So mistakes happen and all four subway lines ground to a halt this morning because oopsies, somebody pulled a plug out of the wall tripped a circuit breaker.

But shouldn't the emergency lights that come on when the power goes out be able to guide passengers upstairs?

Apparently not. Bill describes the scene at New England Medical Center during this morning's festivities:

... The new emergency lights that have been installed recently (which - judging by the 600V warning sign on each of them - appear to draw directly from the track circuit) weren't working.

On the way up the stars the mass exodus of passengers crossed paths with a handful tourists headed down. Welcome to Boston.

Similar situation at Harvard.

Sullivan's the guy who wrestled an Orange Line mugger to the steps of an escalator at New England Medical Center. He talks to the Bulletin about the incident.

It was a Tufts decision.

How long before the MBTA changes the name of the T stop?

The back of New England Medical Center, as seen from Albany Street.

The Missus reports her husband didn't have the best of commutes this morning:

... Was on the orange line and suddenly 2 kids ran out of the train at New England Medical with a young guy chasing. I thought they may have just been late trying to get off the train. Nope - they apparently punched the young guy (likely mid-20's) and stole his i-Pod. The young guy chased them, but fell getting out of the train and the kids took off. ...

Yes, those CharlieTickets can be so annoying. Thankfully, at least for today, the T left a nice open gate at NEMC for anybody who didn't want to bother going through that whole buy-a-ticket thing - which I discovered when I saw somebody taking advantage of it.