Some enterprising MBTA worker figured out he could use some stacks of Metros to sop up leaks on the Orange Line inbound platform at Haymarket. I took this photo today, but the leak wasn't due to today's downpours - the T has been using Metros for months now to sop up the same leak at the same location, probably because it's a lot cheaper than trying to fix the problem.

Michael Ratty provides the proof, with a photo from Haymarket station.

Eric Kilby reports:

I was given a hard time last night by an inspector at the Haymarket bus platform, as I was trying to get a shot of the Government Center garage. The light was interesting. He said that he was instructed to tell people to get a permit or go away. I told him that there was a memo, but I didn't have a copy, and he said he hadn't heard of it. I thanked him for looking out for our safety and left, because it really wasn't worth the trouble to argue. He said it would be ok if I took like 5 steps back so I was on the public sidewalk and not the MBTA sidewalk (the texture was different), which seems kind of odd.

This comes a couple days after another T worker harassed some poor tourist for daring to take a photo inside Back Bay station.

If the T has suddenly changed its photo policy, you'd think they'd update the online version, no? Oh, wait, this is an agency that's only now updating 40-year-old maps ...

Tony tweets:

Just saw an MBTA employee dump the metro paper recycling bin into a trash can at Oak Grove. Why do they pretend to recycle? Ugh.

The T does a better job of recycling old Metros at the inbound platform on the Orange Line at Haymarket: They use bundles of Metros to sop up all the water that keeps draining into the station - and to prop up an orange cone atop the slippery spot the water creates.

This week's Friday-afternoon issue: Disabled Green Line train at Haymarket.

Also heavy delays reported on the bus rapid transit line due to traffic on Washington Street.

Transit Police report arresting a Quincy man on charges he used a column at the Haymarket Orange Line stop to help pleasure himself last night as a woman watched on in horror from the other side of the tracks.

Police say they were called to the station around 9:45 p.m. after the woman, on the northbound side, allegedly spotted Richard Mullaney, 41, first exposing himself, then using a silver support column on the southbound platform for more than just support:

The Globe reports:

The market would be opened in a vacant building that occupies a full city block near Haymarket, an area of old cobblestone alleys where city officials want to create an expansive year-round shopping district with dozens of local growers, bakers, seafood merchants, and other businesses.

Imagine Haymarket open every day and selling stuff fresh from the dock or farm and without, as the Globe says, merchants yelling at people who spend too long staring at tomatoes. In other words, what Quincy Market was originally built to be.

Interesting series of Twitter posts - all from different people - during last night's rush hour:

5:21 p.m.: MBTA is experiencing delays on green line due to disabled train at Haymarket

5:38 p.m.: Looks like major problems at Park Street outbound on the MBTA. All trains loading from one platform.

6:09 p.m.: just spent 45 minutes underground waiting for a d train. ...

6:49 p.m.: ... Six green line trains at Park St., but none of them C Line? Fail. Again!

Location

John Keith reports a developer is proposing to build two office buildings atop the Haymarket MBTA station (now occupied by a parking garage) - one 52 stories high, the other 42 stories - and would also throw in several, shorter, residential buildings.

After eight years in Boston, G reports on his first shopping expedition to Haymarket and shows off what he got for $18:

... it was packed, but awesome - not only were the bargain prices enough to make you want to take up arms the next time you're poking around the priced-up pallid produce piles at the neighborhood supermarket, but the experience of being amongst the crowd, buying uberfresh yums from the hard-working crew was fabulous - i'd much rather leave my $ there. ...