Red Line track fire fills Downtown Crossing with smoke, shuts service
By adamg - 4/4/12 - 9:06 am
Buses were slow to get to JFK, where Jack Burke was stuck.
Firefighters responded to a fire on the tracks between Downtown Crossing and Park Street reported around 9 a.m.
Power, of course, had to be shut off to let firefighters onto the tracks, causing delays for riders. The T rolled out shuttle buses for the trip between JFK and Harvard.
The Boston Fire Department reports some trash near some switching equipment caught fire.
Comments
T Police booted all
T Police booted all passengers off the Alewife bound side eventually. When I asked if there would be busses to Alewife I was told to 'Get Out'. Stay Classy MBTA.
Good ole' job lottery strikes again
Massachusetts: Employing the Unemployable Since 1620
alternatives overlooked?
How come they do not put people on the commuter rail cars that come through there. At least they could get directly to South Station without having to cram on buses and hit Dot Ave only to chug to Andrews, Broadway and the South Station?
They Did
I got off at JFK and headed for the commuter rail instead of the buses. Some others did as well. There was a train scheduled to arrive at 9:25, but it was running about 40 minutes late. I figured it was still better than trying to cram onto a shuttle. A train pulled into the station around 9:45, even though there was no stop scheduled at that time. It then waited there about ten minutes, so other people getting kicked off the subway could get on.
I agree that there weren't enough announcements informing people of this alternative.
Too sensible
Besides, won't you think of the dozen or so people riding in from the burbs? That they might have to share space with the dirty sweating masses from the Red Line. Horrifying!
Per the Old Colony schedule,
Per the Old Colony schedule, there was a train stopping at JFK at 8:57 (just before the fire was reported), then one at 9:27, but then not another one until 10:30. So there really was only opportunity for one train to take on riders (9:27). That train does make a regular stop at JFK so maybe a few people might have figured out to hop on on their own.
Emergency schedule changes
A Kingston train stopped at 9:27, and about 10 minutes later a Greenbush train would pass through the station non-stop after reaching Quincy Center at 9:32.
In an emergency situation, it seems reasonable to ask that engineer to make an unscheduled stop at JFK. Especially since Greenbush only sees approx 1000 riders per day, total. I doubt there was "standing room only" on that one.
Even Amtrak can pull this off. I was on a regional bound for BOS when the locomotive failed just outside of Stamford. We limped to the platform, then waited as an Acela pulled up alongside. Eventually, everyone cross-platform transferred and the Acela went on to make all local stops. Even with all the delays I ended up getting to Boston on-time.
Update: I just saw the anon poster's message above. Perhaps they did do this.
I think this is what
I think this is what happened. The Kingston train, scheduled to arrive at 9:27, was delayed, and was not expected to arrive until about 10:10. I believe the train that stopped for us was the aforementioned Greenbush train. And you're right, there was plenty of room.
dozen or so?
That was never my experience coming in from the burbs. 6 stops in during rush hour and you're at standing room only.
Right to On-Time Service
Anyone affected by this Red Line outage should Write to the Top and DEMAND your Right to On-time Service from the MBTA GM:
http://www.mbta.com/customer_support/feedback/
This is one of those rare instances where a full refund and free commute is truly warranted. As an MBTA commuter facing service cuts and higher fares this summer, I'd settle for nothing less. If you drive, you can even literally tell them... My Way, or the Highway.
What is that going to solve?
Handing out refunds to everyone affected by delays is only going to make the budget shortfall worse. (And really, do you want your $1.70 back that badly?) It was nice to get a few dollars refunded for commuter rail delays, but I saw enough co-workers abuse that system by filling out the refund form for delayed trains they weren't even on, just heard about from others, to understand why they ended the program.
And I love blaming T employees as much as anyone, but track fires aren't caused by human error, unless they're caused by commuters throwing their Metro onto the tracks. I'm sure the T would love to replace old trains and fix old tracks if it was in the budget, so the group to complain to is the state legislature. It would certainly take some edge off the fare increase if I knew the money was going to improve safety and service instead of paying down the Big Dig debt.
They could easily prevent
They could easily prevent refund fraud if they required a serial number from your CharlieCard, CharlieTicket, or commuter rail receipt.
That does leave out people who paid cash on the bus, or who gave their ticket to the Commuter Rail conductor, but it covers most cases.
Black humor
I couldn't help laughing despite the potential horror of these two Adam tweets 2 minutes apart:
57m Adam Gaffin @universalhub
Fire in Red Line between South Station and Downtown Crossing
59m Adam Gaffin @universalhub
RT @seanjoerg: If the temp is above 45 for the love of God don't turn the heat on in the trains, they become ovens.
Will it really take death?
Well, if there was a day for this to happen, let it be today, with the vigil on Beacon Hill and the budget vote for the T.
I'm going to beat my dead horse:
Is it really going to take the death of someone or many people on the T to get the legislature to pay attention and appreciate just how bad things have gotten on the T, and to craft a workable financing scheme?
Unfortunately, though this is Legislature's fault, none of them will be the next Matt Amorello because the individual legislators can hide amongst their many colleagues.
Unfortunately for you, Mr. Davey, though I believe you are a good guy and trying your best (and whose charge should have been limited to the T), it's going to be you that gets blamed when it happens. My best unsolicited advice - log everyone of those pleas for funding you have made and make it clear to the refusers that when it hits the fan, you're giving those emails to the Globe, Herald, and the NTSB. Take it from someone who worked in a place that was hit with something far worse than even what I have predicted here.
Sad but true. Today is the
Sad but true.
Today is the first day of the rest of my (bicycling) life. I am swearing off that damn subway system. Well, until it either snows or I am run off the road by an MBTA bus.
It won't take death ...
... but I could easily see an embarrassing incident making national headlines due to a combination of service cuts, human error and sheer incompetence. An incident bad enough that it would FORCE the MA Legislature to take drastic actions, possible even dissolving the MBTA entirely.
Think back to Easter Sunday a few years back when only 1 toll booth on the Mass Pike was open. That incident lead to the MTA being dissolved in favor of MASSDOT.
As bad as the Red Line outage was today, imagine what would happen if the Green Line and Orange Lines simultaneously went down too. And not due to a track fire (or something outside the MBTA's control), but due to a bad combination of poor judgement and human error exacerbated by budget cuts. Something like a secret sickout over union contract disputes resulting in only 1 Red Line train, 1 Orange Line train, and 1 Green Line train running every 45+ minutes during rush hour.
An incident like that could paralyze the City of Boston and result in the end of the MBTA as we know it.
The T was merged into
The T was merged into MassDOT, just like the Turnpike Authority was.
I've seen no actual changes in the daily operation of either agency.
I agree
Many times a disaster is what it takes to fix things. It took the Titanic to make ships put on enough lifeboats, and you can go on and on.
I was on the first train they evacuated this morning
Got on at South Station, and started looking around. Something didn't smell right. This caused me to start looking at all of my fellow passengers, and wonder if they were smoking. Nope, no one was smoking. This made me think someone might have needed a shower... Then we got to DTX and the doors opened, smoke started to slowly make its way into the train and we were all kicked off and flooded the platform. It smelled either of origins electrical or of burning brake fiction material.
I got to Harvard around 9:15
I got to Harvard around 9:15 and they were telling passengers to report to the street level (after, of course, you'd already paid your fare) for shuttles, but as usual passengers were left to themselves to divine where the shuttles might leave from, as there were none anywhere in the square yet. Drivers for the #1 were no help either: "They don't give us that information. There should be an inspector out there," and of course there was no one. It's like this every time at Harvard, like they've never had to run shuttles and don't know exactly where they'll be leaving from. Emergencies happen. But no transit system that is so experienced at having emergencies should be so terrible at handling them when they happen. For the love of little green apples, why can't they just give people accurate, clear information about where to go and what to do?
what I can't figure out
This happens often enough that EVERY STATION should have both a PLAN in place and SIGNS directing passengers to PRE-DESIGNATED AREAS where shuttles will pick up.
This isn't rocket science, and it wouldn't cost much, either. SIGNS AND PLANNING PEOPLE. I know that means actual thinking and doing, but it ain't hard.
My kids were helping a person in a wheelchair make it through the crowds when they got dumped off at Harvard once - they were going to walk to Central - and few people who were there were completely useless to help to figure out where to go. The guy was apparently taking badge numbers and names because he was totally fed up with the attitude he was getting from the workers.
What does it &*$##ng take people?
Did you see where the
Did you see where the shuttles were in the end?
Maybe if enough UHub readers learn the typical shuttle location at Harvard, someone will be there next time who can explain it to the crowd.
Wrong
There is no "typical shuttle location" is problem one.
Problem two: THERE ARE NO SIGNS IN THE STATION OR AT THE "TYPICAL" SHUTTLE LOCATION.
You know, Harvard Square is an INTERNATIONAL DESTINATION and a MAJOR TRANSFER CENTER. "Well, you should just know where to go blah blah burp blah" doesn't cut warm dog poop here. "But should just know" is NEVER an excuse for an utter lack of basic safety-oriented public accommodation in any publicly owned place.
FAIL!
There are three standard
There are three standard shuttle operations through Harvard.
If they have to run buses from a point north of Harvard to a point south of Harvard (like Alewife-Kendall) then the southbound buses coming down Mass Av. from Porter stop at Mass & Church while the nothbound buses coming up Mass Ave, from Central stop at Johnson Gate
If they are running buses from a point south of Harvard to Harvard as a terminal (Harvard-Park or Harvard-JFK UMass), then the buses drop off northbound and pick-up southbound at Johnson Gate
If they are running buses from a point north of Harvard to Harvard as a terminal (Alewife-Harvard) then the buss can use the Harvard bus tunnel (like a 77).
If the emergency is at Harvard itself and the fire department blocks access to any of the above streets, then all bets (and directions) are off.
Thanks. Of course there
Thanks.
Of course there should be signs, or T employees with bullhorns, or continuous displays and announcements from the multimillion dollar electronic signs.
But since that's unlikely, at least a few more people now will be able to say "I think the shuttles will be at Mass Ave and Church Street."
Classic! Of course there was
Classic! Of course there was a fire during rush hour. I wouldn't expect anything else from the MBTA. Glad I was away from DTX before 9am this morning. Eek!! -Mea -hertrainstories.blogspot.com
I guess I won't complain
I guess I won't complain about having to roll out of bed extra early for an early meeting. Going to work at the normal time would have probably put me smack in the middle of this mess.
A Devalled Cable this time
How many Deval-lutions can the T produce in a week?
You know that the Red Line is really in the shitter
When the Number 1 bus becomes the preferable alternative to get from Cambridge to Boston...
Typical
"We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause"