Blue Line

From the urine-scented Blue Line stop at the beginning to the misplaced baggage at U.S. Air at the end, Gregg did not have a good trip:

... I found my way to the belt marked "308 from Charlotte" and then proceeded to wait for an hour in front of the stationary belt. People were on edge and when the belt finally began to move, the bags on the belt were not ours, but from a DC flight. They managed to put OUR bags on the wrong belt and never announced it. When I started jumping up and down and shouting at the baggage handlers through the "gateway" opening, someone finally announced that they would let us know where we could find our bags from 308 as soon as they could figure out where they put them. ...

The Outraged Liberal ponders the perfomance of T General Manager Dan Grabauskas:

... Not enough locomotives, no air conditioning -- the usual litany. Grabuskas, Romney's hand-picked person for the general manager's job (and someone who doesn't take the T to work) was supposed to clean up the system and make it sparkle.

I guess one person's management whiz is another person's political hack. ...

Mike Hillwig reports on a dysfunctional Blue Line this morning (the day after the Blue Line just wasn't running at all for a time):

... We stopped once between Wood Island and Airport, once between Airport and Maverick, and five times between Maverick and Aquarium. Five times! There is something the T isn’t telling us because they're running on a single track on some spots along the blue line.

Beetle expresses a bit of dissatisfaction with North Shore commuter-rail service in these post-Big-Dig-collapse days:

So, how has the good ol' MBTA responded to this sudden influx of riders paying piles of additional cold hard cash into their coffers each day? Increase the number of trains during rush hour maybe? Or perhaps add a couple of additional cars to the trains servicing the North Shore? Or simply placing a maintanence priority on the North Shore line to ensure that trains do not break down?
WRONG!!! The answer is simple; Pack the additional cash paying suckers on the regularly scheduled, frequently un-airconditioned, often broken down trains, and stuff the extra income gained into their FAT GLUTTONOUS PIG WHORE FACES!! ARRRRRRRRGHGHGHGHGHGHHGHG!!!!!!! ...

I was at Government Center station yesterday waiting for the Blue Line. I heard a guy behind me crying, "I don't understand, what did I do wrong?" At first I thought he was talking to somebody, then I realized he was talking to himself, so I thought maybe he just broke up with his girlfriend or something. Then he cried, "Where's the train? They said a train was coming. What did I do wrong?" He was crying because there was no train. Then he starting talking to random people saying how he's going to take the T to court because there's no train, and how they'd better get him to Aquarium within a second (never mind the fact that Aquarium is just down the street from there and he could have walked faster). When a train did come it was going express and didn't stop. This guy had tears going down his face. When a train finally came and stopped, my girlfriend insisted we get on another car. The guy obviously has some severe emotional problems, which isn't funny, but how could I not laugh at this.

BadTransit reports on coming upon the source of loud banging at the Aquarium stop:

... A gleaming aluminum-finished bank of the MBTA's "Automated fare collection" equipment and an MBTA worker - one of the T's "Ambassadors" - who was, in John Bolton style, kicking the living s--- out of the equipment. ...

Lewis and other Blue Line riders this morning get a nice view of a guy relieving himself on the outbound platform:

... Making Niagra Falls look like a mere faucet drip. Even with the sound of my iPod filling my ears the seemingly collective groan of the people who saw you was clearly audible. And to make it even worse is the fact that there were three MBTA "police" standing on the same platform at the other end. Obviously being really oblivious to what they are paid to do. Police the station. ...

Via Bad Transit comes the news that the current Government Center "headhouse" (i.e., the aboveground, brick part of the station that now looks like the place you'd go when the sirens go off) will be replaced with an airier glass and steel structure - and a brand-new entrance next to the JFK Building just for the Blue Line (underground, the T will rebuild the Green Line platforms to accomodate "low-floor" trolleys, while the Blue Line platforms will be lengthened to allow six-car trains).

Bad Transit adds plans call for bricking over the sunken "fountain" area, and discusses why this is a bad thing.

Details and renderings from the MBTA (hmm, why do they show a deserted Government Center with almost no people? Do they know something we don't?).

The Cultural Farmer's late-night Blue Line video is a hypnotic ride that's the best Blue Line movie in quite some time.

Via Steve.

Kendall arrives at the Airport T stop from out of town just in time to see your basic MBTA-type argument:

Station manager lady: Get outta heahre!"
Weird Guy: "MBTA are fascists! You screw us all!"
SML: "You're annoyhaying! You do this every day! Get outta my station!"
WG: "You're a fascist!"

Later, she enjoys watching a Green Line trolley operator roundhouse kicking an apparently broken coinbox.

More fun with graffiti on the T: Marilora snaps a shot that shows one tagger knows what life is all about.

Earlier:
Never have your subway ads ask questions.

Marilora posts a list of nine things she's seen on the T she wishes she hadn't, including:

Hipster kids on the Blue Line. You think you look hot in your vintage 80's gear, don't you? Ok, kiddies, take it from me, a person who lived through the 80s. That stuff was not that attractive the first time around. If you are too young to remember when Madonna didn't have a fake British accent, you definitely should not be dressed like you are a back-up dancer from her Like a Virgin tour.