The SEIU held a protest in Downtown Crossing yesterday to protest the T's decision to let janitors go.
The T
By adamg - 7/2/14 - 9:34 am
Limeduck was puzzled, at first, by the politeness he started seeing on Orange Line platforms recently, in which people agreeably let other people board the train first:
That’s when it dawned on me, this is not any kind of selfless behavior, it’s the opposite kind! These people are trying to be the last on so they can be first off at their stop, and
... Read more
By adamg - 7/2/14 - 8:25 am
Transit Police chalked up another victory for their "See Something, Say Something" campaign yesterday when an alert rider alerted them to a busker at Harvard who urinated in a cup, dumped the contents onto the tracks, then went right back to playing his music and soliciting donations.
Police say the musician (no, don't worry, not everybody's favorite fur-lined busker) did turn his back to... Read more
By adamg - 7/1/14 - 7:43 am
Nice day for fare increases and a new operator, but you can't blame this on the T: Around 6:15 a.m., the driver of a lobster truck managed to wedge his truck firmly into the train bridge at East Street and Carroll Avenue, just before the Islington stop. All sorts of delays on the inbound Franklin Line, of course.
There are also delays... Read more
By adamg - 6/30/14 - 6:07 pm
Heat and the MBTA are two things you rarely want to see in the same sentence.
Remember those heat-related speed restrictions that were supposed to go away after the state bought the Worcester Line tracks? They didn't.
Down in the tunnels, the Green Line is melting in the dark:
Hell is a disabled #MBTA train underground, at rush hour, during the summer,
... Read more
By adamg - 6/28/14 - 1:49 pm
Andea Hill notes that A Nubian Notion inside the Orange Line station has a sign posted that it's closing on Wednesday due to a rent dispute with the MBTA - after 20 years in the space.
By adamg - 6/27/14 - 8:26 am
The Boston Business Journal reports on a talk by a consultant working with the world's largest manufacturer of rail cars, which hopes to assemble $1.5 billion worth of Red and Orange Line trains in an old Westinghouse plant in Springfield out of parts manufacturered in China.
The company, for which the T would be its first US customer, is competing against several other... Read more
By adamg - 6/26/14 - 12:11 pm
UPDATE: He was found safe, his GPS unit pinging, at the Savin Hill Red Line stop around 1:30 p.m.
The autistic teen from East Boston was last seen yesterday around 8 a.m. He's 19, 6' tall and 150 lbs., has short brown hair and wears glasses. He likes to ride the T, so might be on a train platform somewhere.
He was wearing a GPS... Read more
By adamg - 6/26/14 - 8:47 am
A South Boston man was arrested at Andrew station around 4 p.m. yesterday after a Route 10 bus arrived and a passenger told police a guy in the back was "sniffing and eating" drugs out of an Altoids tin, Transit Police report.
Officers boarded the bus and observed a male, later identified as Robert Hynes, 22, of South Boston seated in the rearmost seat
... Read more
By adamg - 6/26/14 - 8:37 am
MassLive reports the council voted 7-6 yesterday for a school budget that will force all BPS students in seventh and eighth grades to ride the T to school this fall, or find another way there.
WBUR reports BPS hopes to save $8 million a year by switching from school buses to CharlieCards.
Among those voting for the cost-saving measure: At-large Councilor Steve... Read more
By adamg - 6/25/14 - 6:33 pm
Yesterday it was an Amtrak train going where it had no business going. Today, weary, hot, grime-covered South Station commuters have issues due to "track problem."
By adamg - 6/25/14 - 5:17 pm
A Norwood man had bail set at $150 today on charges he used an iPad to try to snap photos up a woman's skirt from a Forest Hills T-stop bench yesterday afternoon, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.
Joshua Gonsalves, 23, was also ordered to stay away from all T stops while his case is pending, the DA's office says.
Gonsalves is the first... Read more
By adamg - 6/25/14 - 9:29 am
Transit Police yesterday made their first arrest under the law after a woman complained at Forest Hills a guy took inappropriate photos of her.
Joshua Gonsalves, 23, of Norwood, is scheduled for arraignment in West Roxbury District Court this morning.
According to Transit Police, the incident happened shortly before 5:45 p.m.
Upon arrival officers were met by the victim who informed the officers
... Read more
By adamg - 6/24/14 - 9:52 pm
State Police, with assistance from their Boston counterparts, are investigating how a man got shot tonight in a car on Old Colony Avenue near the footbridge to Moakley Park. The victim got himself to Boston Medical Center around 9:30 p.m.- where not long after, security guards found a car parked outside with bullet holes.
This was about an hour after another man was stabbed... Read more
By adamg - 6/24/14 - 6:51 pm
According to T alerts, Needham, Providence and Franklin Line riders who just want to go home are currently delayed due to "congestion."
MBCR explains that, in this case, "congestion" means an outbound Amtrak train was mistakenly switched onto the Needham tracks, which is sort of like the train equivalent of a truck trying to get on Storrow Drive, given that Amtrak trains use... Read more
By adamg - 6/23/14 - 6:40 am
Collision knocked engine off tracks; here it's been put back. Photo by TPD.
UPDATE: The death toll was updated late this morning, after authorities found a third body.
Two men and a woman in an SUV sitting on the Northeast Corridor tracks in Mansfield died when a Amtrak train heading to Boston slammed into the vehicle around midnight, Transit Police report.
The collision and investigating halted Acela and regional service between Boston and Providence until shortly after... Read more
By adamg - 6/20/14 - 3:08 pm
An MBTA spokesman reports T staff today contacted artist Mary Beams, who painted a series of murals installed in the Government Center T stop in 1979, after somebody who heard about the search alerted the T that she now helps run a pie bakery and restaurant in Grand Marais, MN.
The T is demolishing the current station to make way for a new... Read more
By adamg - 6/20/14 - 12:07 pm
Around 10:30 a.m., Amanda Soler reported her outbound Worcester Line train was dead on the tracks near BU. Some 20 minutes later, she updated:
Engine has fuel leak, they're sending a 'rescue train'.
And then four minutes after that:
Rescue train not really rescuing. Will be towed BACK to Boston, trip cancelled.
Her final update, at 11:26:
Train finally moving, headed to Yawkey
... Read more
By adamg - 6/20/14 - 9:11 am
Transit Police report arresting a man they say snatched a Red Line rider's phone at Andrew station last night, evaded the victim in a foot chase, but then proved no match for officers in cruisers.
Police say Daniel Smith, 26, of South Boston, was arrested at Gavin and Logan ways, a few blocks away from the station, after officers looking for him spotted him... Read more
By adamg - 6/19/14 - 8:31 pm
Firefighters battling a brush fire off Bennington Street south of Orient Heights asked the T to shut down the Blue Line around 8:20 p.m., because the fire is close enough to the tracks they did not want to have to worry about what might happen should their streams of water hit the overhead electrical lines.
