 2025, an MBTA spokesperson said.

The Orange Line is also cruising faster, with the MBTA announcing Sunday that trains can now travel up to 55 mph between Assembly Station and North Station.

"That means everything from North (Station) to Oak Grove now is 55 miles an hour," Eng said. "We would not have been able to do that if we didn't start fixing our track, eliminating speed restrictions, modernizing the signals."

The volume of weekday trips has increased by 76% on the Orange Line and by 42% on the Red Line compared to 2023, Eng said.