With less than one week to go until the planned opening of South Coast Rail, the project still needs one last federal approval.
An official at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority said yesterday that the Federal Railroad Administration still needs to greenlight a plan for speed limits along the route. It’s called the Speed Limit Action Plan.
An earlier hurdle known as “run the service” — in which the Federal Railroad Administration observes a dress rehearsal of the full train schedule, without passengers — is complete, the MBTA official said.
But trains can’t start running Monday without final approval of the speed limit plan.
The MBTA official said the state is grateful for the review and does not expect a problem.
Trains will run seven days a week to six new stations.
The line goes west from Middleborough to Taunton, and then south to Fall River and New Bedford.
Weekday trains depart from New Bedford and Fall River starting at 4:27 a.m. and 5:05 a.m., respectively, making about 30 trips a day. The last weekday trains leave South Station at 11:59 p.m.
On weekends, trains run less often but still offer an 11:59 p.m. return from Boston.
