The T

A Minnesota visitor who fell on the Red Line tracks at Kendall Square last night was helped out by other passengers, the MBTA reports. According to an MBTA Transit Police report on the incident, shortly before 7 p.m.:

[The woman's husband] stated they were talking with some friends on the inbound platform and [she] was walking backward. He stated that she continued to walk backward into the pit and fell into it. He then jumped into the pit to help get her out and other passengers assisted in lifting her onto the platform. [She] reported injury to the neck, hips, and dizziness.

Apparently not.

Via Boston Reddit, which manages to turn it into a Yo Momma crack.

MBTA Transit Police report arresting a Maynard man on charges he indecently assaulted a woman - twice - on an inbound Red Line train around 8:30 a.m. on Oct. 3 after the train left Charles/MGH.

Ashish Mittal, 38, was arrested yesterday on a charge of indecent assault and battery, police say.

Innocent, etc.

MBTA Transit Police report they are looking for a man who allegedly slapped and spit at a bus driver for passing him by.

Police report the route-428 driver was attacked around 6:30 p.m. yesterday at Main and Forest streets in Malden. They provide this account:

MBTA Transit Police report they are looking for a man who spit at a T bus driver around 2:30 p.m. on Oct. 4 at Washington and Harvard streets in Charlestown.

If you know him, drop a dime to 617-222-1050 or send a text to 873873.

MBTA Transit Police report that when they asked Dennis Banks what he was doing inside a stairway in a building at the Arborway bus depot yesterday evening,

Banks replied he was "taking a s***" or better stated Banks claimed he was going to the bathroom on the stairs.

Then officers noticed "a freshly cut four foot section of half inch copper resting on a back pack." A quick survey revealed the pipe would have fit exactly in a four-foot gap in a section of pipe on the wall:

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

MBTA Transit Police report arresting a Boston man for allegedly masturbating in full view of other Orange Line riders from Oak Grove to about Wellington, around 4:45 p.m. on Saturday.

Guy's scheduled for arraignment today on a charge of lewd, wanton and lascivious conduct.

ChinatownKicks watched this turkey in Harvard Square yesterday.

Copyright ChinatownKicks. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

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.

Elise Ramsay says goodbye to the guy who gave her a copy of the Metro every morning at the Davis Square T stop:

You made me feel able to take on the day every morning, even when I felt my worst. You made me feel cared for, every time you warned me of whatever hazardous weather was upon us. I know this wasn’t really your goal, but I have to confess: I’ve rarely read the Metro these past few years. I look through it occasionally, but I got in the habit of taking one from you and recycling it downstairs on the platform, all for the experience of interacting with you. Thank you for your bright spirit and your generosity in sharing it with so many of us. You are so missed.

UPDATE: Boston Metro eulogizes Tagliaferro.

Earlier today, Anthea noted the absence of the normal Metro guy at the Davis Square T stop for the past two days. The Somerville Journal tonight posts a photo of a simple sign posted in the T stop:

In memory of David J. Tagliaferro, 1945-2012. Rest in peace, David, you will be missed.

In 2007, Boston Magazine profiled Tagliaferro.

Three trains died on the Red Line between 4:30 and 7 p.m. today.

Roving UHub photographer Will Bussiere was roving all the way out in Charlton yesterday when he spotted a Green Line trolley on the back of a flatbed on the turnpike. No clue why.

Earlier:

• Trolley on 128
• Trolley on a train

Juan Boria, Jr. captured the scene inside the Quincy Center Red Line station this morning.

The Jamaica Plain Gazette gets action - and dishes that bus drivers have a button they can press that automatically generates a report to MBTA Transit Police about bus stops filled with delivery trucks or other vehicles.

The state auditor's office today released a report that found a nearly $102-million discrepancy over five years between the cash the MBTA actually took in through fare boxes on buses and trolleys and the amount those boxes said they were fed.

The MBTA said that simply reflects software issues, not massive amounts of theft or money rolling behind driver's seats, and the auditor's office says that's possible, but there's currently no way to know for sure:

Because the MBTA lacked effective physical controls over the hundreds of keys that provide access to fare box cash at the time of its initial receipt and transfer into the MBTA revenue system, the MBTA cannot ensure that all fare box cash is properly safeguarded against possible loss, theft, or misuse.

The [automated fare collection] system does not properly record all essential events necessary to properly track the removal, deposit, and reinsertion of cash boxes into assigned fare boxes. The inability of the AFC system to give MBTA management reliable tracking information regarding the movement of fare box cash exposes such revenue to potential fraudulent activity.

The Globe reports the alleged butterfingers was packing a loaded gun on an outbound trolley just before Newton Centre; a rider dropped a dime and police arrested him and three pals.

Seems not everybody's enamored with the idea of photos of drunks and snoozers on the T.

The Herald reports a Lowell man arrested as an unregistered sex offender at Forest Hills the other day after somebody complained about him taking pictures of little kids turns out not to have a record as a sex offender. As a convicted stabber and prison-guard attacker, yes, but he was released in April after having served his time for those, the Herald writes.

The MBTA reports Transit Police have issued 3,614 citations so far this year for fare evasion - up 59% from the 2,268 issued in the same period last year.

The T adds that some 89 of those people left the stations where they were snagged in the back seat of a cruiser, after officers realized they were wanted for arrestable offenses. The two latest were arrested yesterday at the Quincy Center stop on the Red Line - one of them a guy who'd allegedly skipped out on a court hearing after he was busted for selling marijuana at the same station in August.

Melinda Green spotted a Sob Story Guy and two Sob Story Girls having a little chat this morning at the Mass. Ave. stop on the Orange Line. She reports:

I've been keeping track of the little blond one's tales of woe for over a year now. Wondering if this is their daily starting point? The little blond one must be the pimp-I-mean-the-brains of the operation. Sometimes she has to get back to Providence for 1-3 kids, sometimes age 7, sometimes age 16.

Oh Christ. A new one just boarded my train. Claims to be HIV positive and needs to get to Fall River.

UPDATE, 9:10 a.m.: MBTA says normal service has resumed.

The morning started with signal problems at Wellington (remember when the T seemed to spend several years upgrading the signals north of Boston?). Now, there's some sort of flooding that's so bad the T is urging people who need to get downtown to get on the Green Line instead, which is great advice unless you're nowhere near the Green Line.

The Blue Line ran out of juice around 5:30 p.m., just in time for the afternoon rush.

Wheeze. v. To pull into a terminal station on the Orange Line. "The train wheezed into Forest Hills, emitted a loud sigh at its fate in life and then the doors opened."