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By adamg - 6/16/11 - 4:37 pm

The T says it's beefing up service on Saturday for the Bruins victory parade, which kicks off at 11 a.m. at the Garden.

All four subway lines will run at "near rush hour" schedules during the day. The T says it will also have extra orange-vested workers stationed throughout the system to help riders unfamiliar with how to use CharlieCards or get to the parade route.

The T said commuter rail will run on its normal Saturday schedule, but that it hopes to announce some additional service tomorrow.

By adamg - 6/16/11 - 4:01 pm

Last week, Boston hosted the American Public Transportation Association's annual rail conference. A highlight of the conference is always the rail rodeo, in which teams from subway systems across the continent compete in both train maintenance and operation.

By adamg - 6/16/11 - 3:43 pm

The MBTA's first-in-the-nation refund program for late trains goes away starting July 1. The move will save the T $1 million a year, which it says it can spend on service enhancements. In a statement, MBTA General Manager Rich Davey said:

While some customers may be disappointed with the program's elimination, it's important that people know that this money will be put to very good use. By reallocating these funds into the development of more customer service enhancements, we expect a greater number of T riders to benefit from this money.

By adamg - 6/16/11 - 8:52 am

The MBTA announced yesterday it's gone live with a beta feed of data on the whereabouts of commuter-rail trains that software developers can use to build applications similar to the ones already in use for T subway and bus lines.

By adamg - 6/15/11 - 8:28 pm

Booking photoBooking photo.A Lynn woman was arraigned yesterday on charges she responded to police nabbing her piggybacking her way into Ashmont station Monday by jumping off the inbound platform and attempting to run down the tunnel.

Ophelia Wheat, 37, was charged with trespassing, resisting arrest, and obstructing a railroad, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

According to the DA's office, MBTA Transit Police officers watched Wheat enter the station by following a paying customer.

Wheat allegedly told the officer that she had paid but the machine had stolen her money. The officer offered to check its history and confirm the story, but she allegedly refused and proceeded downstairs to the platform.

By adamg - 6/14/11 - 7:47 am

Cynthia tweeted around 7:30 a.m.:

Young boy fell on tracks at Stonybrook. Seems okay. Paramedics getting him out now. Orange delayed both directions. ...

Uh oh dad's arrived. Let's argue with mom in front of everyone about how it happened.

By adamg - 6/12/11 - 12:34 pm

Liam Day is writing poems about specific MBTA bus routes.

Compare to subway poems.

By adamg - 6/11/11 - 12:11 pm

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports on the latest at the Hyundai-Rotem plant, where workers are scheduled to churn out a ton of new coaches for the MBTA just as soon as they finish an order for SEPTA, Philadelphia's equivalent:

By adamg - 6/11/11 - 1:14 am

Candelaria Silva reports she and her granddaughter were waiting at Fields Corner for an Ashmont train last Saturday when a woman on the inbound side began yelling:

"Oh, my God, did you see that? Is that a deer? A deer just ran up the bus ramp!"

We looked behind us through the glass that separates the bus ramp from the train tracks and there it was - a deer. We saw it running back and forth three times.

By adamg - 6/10/11 - 3:08 pm

The MBTA says that starting July 1, it will start offering "premium" parking spaces for $200 a month at the Braintree Red Line stop that will give purchasers guaranteed spots near the station entrance.

The new program, similar to one at Logan Airport, is experimental, but could be expanded if successful, the T says.

Also starting July 1, the T is cutting the price of parking at underused lots to $3 a day or $60 a month: Kingston, Halifax, Campello, Fairmount, Hyde Park, Newburyport and Lynn on commuter rail and Butler, Milton and Mattapan on the Mattapan Line.

By adamg - 6/10/11 - 2:01 pm

The Jamaica Plain Gazette reports the City Council's Environment and Health Committee will hold a hearing on June 13 to press the MBTA to replace the allegedly temporary bus facility for which the T has been planning a replacement since 1998.

By adamg - 6/10/11 - 9:19 am

Bianca Strezelczyk snaps a photo of a woman taking up three seats on the Orange Line during the morning rush:

I get you're tired but c'mon!

Moments later, she adds:

Now she's fighting about having her feet up! Shocked that someone asked her to move. A woman's calling a T supervisor. Got her!

By adamg - 6/10/11 - 8:18 am

Switching problems mean harried South Station commuters are even more harried than usual this morning. In at least one case, on the Needham line, commuters heading into Boston suddenly found themselves heading away from the city to get onto another track.

By adamg - 6/10/11 - 6:55 am

But this time in verse. The Boston Poetry Slam is organizing an MBTA poetry slam in which participants have to rep their favorite T line:

"What can I say? I’m a huge fan of poems about trains," says organizer Steve Subrizi. "I'm pretty sure there's nobody in this city who hasn't had something hilarious or heartbreaking happen to them on the subway."

It's June 29 at the Cantab Lounge in Central Square.

By adamg - 6/9/11 - 6:52 pm

Bus vs. SUV

An SUV driver and a passenger on an MBTA bus were taken to the hospital when the two vehicles collided on Hyde Park Avenue around 5:30 p.m. - the driver with a cut left arm, the passenger with a hand injury, the MBTA says. Two more passengers were taken to the hospital for observation.

According to the MBTA, the SUV pulled out of a driveway in front of the inbound 32 bus, at 1715 Hyde Park Avenue. The left front of the SUV struck the right front of the window. The SUV careened through a chain-link fence and down a two-foot drop near an old factory building; the bus's right front window shattered. T police are continuing to investigate.

State and Boston Police sealed off Hyde Park Avenue on either side of the collision until after the last of the passengers was taken away in an ambulance.

By adamg - 6/9/11 - 1:55 pm

Williamson and BrittWilliamson and BrittThe MBTA reports two teens were arrested yesterday on charges they tried to rob a man by grabbing him as he was getting on a bus at

By adamg - 6/9/11 - 1:42 pm

Mwamuye MBTA Transit Police report arresting a man who allegedly kept inappropriately touching a woman between Mass. Ave. and Wellington one afternoon in May.

By adamg - 6/9/11 - 8:47 am

Orange rustOrange rust. Photo by MBTA.

By adamg - 6/9/11 - 7:17 am

At 6:58 a.m., Rodney Brown tweeted:

Might be late this a.m. Sparks showering down from overhead catenary wires where they meet the front of the Blue Line car I'm in.

At 7:11 a.m., Jennifer Montfort tweeted:

Delays on the Blue line inbound, fire problem at Wood Island. At Orient Heights waiting for the bus.

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