Fire at Central causes Red Line fail

Around 6:30, psionic tweeted:

The red line mbta train I was just on suddenly filled with thick smoke and they disembarked everyone at Central.

Photo around 6:15 as Cambridge FD responds.

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Submitted by adamg on Wed, 04/15/2009 - 6:09pm.

I went down to Central on

I went down to Central on the inbound platform and saw the smoke belching train. It was an acrid smelling smoke like an electrical fire. I wasn't there long as my train came in and I gratefully got on board and out of there as quickly as possible.

Othemts | Wed, 04/15/2009 - 6:50pm

They claimed it was "traffic ahead"

But I could smell smoke.

Aaron (not verified) | Wed, 04/15/2009 - 8:16pm

Each train is equipped with

Each train is equipped with a magic 8-ball of excuses.

central squared (not verified) | Thu, 04/16/2009 - 10:37am

Well yes

Telling hundreds of people in a crowded train sitting in a tunnel that there is a fire ahead of them is a great way to get people killed in a panic. So T employees will lie. And that's fine.

Arborway | Thu, 04/16/2009 - 10:39am

Lying is not fine

It may be that what they said in this case was not lying; I don't know.

But as a general policy: lying is not fine. Lying erodes trust in the near and long term. Lying also immediately gives people inaccurate information, sometimes on which they would be ill-advised to act.

neilv | Thu, 04/16/2009 - 11:06am

If the train belching smoke was on the platform,

it's obvious that the train behind it wasn't able to pull into the station. So, "Traffic Ahead" is not a outright lie, but merely an oversimplification of the problem.

That having been said, I am also sick and tired of the T's "14 standard excuses" approach to explaining problems.

I am also reminded of Marvin(the paranoid android)'s standard response to the question "Why didn't you tell us?"

"You didn't ask!"

roadman | Thu, 04/16/2009 - 1:16pm

I was there too

I was in the train that stood in the tunnel, too. We could smell the smoke coming in but they told us there are delays because of an "disabled train" at central. When we arrived at central there were fire men and smoke all over. It was so scary to be trapped in the tunnel that I take my bike to work since that. I don't know when I will ride the red line again. Too many fires... And NOTHING in the news or somewhere else, no word.

kerstin (not verified) | Mon, 04/20/2009 - 12:33pm