The MBTA says Orange Line slow-downs are over after 15 years

Riders can now expect a faster commute when boarding the MBTA Orange Line.

T General Manager Phil Eng on Friday declared that the Orange Line is now operating free of slow zones for the first time in 15 years.

Among other improvements, riders commuting on the line that runs from Forest Hills in Jamaica Plain to Oak Grove in Malden will also see new cars and shorter wait times.

State leaders including Gov. Maura Healey, MBTA General Manager Phil Eng and Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt gathered at Haymarket station Friday morning to thank riders and crew members.

"What is really great is you can't blame the T anymore for being late to work if you take the Orange Line," Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll said.

Eng said the T will start running 360 trains a day by December, nearly double the number of trains running last year. And wait times between trains should be about six minutes, he said — down from 12 minutes.

"If you miss a train, how frustrating that can be when you have to wait another double-digit amount of time," Eng said. "The ability to know that if you miss a train, there's another one just a few minutes away, really takes away the frustration of traveling."

Before the improvements, the orange line was known for its unceremonious shutdown that lasted up to a month, multiple delays and the infamous fire that sent passengers scrambling along a bridge in Somerville.

The old Orange Line cars were also failing every 29,000 miles on average, Eng said. Now they are running over 200,000 miles without failures, he said.