Blue Line

President enters the Fenway. Photo by Jeff Tamagini.

The Red, Green and Blue lines all experienced delays this evening as the presidential motorcade passed over or under them.

The placid Orange Line remained stolidly unaffected by Motorcade One, but Nay and Steven Leibowitz report the T held an inbound train at Back Bay when a panicked Little Monster reported a lost ticket to the Egg Lady's concert at the Garden. A passenger found the ticket, the kid was reunited with it and the train resumed service.

Photo copyright Jeff Tamagini. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Boston firefighters are at Government Center dealing with a trash fire on the Blue Line tracks. Expect delays, traffic problems by the station.

At least one train is stuck in a tunnel because of the power shutdown required to let firefighters on the tracks.

MassDOT is posting photos from today's emergency drill by local and regional emergency departments at the Bowdowin Blue Line stop, including this one of a robot (which got down the stairs by itself) guarding a pair of dummies.

Boston Police tweet:

On Sunday at 8:00AM there will be a FULL SCALE EMERGENCY TRAINING EXERCISE at the Bowdoin St MBTA Station. IT IS ONLY A DRILL!

The Globe reports the T plans to introduce countdown clocks to Red, Orange and Blue Line stations, but will pay for it in part by eliminating the refunds it now offers to people whose trains are way late. Also look for lots more advertising - right down to the CharlieCard - as the T tries to cut a $130 million or so deficit.

By 6 a.m., the T was already reporting two dead trains on either end of the Red Line. Now, an hour later, there are two dead trolleys on the Green Line and dead trains on the Blue and Orange lines. And the snow hasn't even started.

Dead Green Line train at Newton Highlands. Photo by Jenny Mackintosh.

Update, 8:10 a.m.: There's a dead train at Wollaston on the Red Line now.

Dead trains mean lengthy delays on the Green, Blue and Orange lines this morning; well, except the T is urging Orange Line riders to just forget it exists and seek alternate routes. Delays on the Silver Line to Design Center, too, due to a dead bus. Jennifer Musso tweeted from Oak Grove on the Orange Line:

Hundreds of people waiting for shuttle buses at OkGrv sub0 weather! Station worker says he's not answering "any more questions"

Commuter rail? How 'bout those 30-40 minute delays on the Worcester line? Erin Bowles checked in:

At Framingham, there was a woman on platform nearly in tears. Hoping she'll be OK, but there's no way she doesn't have frostbite.

Not that North Station lines were immune from problems. Matt Hrono tweeted:

T alerts failed. Haverhill 208 cancelled, people waiting in record cold for 45 mins, no alert. What gives? Safety issue much?

Where to begin? Oh, yeah, with the fire at Chinatown on the Orange Line that stopped service. Then there's the downed wire at Wood Island, leading to premature termination of the Blue Line at Maverick. The Red Line had a recalcitrant switch at Alewife. And the Green Line has turned into the Snail Line.

On a positive note, no delays reported on the Mattapan Line.

Around 9 a.m, Matt Karolian reported:

Blue Line all screwed up, multiple disabled trains, all passengers deboard at Airport.

Always ready to assume the worst, Herald readers are busy contemplating the downside of the glass entrances the T wants to build as part of a Government Center upgrade, because, as writer Richard Weir helpfully explains, they could "explode into flying shards of lethal shrapnel should a bomb ever be detonated there." Except the T says they couldn't because they'll use safety glass (and good luck getting that song out of your head; you're welcome).

Also, there will be barriers around the station to keep would-be Tim McVeighs away (hopefully a bit more tasteful than the big balls around the O'Neill building).

One passenger on the Blue Line in Orient Heights seemed a bit squirrelly this afternoon. In fact, the Animal Rescue League of Boston had to be called in.

ARL volunteer Margaret Wirth reports T workers found a baby squirrel running around a Blue Line car around noon. Boston Animal Control worked with the league to corral the critter, whom they promptly named Charlie, of course.

Wirth says Charlie is headed to a wildlife rehabilitation center in Weymouth, where he will be prepared for a life in the wild. She adds that kindhearted T inspectors did not charge him with fare evasion.

Charlie off the MTA:
Photo by the Animal Rescue League.

Nancy Geshke, whose 8-year-old daughter wound up in Mass. General when one of her feet got caught and crushed in an escalator this past July, yesterday sued Crocs for $11 million, alleging the company keeps selling its plastic shoes despite mounting evidence they are a menace on escalators.

The MBTA forwards this rendering of the planned new garage at Wonderland on the Blue Line. At night. Under a full moon. With Saturn rising.

Federal, state, and local officials gather at the current Wonderland station at 9:30 a.m. on Monday to formally break ground on a new seven-story, 1,465-car parking garage that will become part of a new mixed-use development planned for the area around the station.

In the meantime, here's the classic "Alice in Wonderland:"

Power problem at Orient Heights this morning makes for some very unhappy riders. At 8:34, Julianne LaMay tweeted:

Such a cluster. They sent folks to Suffolk first but there were no shuttles there. FAIL

Photo of a waiting horde at Suffolk Downs.

Michael Brannigan, who posted the photo around 8:27, tweeted at 8:41 that one bus finally arrived:

Got about 1% or less of the waiting crowd on it. Gonna be a long day.

that's having major troubles due to a disabled train (or is it another broken wire?). From the T web page:

BLUE LINE DELAYS: Due to a disabled train in the Orient Heights area substitute bus service has replaced regular train service between Maverick and Suffolk Downs Stations. Airport, Wood Island and Orient Heights Stations are closed. Please expect significant delays and add an addtional 20-30 minutes to your afternoon trip while repairs are made. 8/2/2010 2:04 PM

Fabulously Out There just doesn't get the Government Center T stop:

... [Tuesday], in 100 degrees weather I helped a couple carry their suitcases down (on that note: all you big guys who are occupying the free weight section at Planet Fitness every day and were walking by them, thanks for nothing, assholes). They were on their way to visit their grandkids and were both easily in their late 70s. It was hot as Hades in that t-station and there is no way to get down to the blue line level. There IS an escalator to get down to the green line level, thank you GOD. Oh wait, that one doesn't always work ...

MBTA police were busy making sweeps this morning through trains at Maverick and Park Street (Red Line toward Alewife). Mediacrity tweets she saw T cops in every station on the Red Line from Porter to South Station and at the Silver Line stop at South Station.

David Guarino came up with that title for his photo of a turkey outside the Wonderland T stop this morning (did it have a meeting downtown?).

For the second time in three weeks, plunging power lines brought the Blue Line to a halt in East Boston and left riders on one train stranded until Boston firefighters could lead them to safety.

A train near Airport station came to a grinding halt when the overhead power lines fell around 5:30 p.m. Shuttle buses are now running, according to the MBTA.

On Jan. 21, a similar incident stranded riders near Orient Heights and disrupted Blue Line service for much of the day.

Channel 7 photo of the dead train.

UPDATE: The T says buses will run instead of trains between Airport and Suffolk Downs at least through this evening as workers replace the downed power lines.

Local 718 tweets the train stopped 500 feet short of the station when the power went out this morning; firefighters were called in to help passengers get to the station.

MBTA Transit Police tweet the overhead power lines fell down between Orient Heights and Suffolk Downs.

The T replaced trains north of Maverick with shuttle buses, although Leah McCoy tweets some of the bus drivers were a bit unclear on the concept:

Epic fail. Blue line busing from wonderland to maverick. Except no one tells the bus driver, he kicks us off at orient heights.

Blue Line commuters no doubt are hoping not to see a repeat of last night's chaos at Government Center. Faegirl is among them.

Copyright Faegirl. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

UPDATE, 5:15 p.m.: Whatever the problem was, it's fixed now and trains are starting to roll again.

I ask because the MBTA is reporting a dead train at Airport.

State officials said today they'll spend $47 million in federal stimulus funds and state bonds for a new garage at Wonderland station on the Blue Line.

At a ceremony there today, Gov. Patrick and other officials said the new nine-story, 1,900-space garage will be the first step in construction of Waterfront Square, a proposed development of 902 residential units, office and retail space and a hotel.

Roughly $23 million of the garage cost wll come from the feds, the rest from an MBTA bond that will be repaid through revenue from the parking lot.

Broken trains on the Red Line and Providence Line, signal problems on the Blue Line, a broken rail on the Needham Line (a broken rail? What'd they do? Taunt it mercilessly until it collapsed in a sobbing heap on the ground?), speed restrictions on the Kingston/Plymouth Line. Amazingly, no delays reported on the Green Line.