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Orange and Red lines shut down? Nope
By adamg on Thu, 12/13/2007 - 4:20pm
Update: Both lines are still running.
Figures: Even the T's Web site is affected by signal problems. With the site down, I got this e-mail:
I'm stuck here at work with nothing to do except worry about my commute home. MBTA.com is totally unavailable so I can't even check on train schedules or line closings. Some one at work just said the Orange and Red Lines are closed, which doesn't make much sense to me, but I have no way to verify.
Anybody know for sure? Anybody just gotten off the Red or Orange Lines?
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Comments
My roomate just got home off
My roomate just got home off the Red Line going to Alewife with no problems other than being pretty crowded.
Right.
The Red Line wasn't bad. The Green Line going to Lechmere, always slow anyway, was even slower and more crowded....in the middle of the afternoon, yet. What a soap opera!
Boston.com has what appear
Boston.com has what appear to be current MBTA updates on its traffic website -- see here for subway info., and
red line was fully functional as of 3:40 or so
whatever "fully functional" means for Mr.
Bulger's Transportation Authority.
Commuter Rail - Middleborough / Lakeville
I signed up for the t-alerts text messages and have been informed the Middleborough line is running 30+ minutes late. Figured I would post that even though it is off the original topic because Boston.com doesn't mention it.
Orange Line Was Open @ 4PM
To avoid the E Line I walked from Longwood Medical over to Ruggles and at that point, Orange line was open.
Train came at 3:50PM and got to Haymarket around 4:10PM.
Got packed at Back Bay but otherwise ran fine.
No problems
I would avoid the #39 bus like the plague, though. It took us an hour to get from Back Bay station to Ruggles St. at which point a bunch of us got off and made our way over to Ruggles station.
Red Line is fine, just very crowded
The Red Line train I took from downtown to Somerville, around 5 pm today, ran just fine. It was very crowded, but maybe it's always like that at 5 pm. (Usually I take a much later train)
Yeah definitely is always
Yeah definitely is always really crowded at 5 pm coming outbound.
Orange line fine 30 minutes ago
I have a reliable report that the Orange line from the south end to Forest Hills was running normally as of 30 minutes ago. Tremont, on the other hand, was a gridlock, as are all the roads I've seen first hand.
In fact, for the first time ever I witnessed a pedestrian outpacing a police cruiser with its lights on.
MBTA Customer Support CLOSED
After waiting an hour for the infamously unreliable 57 bus, and not seeing one pass in either direction during that time, I gave up.
As a lark, I called the MBTA's customer support line to find out what was going on. A recorded message droned that the office was closed due to the inclement weather. How can the the staff in this office be considered "unessential state employees" in the midst of a snow emergency? Aren't people being urged to use the T instead of driving?
I walk a mile and not a
I walk a mile and not a single 57 went by in either direction. I saw 100 people or so waiting at kenmore.
The BU bridge is a nightmare when theres snow, so I dont blame the buses. Theres simply no way to get through in less than 30 minutes.
Im sure there are more bottlenecks down the line. Take the B line and walk.
Why would the BU bridge affect the 57 bus?
The 57 doesn't cross that bridge.
The 57 doesn't go over the
The 57 doesn't go over the Bu bridge, no. I was referring to that intersection, and the bridge over the Mass pike.
The BU bridge has a slight incline, so cars get stuck, which backs up to the intersection, blocking cars. Cars also get stuck going up the incline to the mass ave bridge. Combine with pedestrian crossing, badly timed lights and people trying to get to Storrow, and it's a parking lot.
Also unrelated, but the fire alarm was going off at park street when we went past at 11:20pm
Avoid buses
Hi All! I was trying to get from Allston Village to JP by the monument. It took 2 and a half hours. I sat on the 66 for a while, got annoyed when it took one and a half hours to get to Coolidge Corner, so I walked from there to Huntington and S. Huntington. Total gridlock. So I kept walking down S. Huntington. About that time, a lot of cars were getting stuck in the road. As I passed Angell Memorial -- like a beacon in the storm -- came a 39 bus! Centre Street was clear and I was home in no time! What a pain!
MBTA Staff Should Work!
Most MBTA staff should stay on the job when it snows. This is New England, bad weather is part of the deal.
TRUE: the 57 does NOT pass over the BU Bridge. No excuse there for delays.
Question for the MBTA and Chairman Grabauskas: where were the buses and drivers?
We await your answer.
If cars can't move anywhere, neither can buses
I doubt that the T or its drivers can really be blamed for this.
The Inshallah Route 57
All,
Last year I wrote several E.mails to the T (Write to the Top.. Do you all remember that stupid campaign?), as well as to my State Rep, State House Reps, City Council and almost everybody I know who takes that terrible Route #57.
I went out for several days and tracked randomly the 57 schedule to prove that the buses run two by two or three by three leaving 20/30 minutes gap between them... they responded kindly saying they will look into.. Asking patience and bla-bla-bla
"By September things will be better..."
Here we are a year later and same problem: the Route #57 sucks!
They know it and they don't do anything about it...
Drivers, superintendents, managers... they all responded and blamed the same stupid causes: "sorry but...snow-storm, ball-games, rain, road-work... ".
My conclusion is that who ride the T are mostly lower class and immigrants. They count little, mostly do not vote.. If they would count their voices would be heard. The T's attitude is "Be grateful we run... wait at the T stop and shut up!"
I have never heard any politician to talk about T on his campaign... Even City councils .. they all talk about the war, and big things... even if city councils doesn't have anything thing to do with war.. That moron McDermott who asked to shut down the big Citgo sign in Kenmore Square in retaliation of Venezuelan's President... But he never said a word about the buses in Allston-Brighton or the Green Line...
have you ever seen a political campaign at the T stop anymore?
So here we are.. waiting at the T stops.. wondering if schedules have meaning. We, people who ride daily the T, well know that they do not mean anything.. one goes to the T-stop and waits.. if one is lucky two or three buses will get on your way.. if not... bring with you the newspaper or play the Metro's suduko... Afterall suduko it is proved to help to keep our brain healthy... so be glad for the opportunity.
The bus will show up when God wants... What I called the Inshallah attitude
LA
I took the 57 this afternoon
I took the 57 this afternoon (boarded in Watertown at 3:30) and was on it for about an hour and a half, until we reached BU. Gridlock was so bad that the driver turned to all of us, said that it would be an hour until he reached Kenmore, and recommended that we get off the bus and cross over to the T.
So it was running, but it was a disaster, even for those who were on it.
Since this is the Watertown bus....
maybe Marilyn Devaney should take up its cause?
a couple whacks with a curling iron
and it would straighten right out
Shallow conclusion
My conclusion is that who ride the T are mostly lower class and immigrants. They count little, mostly do not vote.. If they would count their voices would be heard. The T's attitude is "Be grateful we run... wait at the T stop and shut up!"
Well, that certainly must be the root of all the T's problems... not. The MBTA bus service has been bad on every bus line I've been on. The only people I know who don't complain much about the MBTA are people who take the subway (Green Lines don't count here). Why? Underground right-of-ways don't encounter car interference.
The T's Perception, Perhaps?
I have often wondered why the busses are given such shitty resources and service, particularly on urban routes. While I disagree with the "shallow conclusion", I have to note that it would seem that the T believes that "shallow conclusion" and doesn't provide decent service on the bus routes for those reasons.
I do know that attitude was pervasive for busses leaving from Sullivan until very recently. Now that that bus superintendent has retired, things have improved. There is still the attitude that "you ride a bus so you must not need to get anywhere very fast", particularly when it comes to changing the schedules at rush hour to reflect actual run times for the routes. It isn't rocket science, just get 'er done!
I think the answer to your
I think the answer to your question ("Where were the buses and drivers?") might be: "Stuck in traffic."
I can't say anything about the 57, but on my walk home from Longwood to Allston, I counted EIGHT Dudley-bound 66 buses inching along Harvard Ave behind hardly-moving traffic.
It was taking most vehicles over an hour to go 10 miles in the city today, so I don't think the T could have been expected to have it's buses moving any faster. Issues with "ordinary day" bus service are real, and need to be fixed... but if any day they had an excuse for delays, it was yesterday.
Traffic not the problem
Since I was waiting from about 5:15 to 6:15, I do not think it was buses stuck in traffic. There was very little traffic passing through at that point, most people had left work much earlier in the afternoon.
I strongly suspect the buses were at the Watertown yard.
Regarding why bus service is so bad, I do think that bus service generally gets a poorer, less politically potent clientele. Look at all the attention the commuter rail is getting. People who ride buses can only wish their service were held to such standards.
I do not think that the incline at the intersection of Comm. Ave. with the BU bridge would cause a problem, the buses deal with steeper inclines on that route. The traffic at that point can be a problem, but as I said, this was much later in the afternoon.
The buses can make the hill
The buses can make the hill just fine, but they cant move if a car in front of them is stuck. I walked pass the BU bridge area, it wasnt moving.
Storm surge at South Station
Michael posts photos of the chaos as people tried to get out of town yesterday in advance of
the Nazisthe storm.I don't get it
What exactly IS the deal with people who commute by T getting all in a panick about the storm? 10 inches of snow is alot, but its not like we've never seen it before. I can understand that if you drove to work yesterday you might have been a bit nervous about your commute home but if you took the T what was the cause for panic?
Explanation
They're worried the market is going to run out of milk, bread and eggs.
Like, duh!!!
Because its the T
The T doesn't have a good track record with big storms. I've seen all major lines grind to a halt in the face of snow. And indeed, the E Line did grind to a halt last night, as did plenty of bus lines that provide "alternate" mass transit.
When I left this morning, the E Line still wasn't running past Brigham Circle, though they are helpfully not posting anyone at Heath Street and have even more helpfully taken down the service alert on their website. Probably because the "gridlock" excuse has past its expiration date and the MBTA doesn't want to give whatever the real reason is they shut down the E Line. Drivers were saying ice last night, but the streets were wet when my 39 bus drove down them today. No ice to be seen and they were remarkably clean and traffic free.
Guess I'll see if they are back tonight, but trust me, having worries about using the T are very valid. If you commute by the T and it stops running, your options quickly become cab or foot and that's worth some concern.
The T doesn't do "Weather"
I've heard delays blamed on the rain, the heat, the cold, etc. Either they really can't handle anything out of the ordinary or they are finding convenient excuses everywhere.
10" of snow is at least a little more justifyable than "the busses got wet!".