Hey, there! Log in / Register
Red Line shut by trash fire, but at least it wasn't cows
By adamg on Thu, 08/18/2011 - 4:21pm
Power was shut off to the Red Line this afternoon as Boston firefighters investigated burning trash on the tracks near Broadway station.
Meanwhile, for all the problems on the T, riders are unlikely to be delayed due to cows, unlike out in Amherst:
MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo forwarded the photo and this account:
Friday, August 12 at 6:45 AM the UMass Transit Services Belchertown Center bus was delayed by a small herd of cows that had wandered into the street. The delay occurred on Old Amherst Rd. in Belchertown. The bus stopped about 60 feet from the cows initially. A pedestrian walking a dog drew the cows interest and caused the pedestrian and dog to run away. The cows then marched down the street and confronted the bus, standing about 10 feet from the bus, lining up across the road, facing the bus. The driver was instructed to honk at the cows (which got them moving). She honked again, and the cows slowly moved back down the street and into the woods. The driver then continued on her way. The whole incident lasted about ten minutes.
Peasturo said he has not heard of any cow-related delays on T routes, but cautioned if you had asked him a year or so ago about snakes, he probably wouldn't have thought snakes on a train were possible, either
Speaking of Penelope, Pesaturo reports that after sending her owner a second bill for a $650 cleanup, the T has turned the matter over to a collection agency.
Neighborhoods:
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
It *is* the land of cow-tipping
There is a reason I only lasted a year at UMass/Amherst before having to hurry back to Boston. Of course, my concerns where having more to do on the weekend than knocking over sleeping bovine, but yeah, add cow-delayed commutes to the list. :)
And did that moose that wandered into Cleveland Circle a few decades back actually manage to not muck up the Green Line in any way?
Our esteemed city planners of old
But they do say that the streets of old Boston were laid out by cows. And Boston Common -- just above Park Street Station -- was a cow pasture.
Just haven't seen many of them around Boston recently.
Not really
The streets of Boston being laid out to follow cow paths is just another one of those "facts" the locals like to tell. The city is laid out in a sensible order, considering Boston is a city made up of many smaller towns that grew into each other. Boston also used the now discouraged "dump stuff in the water" method of creating land.
Cows were only grazed on the Common for a few years. None were pastured (kept) on the Common, some families did bring a single cow to the Common in the summer to save on hay. Bringing cows to the Common was ended around 1680, and lasted at best for 20 years before that.
Collection agency, really?
Seriously, let's ask the MBTA to do the math. If you send $650 bill to a collection agency, they take a cut, and how long does it take to get it, and how much do you pay them for so many calls/letters... it would end up costing MORE than if they had just let the matter drop. Besides, I'm pretty sure any Red Line car could use an institutional grade hosing down on a more regular basis.
Thats not really how it works.
The collection agency buys the debt in cash. the MBTA already has their money, though probably only a fraction. The agency then gets to keep whatever it is that they end up collecting.
So what does it cost the MBTA? Nothing.
I tend to think it's the
I tend to think it's the principle of the matter more than anything.
What a load of bull....
The cows are cute and all Joe, but siccing a collection agency on the snake owner is just really low.
If the MBTA needs the $650 so badly, they should put a collection basket on the back doors of the surface Green Line stops.
She should bill them
Penelope had to be eating something ... like vermin?
I think the real reason for
I think the real reason for the 650 is for disrupting the system by bringing a pet that isn't allowed in the first place and bringing it as a scarf on top of that. The cleaning bill is because they never wrote a specific punishment for bringing a snake as a scarf that disrupts a system. In that viewpoint, I can't be very sympathetic about her now having to deal with a collection agency.
I think we had this discussion before...
CHUCKLE, CHUCKLE
Ya gotta love that that Joe Pesaturo. Great photo! Please email me the photo. Love it!