UPDATE, 5:25 p.m. BFD gave the MBTA the OK to resume service.
Boston firefighters are currently investigating what caused smoke in the Maverick Blue Line station shortly before 5 p.m. Trains in both directions are halted - except for one empty train that firefighters are riding from Maverick to Aquarium to look for the source of the smoke, possibly the third rail.
Mike Kix watched workers installing the roof of the revamped Government Center T stop today.
UPDATE: MBTA General Manager Beverly Scott said this afternoon the authority will seek federal disaster aid and that it could be 30 days - yes, 30 - before the T is fully operational again, but only if we don't have another blizzard.
Transit Police report an inpsector at the Maverick Square Blue Line jumped into action yesterday morning when he heard a passenger's cries for help - and prevented her alleged purse snatcher from leaving the station.
According to police, the woman, 66, was on an outbound Blue Line train, her purse next to her, around 9 a.m. When the train pulled into Maverick. David Smith, 28, of Winthrop, "forcefully grabbed" her purse and ran off the train.
Tim Lawrence reported around 5:45 p.m. that the arrival board at State Street was a lying liar - the Blue Line outbound has severe delays.
The T is back and running this morning, but as they warned us: Major delays. The Red and Blue lines in particular are running express to nowhere this morning.
Will reported from a Red Line train just sitting at Harvard:
PA operator just said "If you have other options you might wanna explore them."
Transit Police report arresting a Lynn man on charges he punched out a cab driver who couldn't understand his drunken rambling and ordered him out of the cab.
According to police, James Rogers, 52, got into the cab at Wonderland station shortly before 11 a.m. on Thursday and:
It's shuttle buses all the way down to Wonderland this morning as the Blue Line's unique wire issues short out Blue Line service between there and Orient Heights. Michael Kass adds:
Wonderland garage is a complete disaster, cars trying to get in and out.
Jack Newsham asks:
Why do Blue Line tracks have both third rails and overhead power lines?
Transit Police are looking for a white guy in his 50s who used a knife to rob a woman of a gold chain in the Wood Island busway shortly after noon today.
He was wearing sunglasses, a green jacket, blue ball cap and bandana and was last seen heading up Bennington towards Orient Heights.
Miniature Buddha watched a dudebro get to a cigarette on the opposite platform at Aquarium last night.
Melissa Obleada shows us part of the mural being painted on the barriers around the Government Center T-station construction site.
Anybody know who's doing the painting?
UPDATE: It's the same guys who did the Nelson Mandela mural in Roxbury, working with Heidi Schork and the Boston Mural crew (H/t Joyce).
DD808 shows us the above-ground progress on rebuilding the Government Center T stop.
The Blue Line is currently experiencing "severe delays" due to "a signal problem at Orient Heights."
Passengers allowed back in as cops got ready to leave. Photo by Mary C. Stevens.
A suspicious package at Airport on the Blue Line around 8:50 a.m. quickly brought the bomb squad and officers with high-powered weapons and dogs to the station.
Passengers were evacuated from the station and train service was halted.
Around 9:06 a.m., the package was declared not suspicious. A couple minutes later, riders were allowed back into the station and service resumed.
Kevin Franck photographed the scene on his way out:
Wire troubles on the Blue Line mean buses instead of subways between Orient Heights and Wonderland this morning.
Firefighters battling a brush fire off Bennington Street south of Orient Heights asked the T to shut down the Blue Line around 8:20 p.m., because the fire is close enough to the tracks they did not want to have to worry about what might happen should their streams of water hit the overhead electrical lines.
A guy charged with nearly disemboweling a man and slicing up a woman after an argument at the Wonderland Blue Line stop was ordered held in lieu of $100,000 at his arraignment yesterday in a Whidden Hospital room - where he is now being treated for his own chest pains - the Sufffolk County District Attorney's office reports.
Police say a man stabbed two people at the Wonderland Blue Line station around 9:30 p.m., then hopped on a Blue Line train. He only got as far as the next stop - Revere Beach - because police had the train stopped there until they could arrive to arrest him.
Transit Police report he stabbed a man and a woman. Both were taken to Mass. General - the man with life-threatening injuries and the woman with less serious wounds.
the closure of Government Center station such a secret from the passengers? As I first mentioned some weeks ago (in a reply to another post), announcements about the closure, save for an occasional Green Line operator, are almost non existent. Further, only a handful of the line maps I've observed on Green Line streetcars have not yet been modified with the temporary "CLOSED" stickers over the Government Center stop.
But earlier, I received the ultimate proof of the MBTA's campaign to keep unwary tourists and other non-everyday users of the system in the dark about the Government Center closure. Witness this alert:
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