Tokens all bagged and ready to go. Photo by MBTA.
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The T
By adamg - 6/27/12 - 8:40 am
News item: MBTA may sell station names - and one of the first of the new stations could be Emerson Boylston.
Emerson Boylston knew what they say: Gentlemen never drink before 11 a.m. or east of Tremont.
By adamg - 6/25/12 - 10:30 pm
Bus into building. Photo by BFD.
An MBTA bus with about 15 passengers crashed into a brand-new Whittier Health Center building at 1290 Tremont St. around 10:25 p.m.
The Boston Fire Department reports two passengers were taken to the hospital. The building was empty at the time; the collision burst a sprinkler pipe.
Susan Tran at WHDH tweets the bus was cut off by another vehicle whose driver was trying to make a U-turn as the storm wound down.
View from the inside:
By adamg - 6/25/12 - 9:14 am
Meg Fowler Tripp reports from the Orange Line terminus:
All but 2 ticket machines & 2 gates not broken @ Forest Hills + rude T staff + seeing 1/2 people get on bus free = bah, fare increase.
No, not the guy with the pencil 'stache?
One of the ladies: "Like it's my @$&%! problem the machines don't work." -- after an older person got the "See Agent" message.
By adamg - 6/25/12 - 9:05 am
Basically a man (40ish, gray hair) and a woman (who looked a little like Julianne Moore) approached me and told me their bag was stolen, they needed money to take a cab home, and they would pay me back for it later. They showed me a fake police report, gave me their cell number (which has a voicemail box that isn't set up), and texted me their address in Marlborough (a house which is up for sale).
I thought to myself, this is a little weird, but hey, maybe these people really DO need help.
By adamg - 6/23/12 - 10:13 am
Stuart Spina was on scene shortly after midnight when a northbound train out of Ashmont stopped halfway up the tracks at South Station and the driver got out to retrieve, well, OK, not a cute little kid's cute little stuffed bunny, but a purse and sweater a woman had somehow dropped on the tracks.
No immediate word if the MBTA is planning a new PSA campaign:
This is Chief Paul MacMillan of the MBTA Transit Police reminding you to stop dropping your damn stuff on the tracks. That yellow strip is there for a reason, people. Have a nice day, and thank you for riding the T.
By adamg - 6/22/12 - 12:41 pm
The MSPCA reports Mace the pomeranian mix is now short a couple of toes, which had to be amputated after getting mangled at the top of an escalator at the Forest Hills T stop:
The doctors concluded that Mace's foot was so damaged that surgery was scheduled the following day to remove two of his toes. Doctors at Angell expect Mace will make a full recovery and will even learn to walk just as well as before on his now slightly altered hind leg.
By adamg - 6/21/12 - 9:46 am
A third-rail problem on the Kendall side of the Longfellow means delays in both directions on the Red Line, as in, power had to be shut off between Park and Kendall so workers can fix it. At 9:41 a.m., Alice B tweeted:
Just deboarded at Central. Red line inbound not moving due to 3rd rail fail at Kendall. No inbound trains for at least 20 min
UPDATE: T announced at 9:52 a.m. the problem was fixed and that service was resuming, with, of course, the ever popular "residual delays."
By adamg - 6/20/12 - 7:10 am
WBUR reports the state Senate, like the House before it, has approved a one-time bailout that will keep the T from making lots of cuts come July 1, but rejected a proposal to establish a financial oversight board a couple of years after the state gave the new Department of Transportation oversight over the T.
By adamg - 6/19/12 - 8:05 am
Around 8:15 p.m. yesterday, Rachel Zarrell spotted Sob Story Guy getting on the Orange Line at Chinatown:
Needed money to get to Worcester to "treat his staph infection." Was pretty gross.
But by 11, he'd either gotten it looked at or had just become resigned to it. Colin Steele reported from the Red Line near Harvard:
No story this time, just "anybody? Anybody?"
By adamg - 6/18/12 - 4:59 pm
The Boston Business Journal reports the T has some space in several stations (Back Bay, Forest Hills, Harvard, Alewife, North Station, South Station, Airport and Malden Center) it's looking to rent for retail use.
The Journal notes there are several prohibited uses, including the sale of tobacco, scratch tickets and popcorn.
Popcorn? T spokesman Joe Pesaturo says the T has had enough with popcorn because it attracts pigeons and "too much of it ends up on seats and floors of subway cars."
By adamg - 6/18/12 - 10:09 am
Signal problems at JFK/UMass are continuing to mess up the commute long past the morning rush. Levi Haynes tweets it took 90 minutes to get from Quincy Center to Kendall.
By adamg - 6/17/12 - 10:47 am
Yesterday at Park Street (start around 1:25 to see the fare-evasion action). Didn't appear to be any CSAs or transit cops to make a stand against the roughly 50 Occupy MBTA protesters.
By adamg - 6/14/12 - 2:46 pm
Leroy "Hitman" Martin, 34, of Brighton, was ordered held in lieu of $100,000 bail at his arraignment on a variety of charges related to a high-chase from Revere to Cambridge that ended with him under arrest in the Kendall Square T stop.
By adamg - 6/14/12 - 2:24 pm
Firefighters rushed to North Station around 1:40 p.m. today on reports of flames shooting out of an exhaust stack on an MBCR commuter-rail engine on track 1. After initial efforts to douse the flames, MBTA engineers advised firefighters to back away in case the engine exploded. At one point, the Boston Fire Department reports:
The area of the engine and the stack rising from the engine were bright red from heat.
Around 2:20 p.m., the department declared the fire out. Firefighters continued to pour water on the diesel, however, to keep it cool.
By adamg - 6/14/12 - 2:08 pm
AlertNewEngland reports a large pile of paper on Red Line tracks near Harvard Square burst into flames around 1:40 p.m., forcing a shutdown of train service so Cambridge firefighters could douse the fire. The T shut all service north of Harvard and terminated service on the other side at Park Street.
By adamg - 6/13/12 - 7:18 pm
Ari Rizzitano explains:
When headed north on the Green Line, waiting for a Lechmere train is like waiting for the skinny Tetris block.
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