Green Line

David notices Boston transportation services tend to be built in fives and then the powers that be eliminate one of them: There used to be five Green Line branches, five Silver Line routes and five terminals at Logan.

What's going on here? Do the planners have spooky Mickey Mouse hands? Does Boston overbuild then scale back? Shrinkage?

A roving UHub photographer snapped a Green Line rider talking a bunch on his bananaphone today.

El Pelon Taqueria posted this photo of a track fire near Lake Street around 8 a.m.; not long after, the T exchanged buses for trolleys between BC and Babcock.

Christoper tweets from Boylston this morning that a Sob Story Guy held a trolley door open and refused to let it close until somebody gave him some money.

The MBTA said today it is firing the driver responsible for a collision at Boylston station last week that sent three dozen people to the hospital with minor injuries and caused $500,000 in damage to trolleys.

Acting MBTA General Manager Jonathan Davis said the driver told investigators he had come off a midnight-to-8 a.m. shift at another job when he started his first run of the day on the Green Line at 11 a.m. - about 45 minutes before the collision at Boylston.

Davis said he could not say if the driver, who had been driving for the T full time, fell asleep but that he was clearly "inattentive" when he ran his train into a stopped train at the station. He said the T's investigation had ruled out any physical problems with the tracks or trolleys and that the driver admitted everything seemed to be working fine in the moments before the collision.

Davis said the T has no policy against second jobs or requirements that workers inform managers about second jobs, but that drivers are expected to be fully alert while driving trains - and that the three-hour gap between the end of his second job and the start of his first run on the Green Line did not leave the driver enough time to get adequate sleep.

He declined to name the driver and the location and nature of the second job.

Firefighters check out the Kenmore wounded. Photo copyright Brian D'Amico.

A concert by 2 Chainz at the House of Blues was quickly followed by a station-closing brawl on the Green Line platform at Kenmore station.

Mike Moura reports at least three people were injured before MBTA Transit Police gained control of the platform, EMTs removed the wounded and the station was reopened around 10:45. The T reports the three were taken to Mass. General with minor injuries.

Riptor reports:

A Boston woman used a knife to threaten passengers on an outbound Riverside trolley until she was removed by MBTA and Brookline Police at Brookline Hills last night, the T reports.

Transit Police say Madina Clayton, 52, sat across from a man on a trolley around 9:45 p.m. and took out a folding knife, which she began opening and closing while staring at him:

The victim became uncomfortable and stood up to change seats, Clayton also got up from her seat pointed the knife at the victim and stated "Are you looking at this M***** *****R !" Another witness stated Clayton attempted to engage another male (separate from above) in conversation, when the male got up to change seats Clayton followed him with the knife opened. Other witnesses stated Clayton "haphazardly" swung the knife at yet another male victim as he was disemabrking the trolley.

The MBTA has released this surveillance video of yesterday's incident at Boylston station. The Globe reports the T has ruled out equipment failure.

The Globe reports on the planned September, 2013 shutdown, which will include making the station ADA compliant and replacing the current bomb shelter of an entrance with something glassier.

Meanwhile, on Dec. 18, the Parks and Recreation Department holds a formal tree hearing on the T's request to chop down 21 trees along Cambridge Street to make way for the renovation project - 13 linden trees and 8 crabapple trees. The hearing starts at 10 a.m. in the department's 1010 Mass. Ave. offices.

NECN tweets:

They are now not expected to attend.

In other Green Line news, riders with AT&T phones report they now work in the tunnel between Kenmore and Park Street.

Passenger on way to ambulance. Photo by John Keith.

UPDATE, 2:36 p.m.: The MBTA reports the station and tracks are back in service and Green Line service has resumed with, of course, residual delays.

Emergency responders raced to Boylston station, where one outbound trolley rear-ended another around 11:50 a.m. Matthew Gamber, who was in the first car of the train that got hit, tweeted at 11:54:

B Line outbound at Boylston just came to screeching stop, tossing unsuspecting passengers. Not leaving station soon.

The Boston Fire Department reports at least six people were transported to local hospitals for evaluation. NECN tweets a total of 35 people were evaluated for injuries.

Dead train at Reservoir around 8 a.m. means no inbound service, natch. And no announcements on increasingly crowded platforms, either.

Some commuter-rail passengers didn't fare much better.

Stuart Spina photographed the scene on South Huntington Avenue this afternoon, when an MBTA bus up and died right on the trolley tracks, blocking a Green Line trolley behind it, at least until it could be towed out of the way.

The Metro tweets the collision along Huntington Avenue by Longwood Avenue around 10 a.m. was "minor" and left nobody injured. However, it did shut down the E line.

Photo. Another photo.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, Hoot was too badly hurt to be saved.

The MBTA reports workers found this owl huddled near Waban station on the Green Line this morning and named him Hoot, before transporting him to a local animal hospital.

Earlier:
Owl removed from Park Street station.

They could look like this.

Rob Watson photographed a "vaguely foreboding owl hanging out" above a Park Street exit tonight. A very real and alive, if vaguely foreboding, owl, he assures us.

When Kenmore station was filled with water. By Fourduce1

The Christian Science Monitor interviews Michael Mulhern, who was director of subway operations at the MBTA in 1996 when the unexpectedly mighty Muddy River overflowed its banks, overwhelmed its tunnels and burst into Kenmore station, shutting it completely down for two months:

"When it was finally up and running it was initially far less service than commuters were used to," says Mulhern. "It took us a year to get back to full capacity. I think it will be a long time before New York's services are back to normal."

Photos of flooded New York subway tunnels.

The Globe reports Comm. Ave. in Allston will be shut between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. between Harvard and Allston - and the Green Line shut starting at 10:30 a.m. - so Aerosmith can give a free concert in front of their first home in the Boston area.

MBTA Transit Police report arresting a man they say tried to piggyback a plainclothes cop into Park Street around 11 this morning.

As the officer was stepping through the fare gates he observed a male, later identified as Michael Cammisaro, 57 of Waltham, MA. attempting to "piggyback" in behind him without paying his fare. The officer stopped and inquired what Cammisaro was trying to do, Cammisaro responded by shouting "MOVE, MOVE MOVE !". Then Cammisaro proceeded to physically assault the officer by shoving him with both hands and attempt to force him through the fare gates. The officer and Cammisaro struggled, the officer was able to gain control of Cammisaro and cease the assault.

He now faces a charge of assault and battery.

Innocent, etc.

Sandbags at Fenway portal. Photo by MBTA.

The MBTA trucked in sandbags to the Fenway tonight, in case workers have to barricade the portal used by Riverside trolleys to head into Kenmore in case Sandy supercharges the Muddy River. The T wants to avoid a repeat of a 1996 flood that shut Kenmore for two months when the Muddy overflowed its banks and poured down the portal into the station.

Fenway portal dam in action, in 2010.

Hey, Penelope lady, take notes.

Via Steve Annear.

It's that time of year, when the Metro teams up with Boston Costume and dresses up its hawkers. Nikki caught up with Luigi this morning at Hynes on the Green Line, reports he played a giant banana last year and that he much prefers being a video-game character:

Said people were really mean to him as a banana but Luigi gets smiles.

Boston to a T considers yesterday's Brigham Circle trolley-vs-trolley incident.

Collision scene. Photo by Michelle Murray.

A trolley collision in Brigham Circle around 4 p.m. sent three people - one of them a T worker - to nearby hospitals with neck and back injuries, Rob Grover reports. One train came off the tracks due to what the T called human error related to a switch. Traffic on Huntington Avenue was at a standstill; the road was set to be shut outbound well into the night as the T works to right the trolleys and fix track damage.

The view from the air.