When things go south on the T, they go south really fast
You might think that if you get to the Franklin commuter-rail station for the 12:41 into Boston, you might reasonably expect to be able to get to the Cambridge River Festival before 4 p.m.
As Quasit reports (here and here), you'd think wrong. Especially fun was the T's complete unpreparedness for something you'd think it would have well under control, given how often it happens these days: A fire at a Red Line station:
... When buses finally started to appear they were all destined for JKF/UMASS, and therefore completely useless for us. In the meantime the crowd had become enormous, spilling onto the streets and greatly slowing traffic. There were several points where buses were pulling in, but it wasn't clear if there were particular locations for specific destinations. Many of the signs on the buses simply said "OUT OF SERVICE", and people had to shout and ask the drivers where they were going. It was, simply, chaos; nobody seemed able to organize the situation and let people know what had happened or where they should go. Parts of the crowd ran back and forth from loading-point to loading-point, trying to find buses to take them where they wanted to go. ...
Complete with photos and video.
Poor bastard
Why would a guy with a car use the T for any reason? I know it's $4 a gallon...buddy, spend the $25 and tell the MBTA to fuck off. They obviously don't care about providing a product that's any good. Why give them business?
Let it Be Known
In order to encourage people to drive and screw the T until it is dust and all will share his motorized misery, Will LaTulippe will be paying for parking in the city during special events.
Pay for parking?
For suckers. Know your city...plenty of free parking if you know where to look.
Not before 6pm (at the
Not before 6pm (at the earliest) on any day but Sunday or a holiday.
Oh, there's always plenty of free parking all the time
Granted, in most of West Roxbury and parts of Roslindale, and you might have to wait up to an hour for a bus to get to Forest Hills so you can take the Orange Line downtown, but, hey, nothing good in life comes easy :-).
Parts of East Boston, too
What will be left of your car when you get back is another story, but a lot of the streets north of Lexington aren't residential or anything.
Practical?
I guess I should have explicitly stated: Boston proper.
East Boston, Dorchester, West Roxbury, Hyde Park, and Roslindale aren't really practical for events occurring in Boston proper. You might be able to get away with Charlestown, but I don't park there enough to know how the parking situation is like, and then there is having to trek to the Community College/Sullivan Square stops.
And I can't imagine JP being all that easy to park in.
Less and Less Available
Yeah, I used to know all those special places where you could just drop the car and leave it until you felt like finding it ... but Cambridge and Boston have been filling them in with resident restrictions and eliminating broad swaths of former fair game spaces. Somerville has become truly predatory and extended hours for their meters in some areas.
It doesn't help if you are going to a festival if you park 1/2 mile or more away and have to move your car every 2 hours.
Why take the T?
I quit driving into Boston after a maniac started repeatedly ramming my car when I was stopped at a red light in Brookline, near route 9. My little boy was in the back seat at the time.
http://bobquasit.livejournal.com/19298.html
Driving's just too stressful. I'm too old to deal with crazed drivers all the time. Particularly because when I do, I start turning into one myself!
You're right that the T obviously doesn't care. On the other hand, by taking the T and blogging about it, I've definitely caused some grief for T management. I know that they read my blog, and it's been covered in BostonNOW! (RIP) and the Wall Street Journal. Dan and the MBCR can't like that! :D
I doubt that I've aggravated T management as much as they've aggravated me, but at least I'm doing something. And to be honest, it's kind of fun; it gives me something to do when the T screws up instead of just getting pissed off.
Plus, okay, I have to admit that I'm broke right now. I could have bought the gas to go to Boston, but then there really wouldn't have been enough money to buy lunch for us and a toy for my son...he was really looking forward to getting Jet Jaguar.
Seriously?
What you do is you get out, take a tire iron to his window, grab his shirt collar, and tell him what's going to happen next time he tries to hurt your family.
Curious
Have you ever done that yourself?
Haven't had to
Yet. Who knows what will happen when I have a son?
Red Line still a mess today...
Three full trains at Central between 8:15 and 8:45.
Fourth train gets to Kendall, and I'm expecting the
Longfellow Bridge Creep. And he sails over at full
speed, to sit for 10 minutes at Charles.
Three hours later they're running expresses to Alewife
and the Boston bound train I'm on has resumed the Longfellow
slow down.
They didn't finish the tie work on the bridge
That comes next week, they say.
maybe if they'd actually been doing something...
...they would be finished. Unfortunately, during both of the trips I made across the bridge yesterday afternoon, there wasn't a worker in sight. Just one giant machine with a T logo, and a statie playing Guard The Hole In Case Someone Steals It.
In short: that "closure" to work on the bridge ties was completely useless. Maybe the T maintenance workers were protesting in solidarity with the "carman" union?
They packed each shuttle bus to the gills, despite having 6+ busses waiting at each side. To top it off, the driver didn't think to put on the air conditioning until we pulled into Kendall, making for a stifling hot ride.
I saw plenty of work going on yesterday
It was all at the Cambridge end of the bridge, on the outbound side.
gasp, maybe we're BOTH RIGHT?
When *I* was there, I didn't. Wanna fight about it, Mr. Knows Everything?
At 4pm and 11PM, there was nothing going on. Not a single worker in sight, no work lights, NOTHING. The Magic Mystery Machine was shut down and parked at the Charles/MGH platform.
Did it occur to you that they worked until 3-4pm, and then packed up and went home, and that instead of having multiple shifts, the T is still focusing on penny-pinching and dragging this project out over weeks as a result?
Nevermind that they haven't had the presence of mind to leave things such that they can resume train service while they don't have anyone working on it.
They sure did have a lot of fat people with clipboards and safety vests at Kendal and Park Street, though.
OK, class, settle down
It's possible to disagree with somebody without asking him to step outside.
Why so many weekends?
People don't just use the T to get to work and back - they shop, go to special events, etc.
Some people would love to use the T 24/7, particularly from the airport, but we are always told that "the T needs the time for maintenance ..."
So ... are they working at night on the Red and Blue lines? Anybody know?
Mix in a cab
Mix in a cab
green line
so, does the Green line to Lechmere usually have 2-3-4 multi-car trains that end at Govt Center or North station and all are told to get the hell off, then one single-car Lechmere train that cannot possibly have one more body stuffed into it pulls in at GC yet 100 people try to get on it anyway? it can't always be that stupid. or can it?
Yeah, that's about right
Then there are the inbound trains that are "re-routed" and terminate at Park Street, like they're suddenly going to magically transform into Red Line trains or something.
Yeah, that's standard opperating procedure
If you want to get to Lechmere, try getting off at Copley. You've at least got a better chance of getting on the Lechmere train there. Or you can take the Orange Line to Community College and enjoy a walk over a bridge.
Lechmere
You can also take the CambridgeSide Galleria shuttle (free) from Kendall Sq, or the EZRide shuttle ($1.00) from Kendall or North Station.