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MBTA's emergency lights fail in an emergency
By adamg on Thu, 05/21/2009 - 2:04pm
So mistakes happen and all four subway lines ground to a halt this morning because oopsies, somebody pulled a plug out of the wall tripped a circuit breaker.
But shouldn't the emergency lights that come on when the power goes out be able to guide passengers upstairs?
Apparently not. Bill describes the scene at New England Medical Center during this morning's festivities:
... The new emergency lights that have been installed recently (which - judging by the 600V warning sign on each of them - appear to draw directly from the track circuit) weren't working.
On the way up the stars the mass exodus of passengers crossed paths with a handful tourists headed down. Welcome to Boston.
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Comments
And now that we know
let the stoning of the MBTA and Grabauskas begin. I said in the other thread that a single point of failure should not be able to take down the entire system, and yet apparently it can. That is indeed unacceptable.
I would agree. If this were
I would agree. If this were a movie theater and the emergency doors were locked and the security lights went black we would be screaming for the head of Sumner Redstone on a platter.
How can you say something ...
If you can't see anything?
As for that movie theater, it could be shut down by the fire marshall until it was brought up to code. Enough code violations + historic and community relevance = emminent domain (e.g. the Somerville Theater).
no eminent domain
The Somerville Theatre was never taken by eminent domain, nor was the idea even seriously considered. Community pressure alone was sufficient to encourage the owner to do the right thing.
After the AC Fire?
That was what I remember reading about the history of the theater - perhaps it was the threat of eminent domain and what I read was poorly worded. I do know that there were court actions/orders and extensive code violations and the owners were rather intractable.
"Airplane!" Thread!
Surely you can't be serious.
"I am serious, and don't
"I am serious, and don't call me shirly"
"I haven't seen anything
"I haven't seen anything like this since the Anita Bryant concert."
.
"Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit drinking."
Looks like
"I picked the wrong week to stop taking amphetamines."
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
Can't resist:
The Red line: Oh, it's a big pretty white train with red stripes, curtains in the windows...and wheels...and it looks like a big Tylenol.
What is it?
They shut down the red line? What is it?
Oh, it's a bunch of cars linked together that
carries people to their destinationsleaves people stranded in tunnels, but that's not important right now!http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
Calm assurance
[Rumack -- Leslie Nielson] -- "All right, I'm going to level with you all. But what's most important now is that you remain calm. There is no reason to panic."
Check out:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080339/quotes
Opens cabin door...
I just want to tell you both good luck. We're all counting on you.
UH's best-ever use of movie photo?
I haven't been around this blog long enough to say so definitively, but I'm still cracking up over the BRILLIANT use of the Johnny photo from Airplane! I'm biased -- Airplane! is one of my top 10 favorite movies ever -- but that photo captured the sheer absurdity of what happened with the T today...
I was thinking about that picture EXACTLY when it occured!
The Airplane picture was exactly what I was thinking. But, when you do have a huge load of electricity, the circuit breaker will prevent excess electricity from surging throughout the system.
I've been on vacation for the past two weeks, and I'm very lucky I wasn't on the T to head out of town. Going in and out of Hyde Park during the afternoon and NOT using the commuter rail, Route 32 is crowded AND extremely sporadic.
I'll be headed back to Watertown on Tuesday, but I think there's going to be a lot of hell raised in the coming weeks. We may see Graubuaskas and the rest of his merry men booted out.
Why am I not surprised?
The T is nothing but a joke--except it isn't funny, because so many of us depend on it. Also, it's an embarrassment to our city.
Imagine you're a visitor from out of town, using the T for the first time, dealing with:
- absent, outdated or just plain confusing signage,
- service announcements which, when they happen at all, are useless, unintelligible or even misleading (Heard all this week at North Station: "Customers may take the Green Line between North Station and Back Bay." Oh, really? The Green Line stops at Back Bay now?),
- slow, spotty and generally unpredictable service,
- unbelievable filth in vehicles and stations (Check out the piles of extra-chunky vomit on the platform at tracks 9/10 in North Station; they've been there since May 11). Add to that the overall appearance that nothing has been repaired or cleaned in decades...
What kind of impression is all this going to leave?
Boston will never be a world-class city as long as we're saddled with the sad, embarrassing, infuriating mess that is the MBTA.
sigh
Boston is not a world-class city!! Please, stop deluding yourself. This is not New York City, London or Paris. If you'd prefer a world-class city, then please relocate to one, but Boston will never be one. It's a SMALL and HISTORICAL city, and there is NOTHING wrong with that. It's time to put the world-class city notion aside and move on! MBTA sucks compared to public transit in world-class cities, obviously.
Two choices
1) Go through the effort to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site and get UN money to promote the historicity for the sake of tourist education. Think of it as EPCOY
2) Decide what would be worth saving in a giant fire or flood, save that, and start thinking a little harder about the future
Hey, MBTA
You might want to LABEL that breaker with something like "This is not the breaker you are looking for" or "Are you sure you really want to turn the entire T off?". Just a thought.
Also, it takes more than 7 minutes to decide to start a backup generator!? Where the hell are we?! Malawi!? Are we worried about running out of cooking fuel?? Look, you're not powering ventilators in a hospital or anything, but I was in the supermarket on Sunday when the entire building lost power and their emergency generator(s) kicked over in about 20-30 SECONDS! Not only did we have light enough to finish shopping, but they knew well enough to run about half of their checkouts on the extra power so you could leave with your refrigerated and frozen goods. YOU can't even think ahead enough to power your emergency lights IN A TUNNEL!
I swear, I think we'd be better off if we just foam insulated all the tunnels closed and shut it all down permanently instead. Ugh.
What was interesting about the press conference
At least to me, reppin' the Orange Line, was that once the power was restored, Green, Red and Blue line riders got to experience what Orange line riders have enjoyed for the past week: Trains that proceded, at slow speed, under manual signaling, to the next station.
As a regular rider on the Green Line,
I can tell you it's no joyride there, either--and it's been that way for ages.
The trains spend so much time idling between stations, most days it would be faster to walk between Boylston and Park Street.
One time it took 25 minutes just to get from Park Street to Government Center.
Ive been in that boat
Ive been in that boat before, you get stuck in that weird curve. They would almost be better off just carving out a walking tunnel and encouraging those commuting between Government Center and Park Street just get off the train and walk. Half the time the Green line terminates at Haymarket anyway (which anyone who has ever tried to get to Lechmere station can attest.) That is not totally unheard of either, after all that is how Park Street connects to the Orange line.
Agreed. I'm used to it by
Agreed. I'm used to it by now, after five years of living on the GL, but during evening rush hour it really does take longer to ride between Gov. Center and Park than it would to walk. Not when things are going wrong, every day. I'm used to it by now, I guess.
At the press conference, Airplane Style
Pesaturo: Ladies and gentleman, this is your spokesperson speaking. We regret any inconvenience the sudden lack of train movement might have caused. This is due to periodic idiocy we encounter. There's no reason to be alarmed and we hope you enjoy the rest of your commute. By the way, is there anyone on board who knows how to run the MBTA?
Meet Your New MBTA General Manager
What pisses me off is the
What pisses me off is the lies we've been getting on the orange line for the last week or so. "police action at wellington", "medical emergency at wellington". Its obviously not true, its a signal problem. Lying is not helpful. People need to plan their trips accordingly, and a "Police action" sounds like a one time problem.
Don't you know about
"The Patented Pesaturo Problem Advisory System".
It's a large dart board with a dozen and a half "standard" excuse phrases printed on it. Anytime the dispatchers or the police report a delay, breakdown, crash, bubble gum on the tracks, etc., etc. to the T's PR office, the person on duty throws a dart at the board, reads where it lands, and prepares the alert accordingly.
(With apologies to the estate of Jay Ward)
Ah, but we've gone high-tech
I think they just let their computer system select an excuse at random...the same way it chooses when to give alerts, and at what stations.
All this week, passengers waiting at North Station have been encouraged to take the Green Line to Back Bay.
But that actually works if you're going to the Back Bay area
You just take the train to Copley, right at the BPL, or about two blocks from Back Bay station.
WTF?
How is it that this incident is not newsworthy? Neither the Globe or the Herald give it any coverage.