BLUE LINE CAPACITY KEEPS GROWING

MBTA General Manager today announced that more than half of the Blue Line trains that operate during peak commuting periods are now longer, six-car trains. The number of shorter, four-car trains continues to shrink. Today, eight of the regularly scheduled thirteen 'rush hour' period trains are six cars in length.

General Manager says seventy (70) new Blue Line cars are now on MBTA Property, and 56 of them have been accepted for service following rigorous testing and inspection phases. The Blue Line fleet will be comprised of 94 new cars once the procurement process is finished.

The general manager says yet another six-car train will be deployed on the Blue Line within a month.

"The additional capacity could not come at a better time," said the General Manager , who also announced that average weekday Blue Line ridership in 2008 was nearly 3% above 2007 levels. On a typical weekday in 2008, an average of 58,226 riders used the Blue Line.