Update, 7:25 p.m.: One track was cleared and limited train service through Ruggles resumed.
Commuter-rail and Amtrak service through Ruggles is stopped as transit and fire officials investigate a fatal train-vs-person collision on the inbound side this evening. The T is describing it as a "trespasser strike."
Dan Esdale reports his outbound train to Franklin stopped, then headed back to South Station.
KaneA conductor on the Old Colony Line confronted a man he says stole another rider's wallet - and got him to turn over the woman's wallet and money.
Steven Kane, 34, of Bridgewater, was arrested on a charge of larceny from a person around 5 p.m. yesterday at the Lakeville/Middleboro commuter-rail stop, the MBTA reports. According to the T, a 53-year-old woman awoke from a nap as the train pulled into the station and noticed her purse was open and her wallet gone. A woman sitting behind her pointed to Kane:
MBTA Transit Police report arresting a Fall River couple on charges they stole catalytic converters off cars parking in commuter lots in Hanson and Halifax last night.
Dennis and Tina Fager, 39 and 37, were only charged with the three catalytic converters police found them with, but said they could be responsible for as many as 100 converter grabs on the South Shore.
Police say detectives who had staked out the Hanson commuter-rail parking lot due to a spate of recent converter thefts spotted the couple drive into the lot around 4:15 p.m. yesterday, just after an inbound train departed the station:
Edited to reflect fact incident was on commuter rail, not Orange Line.
Jessica Keener reports on an incident shortly before 10 a.m. on the outbound side at Back Bay station:
My husband + 3 others just pulled a blind man who fell down into the train tracks + saved this man's life in Boston today!!!!
Not long after, she tweeted at acting MBTA General Manager Jonathan Davis:
My husband & 3 other men saved a man from Back Bay train tracks. No MBTA people were there. Why not???
So far this cold January morning, trains have died on the Red, Blue and Green lines and the Worcester Line is experiencing major delays.
At 8:34 a.m., Tanya K. tweeted:
Two empty, broken down trains we will be pushing in. 1000+ frozen, frustrated people cramming into this one. MBTA Red Line. Good times.
A few minutes later, Candice Springer added:
A worker at Conover Tuttle Pace downtown came into work this morning rather distraught because she lost her engagment ring on the train into work. But a conductor found the ring and turned it in and now it's back on her finger.
Downed power lines somewhere in the Canton area mean no Amtrak service between Boston and New York and, of course, massive delays on the Providence/Stoughton Line that have left stranded commuters hoping for the buses the T is promising.
A Worcester Line train died this morning in Natick; commuters on that train and the one behind it, which wound up pushing it into town, were, of course, seriously late.
Some trains into North Station were delayed by the ever popular switch problems. At least one Greenbush train was also late because, well, who knows?
A rail-ridin' fantasy-football fan reports via e-mail that the WiFi on his commuter-rail line this morning blocked him from accessing any information about his pastime:
You can now no longer log on to any sports news site that deals with fantasy football information. ESPN? Sporting News? Sports Illustrated? ESPN? No problem going to their home pages. You just can't access any of their articles dealing with fantasy sports. Instead, you get the following message:
Time lapse of a three-day replacement project for replacement of the Woodrow Avenue bridge in Dorchester as part of the Fairmount Line upgrade.
An MBTA Transit Police officer assigned to patrol the Lynn parking garage due to multiple break-ins in recent days may have hit the jackpot yesterday morning: A woman he allegedly found attaching a stolen plate to one car, with evidence she had tried to break into several other cars nearby.
Alexis Downez, 32, was charged with five counts of attempted breaking and entering in the daytime, five count of malicious destruction of property, possession of burglarious tools, stealing a license plate and driving after suspension. Her arrest came after three days of car break-ins, thefts and vandalism at the garage, police say.
Take this citizen complaint about leaves partially covering a storm grate in Jamaica Plain. Surely, in the amount of time it took to take a picture and compose a complaint, the alert citizen could have kicked the leaves away.
The Salem News has the details in the latest indictments centered on an employee of a company that prints CharlieTickets, who allegedly sold bogus passes over the Internet.
CommonWealth reports the MBTA settled a lawsuit against the company that made defective ties on South Shore commuter-rail tracks for just $6 million, which means the T will have to eat roughly $85 million in replacement costs.
Snow delays nothing new in Boston: Stuck trolley in Uphams Corner, 1930.
The Globe reports the T will run fewer trains on snow days this winter, in an effort to give crews a better chance at dealing with snow and ice when the weather outside is frightful. They even have a new Web page to let you know about winter cancellations - which will be on both subway and commuter-rail lines.
Snowy wreck in Readville, 1931.
Photos of trolley and train from the BPL Leslie Jones collection. Posted under this Creative Commons license.
The MBTA reports that commuters on the Worcester, Fitchburg and Haverhill lines should expect delays tomorrow morning due to storm damage.
The MBTA reports a woman was so intent on trying to light her cigarette at the Needham Center station last night she didn't notice how close she was to the tracks - and the train that was entering the station.
The woman, 44, a worker at the Center Cafe next to the platform, was taken to Beth Israel Hospital with a non-life-threatening head injury and a broken collarbone following the incident around 8:50 p.m.
According to an MBTA Transit Police report, the woman:
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