No clue about the Red Line, but there's police action at Mass. Ave. on the Orange Line.
Orange Line
In addition to showing the new towers it wants to build above Back Bay station, Boston Properties' BRA filing also shows several renderings of what a revamped station would look like.
They show a station that retains the unique wooden arches that hold up the roof. Gone, at least from the rendering, though, is the haze that now often fills the station, in particular, the Amtrak/commuter-rail ticket and waiting area - Boston Properties is promising a fix to the station's diesel-smog problem. Read more.
The T's started posting daily reliability stats, broken down by buses, commuter rail and subway. If you click on the large plus sign for each, you'll get more detailed breakdowns by line (and looks like the T's finally acknowledged the Silver Line is a bus, because that's where you'll find its data).
Looks like the covered walkway at North Station is already being dismantled.
An Orange Line train at Downtown Crossing got on the ferry across the River Styx, which the T says is now causing "moderate" delays.
Also, Lowell Line trains were experiencing even worse, thanks to a truck that took out a gate in West Medford.
Jeremy wonders:
What's the MBTA refund process when you tap in, realize it's fubar and then walk home?
Hilary reports the line of trash cans put into service as rain catchers at Ruggles station today was even longer, but she just didn't have a wide-enough-angle lens to fit them all in, but, hey, at least they're not shutting the entire T down for 29 hours to inspect power cables like down in DC, right?
It's the dreaded "severe" delays into town from Forest Hills due to a train that mistook Chinatown for the Pearly Gates this morning. Oh, but wait, what's this? Yes, trains from Oak Grove into downtown aren't coming, either.
Around 2:50 p.m.
A train is being held in the station, its doors closed, passengers inside.
Some sort of power problem at Back Bay means the T is urging people headed for downtown points to use the Green Line instead. Meanwhile, The Management reports:
Stuck at Aquarium and i can't even see the penguins. Blue Line delay due to "signal problem" at Orient Heights.
On the heels of the shutdown of the Gardenside entrance to the Orange and Green Lines at North Station comes news that the pedestrian tunnel from Back Bay to Copley Place will be shut through December, starting March 6, so that Simon Co. can make the Dartmouth Street side of their mall less of a forbidding, soulless expanse of a wall, or something.
MBTA General Manager Frank DiPaola says an exterior metal panel fell off a southbound Orange Line train at State Street last night and then a second train ran over it, leading to a chaotic scene that involved passengers kicking out windows to escape the second train when it and the station began filling with smoke. In a statement, he says: Read more.
Heather Parker reports she was on an Orange Line train to Forest Hills, when there was a bang and what looked like flames as the train entered State Street shortly before 9 p.m.
Passengers evacuated the train, the station filled with smoke and firefighters arrived and asked the T to shut power in both directions, from Community College to Tufts.
To shield them from the frigid conditions, #MBTA subway trains were stored in the tunnels all night long pic.twitter.com/jd8sBBm3ip
— Joe Pesaturo (@JoePesaturo) February 15, 2016
An Orange Line train was harvested by the Grim Reaper; its desiccated husk had to be pulled down the tracks towards Forest Hills.
Transit Police held an inbound train at Wellington after somebody at Oak Grove reported four well dressed "Middle Eastern" men with backpacks split up into two groups and got on separate cars there. Service was stopped for about 15 minutes.
Christian reports a police dog went through the train before it resumed service around 8:50 a.m.
The T just issued a "severe delays" alert for southbound trains due to track issues at Assembly Square.