Fitchburg Line

Maybe don't take GPS directions so literally. Photo by Transit Police.

Transit Police report a Belmont woman followed GPS directions a little too closely last night - Her car wound up on the tracks of the Fitchburg Line:

An MBTA spokesman said police are still investigating how the person came to be on the tracks before being hit by an inbound train shortly before 4 p.m..

Shortly after 4 p.m., a rider on one train e-mailed UHub:

Train stopped due to what the conductor said is an apparent suicide between the two stops. He said the police are going to be on the scene for a few hours, so now we're waiting for the train to turn back to West Concord to disembark the train.

Transit Police report the man was between 20 and 25. The investigation shut the tracks and caused lengthy delays in both directions.

Riders on the 5:40 train to Fitchburg tweeted their train came to a sudden stop in Cambridge after hitting a car at a crossing there. AsianKerr reported the conductor came on the PA not long after:

Sorry folks, we have struck a vehicle.

After getting the remains of the car out of the way and after the train engineer was interviewed by police, the train started back up around 6:24 p.m.

MBTA Transit Police report on an incident at 8:15 p.m.:

An Eastbound MBTA Fitchburg Line train struck a trespasser on Track 1 approximately 200 yards east of the Route 2 Bridge in Concord, MA. The person struck was pronounced deceased.

Police report the victim was a white woman, between roughly 18 and 22.

You know it's bad, Lee Ann Hooley tweets this morning, when the conductor announces "If you do need to get into town quickly, I suggest you drive."

Hooley and AsianKerr were among the hostages this morning on the Fitchburg Line, where yet another choo-choo went bye-bye, forcing commuters to wait for another train to come up and get hitched to their train for the long, even slower ride into Boston.

AsianKerr was onboard the 6:30 train when she tweeted at 6:50:

20 min later still waiting for my Fitchburg train to leave and a guy comes out of the engine holding a hose #notagoodsign

At 7:30, she adds, the train still hadn't moved.

Hooley adds her ride was not improved by her seatmate:

Oh awesome. The guy next to me is on the phone telling his girlfriend he wants to "suck on her neck and shit."

Brian Cummings reports via e-mail on the horsey set in Weston this morning:

Well, this is a first. Around 7:00 or so, going inbound to Boston saw a beautiful chestnut horse running toward Boston alongside the tracks, followed by a woman running behind, followed by a panting MBTA cop. Between Silver Hill and Hastings. Train delayed for 10-15 minutes. All three none the worse for wear.

At least we weren't robbed by outlaws.

MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo reports train 406 was delayed 11 minutes as Weston and Lincoln police corraled the wayward equine.

It's heartwarming how the little choo-choos help each other out. When the 6:33 into Boston belched its last and died in Sharon, the train behind it agreed to help out and push it all the way into Boston. Good train, good! Of course, that does mean 30-minute delays, but at least Providence Line riders get to have a nice warm feeling, unlike their counterparts on the Newburyport/Rockport line, facing lengthy delays due to boring signal problems, and riders on the Fitchburg Line, facing long delays because, well, it's the Fitchburg Line.

A dead trolley at Reservoir, dead trains at Kendall and somewhere on the Ashmont line, signal and track problems on the Fitchburg Line and, oh, yeah, a freight-train derailment on the Haverhill line meant all sorts of fun for commuters this morning.

MBTA Transit Police report an outbound train derailed a bit in Belmont Center. MBTA and Belmont Police helped passengers off the train and back to the station to await buses to take them the rest of the way. "NO INJURIES," Transit Police tweeted.

Channel 25 reports T officials called the wheel slipping off the track "a relatively minor incident."

CommonWealth reports on plans to begin shipping 3.9 million gallons a week of ethanol into Revere, on trains that will lumber down the Fitchburg commuter-rail line into Charlestown, where they will switch to the Newburyport/Rockport line up to a "blending terminal" to be mixed into the gasoline that is now shipped along the Rose Kennedy Greenway in 18-wheelers.

[Revere Fire] Chief Doherty chuckled when asked if he was comfortable with ethanol trains coming into the community. "I have more fear of tank trucks coming in than I do with the rail," he said, noting the train tracks generally are farther from homes and neighborhoods.

Sometime after 9 p.m., Monday, AlertNewEngland reports. Passengers on one outbound train were put on a bus at Porter for a ride to Belmont while authorities investigated and cleaned up the scene.

Madfilkentist chronicles his three-hour, 45-minute ride from Porter to Fitchburg last night - a trip that normally takes an hour and 20 minutes:

The next stop was Waltham. Before we reached it, the train was stopped for an unusually long time. Finally we were told there were mechanical problems that were being looked at. The lights went out for about ten minutes as all power was cut so the mechanic could look under the train. They came back on again, but there was still no motion. Finally we were told that the next train would hook up to ours and push us.

The double-sized train proceeded at a slow pace. At South Acton, we were all herded off the train. It went back in the direction of Boston and presumably pulled onto a side track somewhere, and around 8:25 a third train, which had been following behind us, took us all on.

NOTE: Post corrected to show the location of the car will be the one closest to the locomotive, which is only the first car in outbound trains.

The MBTA begins experimental rush-hour quiet-car service on the Franklin and Fitchburg lines on Monday. For the next three months, the car closest to the locomotive will be where be where cell phones go to die:

Customers using it will be asked to refrain from cell phone use; keep pagers, cell phones, laptop and PDA sounds off or to vibrate; and speak in whispers. Riders seated in a quiet car who need to use the phone will be asked to move to another car for the duration of their call. Conductors will make normal announcements during the trip. Conductors will be authorized to lift quiet car restrictions during any periods of service disruption or heavy passenger volume.

Robert Burgess reports on an impromptu adventure with son Will this morning: A train ride from South Acton to Lincoln and back again:

There are plenty of chores and errands to run, but we want our little sponge to just soak up the experiences of life. Sure, we're sacrificing my full-time salary to help keep the house running, but that needs to be balanced with Will's needs. The train ride was a great rainy Monday success, so I think we'll try it again sometime and maybe go farther. Maybe, as Will would say, we'll go to infinity and beyond.

Which is why the 406 inbound train was canceled this morning. MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo reports (via e-mail):

Shortly before 6:00 a.m., a 52-year old man was sitting in the railroad right-of-way when he was struck by a train with no passengers on it. He was transported to UMass Medical Center with serious head injuries. Transit Police continue to investigate.

Channel 5 reports the 18-year-old was hit on the Fitchburg Line near Belmont High School.

Amidst all the Dan Brown and Ken Follett books, Scott Stearns noticed a commuter with a different kind of book:

... Today I noticed a man, perhaps an academic of some sort, reading Marcel Proust's "Remembrance of Things Past". Literature is not dead in the world, quite yet.

Nichole Bee tweets:

Nothing beats reading "Pride & Prejudice & Zombies" on the T...and the guy next to you turns out to be reading the exact same thing

Madfilkentist reports that due to some "suspect" track in the Concord area, his evening commute this week has been 30 minutes longer. On the plus side, he adds:

The good news is that in early October the Fitchburg line offers passengers a very scenic view, especially in the area of the Concord River and Walden Pond. ...

Dan Miller takes the 5:45 a.m. train out of Fitchburg. As you might expect, it's normally a pretty sleepy affair. Except today, thanks to a clueless woman loudly babbling away on her cell phone:

... As we arrive at North Station, commuters looked forward to some peace on the Green or Orange Lines, or perhaps a brisk walk to their office. ...

JackCroww posts a photo from a Fitchburg coach this morning, almost completely empty because it has no heat.

After a few months away from Boston, Jim Kane arrives back at South Station to see an electronic signboard stating the next train to Fitchburg leaves from track 6.

Jack Croww reports from the 4:40 Fitchburg express, five minutes out of North Station:

... [T]he utility closet door starts to drift open due to the swaying of the train. Seeing as I'm sitting right next to it, I reach out and give it a good shove to close it. As it clicks shut, all the power goes out on the train. ...

Channel 4 reports:

The Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad is looking at making some changes after a train in Waltham started to move before three children were able to get off, separating them from their parents. ...

One Fitchburg Line commuter was apparently too tired to write to the top so he or she wrote to the side of train 429. As Tom Wheaton's photo shows, the MBCR's response was to paint over just part of the message, so it wasn't quite so offensive. Now THAT's service.

Grabauskas explains how the T will increase ridership in a BostonNow interview. Making trains and buses run on time is a big part of it, he says, which will no doubt come as welcome news to Renee Walsh, who is fuming mad at continued commuter-rail suckage, such as her train being 45 minutes late today. Alas, for Renee, a bunch of new commuter-rail cars won't be delivered until 2011.

Apparently, many had to wait 25 minutes in the cold this morning because the trains were delayed. The author compiles all the other problems with commuter rail - which include delays when it rains and when the leaves fall.

Fitchburg Line regular Gary McGath reports his train was 15 minutes late and that:

... Two of the cars were unheated, so passengers packed into the remaining cars. ...