Hey, there! Log in / Register
Sparks and trash prove bad combination at Park Street Red Line station
By adamg on Wed, 02/02/2011 - 11:10am
Trash track fire. Photo by Ella Shenhav.
The Red Line southbound at Park Street was shut down because sparks from the third rail caused debris on the tracks to catch fire shortly before 11 a.m.
Sal Darjii tweets what the driver on his stuck Red Line train announced:
Due to the fiery conditions at Park St, we will be standing by.
Topics:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
I would think that "track mainanence" would include...
... actually shoveling out all the crap that people toss onto the tracks everyday.
Or at least pick up the litter once a week!
Better yet, have the T police on the platforms at random times looking for people throwing stuff onto the tracks and issuing citations.
24 Hour T?
Ok, so the MBTA in many articles has said one of the reasons that we can't have a subway that runs 24 hours is because there is only one track in each direction and that they "have to inspect every inch of track throughout the night since this is a 100 year old system". So by inspect they must mean the union workers stand around doing nothing.
It seems to me that clearing flammable debris should be a major part of said inspections. This city is really letting me down to the point I'm considering moving somewhere else. It's one giant comedy of errors.
What caused the sparks
Water dripping from the platform, the MBTA reports.
How does water dripping from
How does water dripping from the platform reach the third rail? Strange.
Third rail below platform
The center platform in Park St is on the left side of the vehicle, normally the side of the third rail. So any water on that platform will drip down onto the third rail. Though, there are collectors on both sides, notably for the purpose of crossing switches, so it is also possible for the third rail to be on the right side of the vehicle at times.
In the photo, there seems to
In the photo, there seems to be quite a bit of water coming from the escalator that heads up to the street. Perhaps there is an unusual amount of water on the surface that might be making its way down the escalator shaft, to the platform, to the tracks.
someone should invent a technology to address this problem
Hmm, lets see, it would have holes, for the water to fall into. The water's rain, it's in a train station...hmm...frains? Nains? Sains? D...drains! Yes, that's it, we'll call them drains!
(Why is it that all our stations have basic mistakes any fresh-out-of-school architectural engineer wouldn't commit?)
There are drains and there
There are drains and there are permanent pumps, but they can be overwelmed if water is coming in from unusual places, like escalator shafts that normally don't have water cascading down them.