Gov. Baker and Mayor Walsh this morning announced plans to redevelop land now occupied by a MassDOT office building - originally built for Wang Labs - and a steam plant near South Station into up to 2 million square feet of space for housing and other uses. Read more.
Trains that pass through Forest Hills are being forced to slow down due to Amtrak signal problems, the T reports.
Actually, lots of delays out of South Station, but thank goodness: The Patriots train left on time.
This just in from Keolis:
Keolis Commuter Services, which operates the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) commuter rail system, finished out the month of October with an unadjusted on-time weekday performance rate of 90.44 percent, the best performance for that month in nearly a decade.
A significant number of delays for the month were caused by trains that had to be operated at lower speeds for safety reasons because of slippery rail conditions. When adjusted for slippery rail and other conditions or incidents not under the control of Keolis, on-time performance was 94.44 percent.
UPDATE: Some lines not affected by the signal problems are late because of the dreaded slippery rail.
The T is reporting delays on trains from the south due to Amtrak signal problems. And trains that would normally stop at Ruggles just aren't.
Also, trains decided it was Judgment Day on the Green and Red Lines and so gave up the ghost.
Because a gas leak at the Cabot rail yard south of South Station means delays on trains out of the station. People heading to points south of Braintree are now being told to take the Red Line there and then transfer to a train.
A security guard at the South Station bus terminal who spotted a man and a teen boy engaged in some possible inappropriate behavior under a blanket last August sparked an investigation that led to the man's federal indictment this week. Read more.
A concerned citizen complains:
When will Boston PD enforce the do not block the box law? It is constant around the south station roads making very difficult for first responders to get through.
Ed. note: Washington and South streets in front of Forest Hills in the morning is similar.
CommonWealth Magazine reports House Speaker Robert DeLeo (D-Winthrop) has signed onto the Dukakis/Weld effort to build a tunnel between South and North stations.
Backers say the tunnel would not cost much more than the state's current plans to expand South Station and would provide far more benefits, including reducing the need for tracks at South Station, especially if the Postal Service decides to never move from its facility along Fort Point Channel.
Round about 6:30 p.m., a train bit the big one at South Station, causing the kind of sweaty mess riders haven't seen since Friday's track fire.
The scene outside South Station. Photo by Ross Chanowski.
UPDATE: 6:30 p.m. Trains running again. UPDATE: 6:02 p.m. Fire declared out, firefighters packing up.
An insulated cable that erupted into flames shortly after 5 p.m. south of South Station shut Red Line service in both directions between JFK/UMass and Park Street and forced the driver of one outbound train to reverse direction and head back to South Station. Read more.
Louis Venturelli was among the hundreds of commuter-rail riders who just sat or stood there in South Station as signal problems meant massive delays on all line between roughly 5:40 and 6:40 this evening.
The former governors say it's last time to connect the two terminals with a rail link.
Craig Wright reports on an incident on the inbound platform on the Red Line at South Station around 9 a.m.:
Woman hit older woman with iced coffee, then dumped on her head because she was "intentionally blocking her."
I guess from boarding the train? Who knows! To the older woman's credit - she just pretty much laughed it off.
The coffee dumper then walked away, he said.
The Boston Fire Department reports firefighters responded at 3:49 a.m. to South Station for a fire in the ceiling above tracks 5 and 6: Read more.
The Braintree train was taken out of service at South Station; now the Red Line has "severe" delays.
Protesters marching in support of a $15 minimum wage in Massachusetts are marching down Boylston Street and in the Chinatown area this rush hour.
Before they got to Boylston, the Back Bay protesters shut down Huntington at Mass. Ave., as URNotInvisible shows us:
Transit Police report they are looking for this yegg for a safe-cracking job in the basement of South Station on March 16.
After breaking into an office in the station basement and opening the safe - police did not say how - he took money and fled in a cab, which dropped him off on Decatur Street in Charlestown.
If he looks familiar, contact detectives at 617-222-1050 or send an anonymous tip to 873873.
Claire Blechman watched workers reinstall the Hubway station outside South Station this morning.
There are some things you just shouldn't be seeing first thing in the morning at South Station, and Serena Tang reports this group of black-clad symbolic cats is one of them. And she reports they could sense her get-away-from-me-ness:
They started meowing at me.
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