How many people can jam into South Station at once?
By adamg - 5/11/11 - 5:15 pm
We could find out tonight thanks to rush-hour delays and a cancellation on commuter rail. Steve Poftak tweets:
S. Station concourse impassable. Mult. Delays. DefCon 5 meltdown.
Down the line, John Valerio reports from Back Bay:
Broken down train causing delays at Back Bay. Nothing on T site; short-tempered station announcer yelling updates.
Comments
The short tempered announcer at South Station...
... is my ex boyfriend. Fabulous - wish I wasn't home sick so I can see all of the destruction.... um.... no....
Blame it on the Franklin train
The mess seems to have started when the 4:20 Forge Park broke down between South Station and Back Bay. Everything else that was supposed to come through on that track backed up behind it, including a Providence train and an Acela.
Judging from the T website, though, things have gone way downhill from there.
South Station
Are there anymore measle bearing employees there? Talk about contagious conditions.
Ah perfect.
Ah perfect.
The official line
16 trains delayed or cancelled, says the Globe.
5 v 1
defcon 5 is "everything's hunky dory!", defcon 1 is the bad one.
It was a mess
Got there at 5:05 via the Red Line, and the top of the stairs/escalators into the lobby were packed with people. The foot of the platforms were the same. The staff were asking over the PA system for everyone to wait inside, but it would have made the situation even worse. It finally started to lighten up around 5:30.
The South Station management should also put screens with departure info at the entrances to the station, preferably high up so people can read them as they pass by. It wasn't possible to see the listings unless you somehow made it into the main concourse or pushed your way through to the screen at the foot of tracks 3/4.
There is a screen outside
There is a screen outside somewhere, and also in the food court.
Yes, there should be one in the red line area and by the main entrance.
Better than back bay though, it's behind the counter. Fantastic for those of us with bad vision.
A good idea, but
last night the signs didn't have accurate information (at least at Back Bay they didn't). The guy stuck making announcements was continuously adding that people shouldn't use the schedule board because it was not updated to reflect the delays.
Ordinarily, though, more signs in more places would definitely be helpful.
Regular @ N. Station
This scene is a regular one at North Station. The incompetence of the T is staggering.