Worcester line

The Boston Business Journal reports the Department of Transportation's Finance Committee this week approved a plan under which New Balance will build a new Worcester Line station near its impending new Brighton complex. The stop will be called Boston Landing.

The T begins express-train service between Worcester, Framingham and Boston next week that will shave roughly 23 minutes off a Worcester rider's trip.

A morning express train will leave Worcester at 6:20 a.m. each weekday, stop at Framingham at 7 a.m. and then pull into Back Bay at 7:37 a.m. and South Station at 7:43 a.m. In the afternoon, a train will leave South Station at 5:35 p.m. and Back Bay at 5:41 p.m. and pull into Framingham at 6:13 p.m. and Worcester at 6:43 p.m.

The state is planning to increase the total number of round trips on the Worcester Line to 20 by October.

Derek McLeod was among the passengers on the P512 train into Boston shortly after 8 a.m. today when everybody was ordered off in Framingham and then allowed back on only after going through a gauntlet of police, firefighters and dogs.

On commuter rail to Worcester this morning.

Looking out the window.

Earlier:
Furor on the Red Line over Strollercat.

A.P. Blake reports a key part of the proposed route - the Grand Junction Bridge that spans the Charles under the BU Bridge - has had speed and weight limits put on it that are so severe the freight train that normally delivers produce to Chelsea couldn't go across it.

A man was fatally struck by a train this evening on the Worcester Line by the Massachusetts Turnpike and Community Rowing. Lawrence Crook at WCVB tweets the train was the outbound P563, with 450 to 500 people on board.

Newton firefighters, Boston and MBTA police and state troopers are on scene. Police have shut the rail line down to allow for body recovery and investigation.

Desperate riders on the 5:35 p.m. train to Worcester were left wondering what they did to deserve the hell they found themselves in as they sat motionless on the tracks in Newton for more than an hour as inbound trains kept passing them.

So far this cold January morning, trains have died on the Red, Blue and Green lines and the Worcester Line is experiencing major delays.

At 8:34 a.m., Tanya K. tweeted:

Two empty, broken down trains we will be pushing in. 1000+ frozen, frustrated people cramming into this one. MBTA Red Line. Good times.

A few minutes later, Candice Springer added:

Thank you, MBTA for stranding me outside on the Wollaston platform in the EFFING cold. Now I have to go all the way back to drive in to work

A Worcester Line train died this morning in Natick; commuters on that train and the one behind it, which wound up pushing it into town, were, of course, seriously late.

Some trains into North Station were delayed by the ever popular switch problems. At least one Greenbush train was also late because, well, who knows?

The MBTA reports that commuters on the Worcester, Fitchburg and Haverhill lines should expect delays tomorrow morning due to storm damage.

Although some may have some delays, the T says.

Updated Monday morning

Dave reports an incident shortly before 8 a.m. at the West Newton commuter-rail stop:

Exciting AM - just did CPR on a commuter at west newton. We got to him just after he collapsed; started CPR.

And Newton EMS shocked him from vfib back to sinus rhythm ... He had a pulse when we put him on the ambulance.

Summer's here.

Train stuck on a switch in Worcester wreaking all kinds of havoc. Jim White reports from down the line in Westboro:

Three trains' worth of people on the platform in Westboro from two cancelled trains. Blah. Guess I'll head to Riverside.

So after the four-hour ride from hell on the Worcester Line on Monday, MBCR apologized and conductors gave riders forms to get reimbursed for their trips - for both the ride out and the not-quite-as-godawful ride in in the morning. Kelsin reports what happened when he and his wife tried to get reimbursed at North Station:

When we got up to the ticket window the lady rudely asked why we filled out $12.50. We told her that we were delayed on the inbound and outbound and she then told us we needed two forms, not just one and that the conductor should have giving us two. We told her that he didn't and that the forms says we're allowed two and she just says "Not without two forms". Another employee came over to tell us the same thing.

Are you serious? Clearly communication is awful since the conductor didn't know, or didn't tell us this. Now tomorrow morning we need to ask for another form and see if the conductor still has it.

MassDOT today announced an agreement to swap land at Lechmere with land by North Station that will lead to a new rail service north and west of Boston - and actual construction of the long stalled North Point development.

MassDOT and the T have pressed into service five commuter-rail locomotives (shown here in Worcester) from Maryland to see if they're worth buying. MassDOT reports the units were rebuilt in 1995 and are in "very good" condition, and could help ease problems caused by our failing locomotives until new diesels come online in a couple years.

Another view.

After last night's inaugural sleeper-car service, the MBTA made sure to have one of those new Utah locomotives at the front of the 5 p.m. train to Worcester at South Station.

Meanwhile, MBCR, which operates the T's commuter lines, offered a free ride to passengers to make up for yesterday's ordeal.

UPDATE: Well, that didn't last long. Rob Friedman tweets from the 5:35 p.m. train to Worcester:

5:35 dead stopped outside South Station. Seriously?????

Dead train at Boylston means delays on all trains outbound from Park. At 7:47 a.m., Vilma Torres reported:

I've been stuck btween park st & boylston for over 30 mins.

A cranky Red Line didn't want to be left out. Joe Pitha tweeted around 7:40 a.m.:

Stuck just outside of Park because of disabled train. So close to the station I want to ask the motorman to open the door and let me walk.

Another Red Line commuter, stuck on a train somewhat north of downtown, reports via e-mail that the T has yet to start announcing the delays, but is continuing to play Rachel Kaprelian's warnings about texting and driving.

Meanwhile, speaking of the Lord of the Flies Local on the Worcester Line last night, Channel 5 reports the breaking news out of Worcester this morning: A train left on time.

UPDATE: Would you believe a three-hour delay on the Worcester line?

No, not on the Green Line, which is having major problems tonight, but on the Worcester commuter-rail line.

Kristen Garvey reports from somewhere not all that far out of South Station:

Okay, MBTA, we have been stuck here for close to 90 min. Can u send the rescue train? Mass Pike you look better everyday.

Patricia Lupien adds:

The natives are getting restless. I think other passengers are drawing straws to make a sacrifice.

Jim White reports that he arrived at the Westboro train station this morning just in time to see the alert board flash that the 504 into Boston had been "annulled."

But at least he could catch the next train. Riders on the Newburyport/Rockport line are being herded onto buses because somebody fed Viagra to the Beverly drawbridge again (yes, it got stuck in the upright position again and they can't get it down).

Joe Pitha, who found himself on the wrong side of that bridge this morning, proposes:

New idea: MBTA has service that calls the employer of the passengers and apologizes to them for being late.

Ian Lamont, who lives in Newton, tweets from aboard an outbound Worcester Line train tonight:

Outbound train on Worcester line stopped, put in reverse to Yawkey, wait til end of Sox game. I was already halfway home.

Passengers restless. Threatening not to pay for being sent back to Boston. Conductor: We're just following orders.

So train backs into Yawkey, picks up 20 ppl, immediately leaves, even though throngs still running from Fenway Park to catch it.

LifeStar7 tweets from a Worcester Line train with a diesel that died in Natick. He reports it took 40 minutes for the next train to arrive and for crews to latch the two trains together so the dead train could be pushed into town (and, of course, that means trains behind those two will likely also be late).

Steve Safran, on the same train, tweets they're now looking at getting into South Station an hour late.

Earlier:
State to buy 20 commuter-rail locomotives from company it once spurned.
Utah's loss is our gain.

The Globe updates us on the deal between the state and CSX to move freight operations from Allston to Worcester and for the state to take over the tracks between here and there.

Among the interesting tidbits: State officials say the deal could mean Worcester service from North Station. And Harvard, which techically owns the land under the Allston yards, will be able to develop the land - or just let it sit there until surrounding neighbors get old and die.

Yesterday, the engine on the 6:55 train out of Worcester caught fire in Natick. This morning, the T simply canceled the 6:55.