Red Line

MBTA Transit Police say they're looking for a 40ish guy for an indecent attack on an inbound Red Line train pulling into Kendall station on Monday.

According to police, the man intentionally poked a female passenger in the crotch with his finger - and then stayed on the train until Park Street - during the morning commute.

He's described as 6 feet, 185 lbs., wearing a gray tweed sport coat, a blue collared shirt, and a red and gold "college type" ring. If he looks familiar, contact Det. T.J. Leonard at 617-222-1052 or the Criminal Investigations Unit at 617-222-1050. The photo was taken by a passenger in the car.

Views of the Northeast enjoyed the rushing waters of Porter station today.

Copyright Views of the Northeast. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Long (20+ min.) video essay on why the T is making a big mistake in its frenzied drive to remove the mid-train attendants. Has a good overview of the T's debt crisis, but saying the Orange Line was "revered for its reliable and on-time service" before its attendants were eliminated might be a bit of a stretch.

An irate citizen alerts the city about "hordes of poorly behaved school children" clogging up the Savin Hill platform and causing all sorts of grief for the tax-paying citizens of Savin Hill.

For example.

Via Steve Annear.

The Globe reports one man was stabbed at Andrew, another shot at Ashmont.

Poor Gumby. Gets on the Red Line and nobody pays him any attention, except for Courtney Burns, who took this photo.

Check out this photo by Al Willis of the line for a shuttle bus. The T is bustituting between Kendall and Broadway to allow for installation of a new elevator at Park Street.

Transportation Secretary Richard Davey was scheduled to speak this morning at a forum sponsored by MassInc called Moving Forward with Funding: New strategies to support transportation and balanced regional economic growth.

Aimee Ward of MassInc tweets Davey was late because of delays on the Red Line.

So the T can install an elevator at Park Street. Look for shuttle buses instead.

The T says Green Line service through Park Street will be unaffected.

Boston World Partnerships is planning a rolling networking event on the Red Line this Thursday: They're going to use the last car of the first inbound train out of JFK/UMass after 1 p.m. for a meet 'n' greet:

Join us in the last car of the Red Line as we travel from JFK/UMass to Davis and back to Kendall Square's Cambridge Innovation Center, with stops along the way to hear from and meet Boston and Cambridge’s most innovative people.

Don't even think of asking what happens if the train gets stuck in a tunnel or if one of the Sob Story People gets on the train with them.

Everyone can agree that the economy is rough. This holiday season, more than usual, is important to local retailers. Small businesses in Porter and Davis squares now have another hurdle to deal with starting November 5th, no red line service on the weekends. The residents probably aren't happy about it either.

According to service advisory posters in red line stations, and yesterday's article on Boston.com, the red line will terminate at Harvard until March 2012! On a side note, the MBTA's own website doesn't mention the service advisory yet.

The MBTA's brick and mortar location for their merchandise website, MBTAgifts.com, is located in Porter Square.

The scene at Park Street. Photo by Patrick Munnelly.

A small track fire erupted underneath a Red Line train shortly before 6 p.m. at Park Street, forcing the evacuation of the train and a shutdown of Red Line service.

"Never a good sign when there's smoke pouring out of the T station you're entering," Anne Holmer tweeted at 5:54 p.m.

Over in Central Square, David Day reports "Tons of Noam Chomsky fans spilling out of Central Square Red Line looking for cabs." Chomsky was scheduled to speak at Occupy Boston this evening.

Recently, if you look out the windows on the Red Line between Harvard and Porter, you'll almost always find workers pressing against the wall to let a train by. In case the water-stained tunnel walls don't give it away: they're working on the corroded tracks as we speak. However, that may not be enough time to keep the tunnels in shape, and as The Globe explains:

The MBTA will close the Red Line north of Harvard Square on weekends from November through March to complete $80 million in repairs designed to keep trains from derailing, transit administrators said yesterday.

Starting Nov. 5, weekend service will stop to allow T crews to plug tunnel cracks and seal water leaks that have eroded the concrete track base and corroded power lines. Then crews will replace damaged track, supports, and electrical components.

The new Ashmont T stop will be formally dedicated at 3 p.m. tomorrow. The Dorchester Reporter reviews the struggle to get the state to do something about Ashmont-line stations, once the worst in the entire T system.

J posts a photo of a guy on the Red Line with an electric chainsaw this morning:

No extension cord, so I think we are safe.

Alleged evasion starts around 0:35.

MBTA Transit Police report a man spotted piggybacking another passenger through the fare gates at Central Square yesterday turned out to be wanted in Boston, Lynn, Malden and Cambridge on a variety of warrants.

Christopher Coates, 27, of Cambridge was initially stopped by a pair of plainclothes T cops around noon after, police say, they watched him evade his fare. They took him in after discovering he was wanted for everything from assault and battery and drug possession to operating without a license and being in possession of a stolen car.

Innocent, etc.

James Harvey tweeted around 5:30 p.m.:

Just had the Red Line doors open in the middle of the Longfellow Bridge.

Eric Steinhardt, apparently on the same train, reports the doors stayed open only very briefly, not even long enough for him to jump out.

Kristen Goodfriend notices an unusual item for sale at the little store inside the Porter Square T stop. Comes in five-day packs.

Red Line service was briefly halted Saturday night when a man dropped onto the tracks at Park Street - just as a train was pulling into the station.

The train driver was able to stop the train before hitting him; he then got up and climbed up onto the center platform, with the help of a T worker. According to an MBTA Transit Police report:

As I spoke with [the man], he seemed to be alert but confused. {he} stated, "I don't really know what happened. I think I tripped and the next thing I knew I was in the pit with a train coming towards me. {he} stateed, "I had come from the HempFest but had only smoked a little bit of weed."

He was taken to Tufts Medical Center with what appeared to be only a small cut in the back of his head.

The MBTA has installed a signal system at Ashmont that will keep Mattapan trolleys from leaving if a Red Line train is about to pull into the station.

T spokesman Joe Pesaturo said the system comes in response to complaints from Red Line riders who would get out of their train just in time to see a trolley pulling away.

LoJack reports MBTA Transit Police used the human version of its tracking system to find an East Boston teen with a predilection for wandering away from home and school to ride the rails underneath Boston.

The company says yesterday's safe return marks the first successful use of its SafetyNet Service since it was introduced in Boston in January:

Approximately 20 minutes after arriving at North Station [where he left his father], officers with the MBTA Transit Police began picking up a signal emitting from the missing boy's SafetyNet Bracelet. The signal was coming from Downtown Crossing and was strongest underground. Officers went underground into the subway, boarded a train and were able to locate the boy, who was heading southbound.

The teen is well known to local police, who had always managed to find him safe, although sometimes after extensive searches that included requesting help from the public.

AlertNewEngland reports the TD Bank in Central Square was held up around 4:30 p.m. And since T-riding bank robbers seems to prefer the Red Line, the T held up Red Line service to let police search for him.

• Red Line proves unreliable - as getaway route for alleged bank robber
• Harvard Square bank robbery suspect attempts getaway via Red Line

Roving UHub photographer Jake Wark become walking UHub photographer Jake Wark this morning, thanks to a dead Red Line (happy Sept. 1!), which is how he came upon these T workers just before the Longfellow working fast to fix whatever it was that broke.

The sign in front of them became accurate again around 8:45 a.m.

Columbus Avenue slobs.

It's as if we've been hit by a hurricane of slobbery. Citizens Connect this morning is just filled with reports of mounds of filth and vermin, including: