Green Line

If you guessed Friday afternoon rush hour, you win! Unlike the people now stuck waiting for shuttle buses to get them around the downed wire at Newton Centre, who lose.

The MBTA said April ridership was up 4.4% over April of last year, and that bus ridership topped 400,000 weekday rides for the first time ever. Officials credited the widespread use of smart-phone apps that let riders know when the next bus is coming, along with an inproving economy.

Green Line ridership led the subway lines with an 8.2% ridership increase.

T officials have factored in a possible ridership decrease starting July 1, when fares increase.

Around 8:20 a.m., an inbound Kat Powers reported:

On a D Line train in Newton delayed by a turtle on the track. Driver has announced she can't move the train because the turtle will die. Waiting for an official to move the turtle.

A few minutes later, she reported two MBTA officials arrived to try to move the recalcitrant reptile.

Action-news reporter Steve Annear adds:

Officials removed it with a shovel.

Inbound turtle-free service then resumed.

Updated with new information from the DA's office.

An economics consultant from Maryland was arraigned today on charges of indecent assault and battery for an incident on the Green Line near Kenmore Square in 2004, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Prosecutors charge Timothy Day spurted on a woman's pants and pocketbook on a crowded B trolley between Copley and Kenmore Square on June 22, 2004.

Prosecutors initially indicted an unknown individual linked to a specific DNA sequence, extracted from the remains of the material on the woman's purse, retrieved from the trash after she threw it away in disgust.

Zach Tucker spotted the Bird Man of the Green Line Saturday night.

Also see half-naked guy with balloon animal on the T.

Robinite reports the two vehicles collided pretty much on top of the Green Line at Comm. Ave. and Allston Street around 9:30 p.m. That shut the inbound tracks; arriving emergency vehicles shut the outbound tracks as well.

Ed. question: Is that intersection cursed, or what?

Trolley fish.

The MBTA reports it will be running buses between Blandford and Babcock streets on the B line on Saturday to allow for track work near the BU Bridge.

City Councilor Mike Ross says riders on the E line between Brigham Circle and Heath Street shouldn't have to worry about getting flattened by crazed Massholes who ignore the "STOP" painted on the sides of open trolley doors.

Ross, who lives on Mission Hill, is seeking legislation to let the T install cameras on trolleys that share the road with motorists in that stretch to catch and ticket drivers ignoring stopped trolleys.

Under Ross's proposal (see attached), images from the cameras, along with date stamps and locations, would be forwarded to an MBTA police officer trained in traffic enforcement, who would then write out tickets.

The proposal gets a hearing before the council's Committee on Government Operations at 10 a.m. on May 29 at City Hall. If the committee and then the full council approve, the measure would then go to the state Legislature as a home-rule petition.

Police, however, did not buy his story any more than the woman who followed him off the train and held him until the law arrived after she got a glimpse of his junk.

Michael Galvin, 37, of Somerville, was arrested on a charge of open and gross lewdness for an incident on an outbound B trolley around 6:40 p.m. yesterday.

According to police, he exposed his penis to a woman as the trolley approached Packard's Corner:

A Mission Hill man walking out of a Green Line tunnel around 4:30 a.m. today aroused the suspicions of a passing Northeastern University police officer, who started an investigation that ended with the man under arrest for allegedly using spray paint to profess his love for hot sauce inside the tunnel.

Alex Wan, 23, was charged with malicious destruction of property and standing, walking, or riding vehicle on railroad property, according to an MBTA Transit Police report.

According to police, a Northeastern sergeant driving inbound on Huntington stopped Wan when he spotted him walking out of the Green Line portal just past Mass. Ave. Police did not buy his story that he'd gotten off at Symphony and was just using the tunnel as a shortcut home. Wan allegedly told the sergeant he "wrote only one thing" in the tunnel. The report says arriving transit officers noted white paint on his hands and then took their own walk into the tunnel:

5:45 p.m. update: Service has resumed, Boylston all clear.

Harried Green Line riders are even more harried than usual this evening with the T shutting down the line between Park and Kenmore due to what Boston Police report is a "suspicious package" at Boylston station.

Riders were being urged to take the Orange Line or even commuter rail as an alternative.

Some commuters already on the Green Line found themselves rolling backwards into the nearest stations. Others found themselves in a soaking wet chaos waiting for the 39 bus at Prudential.

Firefighters quickly knocked down a fire in an escalator at the Government Center T stop shortly after 7 p.m., but heavy smoke forced them to evacuate everybody from the station and ask the MBTA to have Green Line trolleys bypass the stop until the smoke could be cleared.

On the B line, that starts somewhere between Copley and Hynes, Five Thousand Words a Day reports:

The change is far from gradual, yet you never notice it until you look up and see that the quite nuclear family from Rhode Island has been replaced by a conspicuous gaggle of 12-15 bros who have taken pre gaming to a new level.

Via Overheard on the B Line.

The Somerville Transportation Equity Partnership has posted this video along with other photos and renderings of the proposed stops along the fabled Green Line extension.

Boston to a T snapped this fare machine at Park Street today. In a word: Wha?

How else to explain what Brookline Selectwoman Jesse Mermell saw on the train home today?

New MBTA experience: Woman across from me changing her whole outfit on the train, including stockings. I'm torn between being appalled & impressed. I didn't have room to tweet about the full body lotion application. It was intense. No towel. Not even close. And there was extensive lotion application.

When I got on on the second car of an inbound trolley at Hynes early this afternoon, it was fairly crowded, and the back half of the car was packed with high-school kids.

About halfway between Arlington and Boylston, WHAM, the train slammed to a stop. Some guy began yelling "Is everybody OK?" The operator got on the PA and asked the same question. Everybody was. And then the operator got back on and said "You kids back there better stop fooling around, somebody's going to get hurt."

A man who allegedly pulled out a knife on B trolley in Allston tonight was arrested after passengers fled at BU Central, the MBTA reports.

Ronald McNally, Jr., 53, was arrested by BU Police around 6:45 p.m. after he also got off the train and witnesses IDed him, the T says. There was no fight or injuries aboard the trolley, the T says.

Innocent, etc.

Broken trolleys on the Green Line, borked signals on the Orange Line, non-functioning lights on the Red Line at Park Street. But at least the Blue Line was working just fine.

Oh, and don't be so smug, morning drivers: Storrow inbound was FUBAR.

UPDATE: MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo says there were no four-car trains in operation on the Green Line this morning; only two- and three-car ones.

Laura Longoria reports she rode on a four-car Green Line train today:

I got on it at Park St and rode it 2 stops to Arlington, it was a Riverside train.

Paul Levy provides the proof, with a video survey of the secret nip burial ground at Reservoir:

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:

Thank you, MBTA for stranding me outside on the Wollaston platform in the EFFING cold. Now I have to go all the way back to drive in to work

So far this morning, a charred 39 bus was towed from Huntington Avenue near Brigham Circle and buses had to be rolled out for the C line when an overhead power line came down near Cleveland Circle.

Newton Police report the attack happened around 10:30 a.m.:

The victim was on the T platform when she was attacked from behind and thrown to the ground. The victim's cell phone was stolen during the attack.

Police report, however, five arrests were made.