Brookline Police doing something to get the traffic moving? Say like shutting the construction project down entirely - that's exactly what would happen out on an Interstate project if such a lengthy delay (timewise, not distance) occurred.

If they were detouring the #39 buses onto other streets to avoid this backup (which apparently is NOT the case here), I may agree with your point about the streetcars. But this "oh there's too much traffic for our drivers to cope with, so let's dump streetcar service" excuse for not running all the way to Heath Street (which is used by the T at least once a week) is getting very old and tired. The simple reality is that the T wants to dump service beyond Brigham Circle, and will take every opportunity to inconvenience their passengers in hopes of getting support for the idea.

As for your comment about these delays affecting other parts of the Green Line, there's nothing stopping management from forwarding trains that normally terminate at Government Center to Lechmere. And sorry, but in my book the "we don't want to put enough trains in service to protect the schedule against anticipated delays" or "our employees will protest if we make them drive their streetcar off their regular run" are NOT valid arguments for an agency that is supposed to provide a TRANSPORTATION service for the BENEFIT OF THE PASSENGERS to argue.

As usual, even if something was the right thing to do, the MBTA still did it very wrong. And I say this as someone who actually got kicked off an "E" Train last night.

First off, maybe traffic backed into Huntington earlier in the evening, but it didn't at the time I was bounced off a train. I could see the back up past Riverway, but it was well contained and trains would have had NO problem running out to Heath Street. Maybe it was necessary at some point, but the MBTA kept using the excuse LONG after it was justified. Essentially the model for their constant Brigham to Heath shut downs. Every single time I've been thrown off a train with the excuse of obstructions, not a single time was it still true. Not once. Maybe there were valid reasons for the diversion, but the MBTA makes no effort to monitor the situation and change course.

Secondly, the manner of the diversions is consistently abusive to passengers. What the MBTA should do is announce the diversion before entering Longwood and encourage people to exit there to pick up the 39 bus that stops across the street. What happens is that the suspension of service is announced 5 minutes into the 10 minute delay in switching the tracks between Longwood and Brigham Circle. And then passengers are left no where especially close to a 39 bus stop. I'm not saying its a long walk. Its at most a block and a half away. But that's plenty long enough for a bus to blow past you as you walk to it. Which happened to me last night. Buses can also blow past you in the prolonged delay getting into Brigham Circle. Which ALSO happened last night.

This isn't rocket science. I've written the T about this and I'm sure others have. The MBTA just puts no concern into making things as easy as possible when they inconvenience riders. I can accept that service interruptions will happen, but I can't accept how they happen. Doing this better would take little effort, but the MBTA still doesn't care to do it. Pre-recorded announcements apologizing for inconveniences do little to comfort riders with the T shows so little regard for actually lessening the inconvenience.