Government Center
Who can take a rainbow, wrap it in a sigh?
By adamg - 11/21/11 - 7:21 pmOrange Bird tweets:
Nothing perks up a bad day like hearing the Sammy Davis Jr. doppelganger at Gov Center sing "Candyman"
Bomb threat shuts Suffolk Superior Court
By adamg - 11/1/11 - 8:10 amUPDATE: The all clear was given not long after State Police arrived.
State Police, bomb squad on scene at the courthouse behind Center Plaza, after a bomb threat was called in.
The parade
By adamg - 6/18/11 - 11:05 amBiggest victory parade ever? That's what BPD is saying. Sure felt like it at Government Center, where a sea of jumping, chanting, happy people waited in the melting sun for the Bruins and the Cup - and then exploded into a chant of "We got the Cup!" when they arrived in a cloud of black and gold confetti.
College student injured in crash caused by texting trolley driver sues MBTA
By adamg - 4/29/11 - 7:04 am
Quinn's trolleyThe Salem News reports on the suit filed yesterday by Samantha Mattei, who suffered a broken back and a concussion when Quinn he crashed his Green Line trolley into a stopped trolley because he was too busy texting to notice it.
Mattei filed her suit the same day the National Transportation Safety Board released its final report on the 2009 crash, basically concluding that texting trolley driver was texting. However, the board also said the accident could have been avoided if the T had an automated system to stop trolleys that go through red signals, like the ones in place on the T's other lines.
In the aftermath of the crash, which did an estimated $10 million in damage, the T banned cell-phone use by train drivers and other employees.
T wants to shut Government Center stop for three years
By adamg - 4/7/11 - 6:39 amThe Herald reports MBTA officials figure a full shutdown would let them rehab the station in less time and wouldn't drag on forever and ever like certain other T-stop projects one could think of.
Good thing they had that emergency drill at Bowdoin yesterday
By adamg - 3/7/11 - 4:29 pmBoston firefighters are at Government Center dealing with a trash fire on the Blue Line tracks. Expect delays, traffic problems by the station.
At least one train is stuck in a tunnel because of the power shutdown required to let firefighters on the tracks.
Early plan for Government Center a bit different than what we actually got
By adamg - 1/19/11 - 7:03 amUtile posts an image from a 1959 plan for a Scollay Square replacement that would have started pretty much at Old City Hall and which would have involved a series of low-slung buildings:
In spatial design, as well as building massing, and no less in spatial and massing composition we were very mindful of weaving into the existing social and physical texture of this part of Boston.
Via Boston Reddit.
T riders need to be careful with cell phones, too
By adamg - 12/30/10 - 10:38 amThe T forwards a report from one of its workers on an incident around 2:50 p.m. yesterday on the Green Line platform at Government Center:
A 14 yr old male was walking while on his cell phone and he walked right into one of the columns that holds the ceiling up. He is bleeding from his face and is requesting medical at this time. Boston H&H dispatched, Transit Police dispatched.
Kid was taken to Tufts Medical Center with a small laceration on his forehead.
The pillar he walked into:
Can Government Center go green?
By adamg - 12/3/10 - 6:34 amThe city hosts a symposium on greening Government Center on Thurs., Dec. 9 in the Rabb Lecture Hall at the BPL in Copley Square. Starts at 4 p.m.
Panic on the train after trolleys collided
By adamg - 11/10/10 - 2:07 pm
The trolley hit by train operated by Aiden Quinn. Photo by NTSB
Operators of three of the four trolleys involved in a major trolley smashup just past Government Center on May 8, 2009, described chaos and panic among passengers in the moments after the collision, in interview transcripts released today by the National Transportation Safety Board.
The fourth operator, Aiden Quinn, charged with plowing into the stopped train in front of him because he was too busy texting his girlfriend to notice the stopped train, did not cooperate with the federal investigation into the crash, which injured 46 people and caused several million dollars in trolley damage. Quinn lost his T job and is still awaiting a trial on a charge of gross negligence by a person in control of a common conveyance, which carries a maximum jail term of 2 1/2 years.
In his NTSB intervew, Jimmy Zhu, operator of the rear car in the train that got hit, described the scene:
