Lori Magno takes a minute to photograph the signboard message at North Station.

When they can't even get the clocks to work right?

Waiting for the 5:52 Haverhill train at North Station tonight, I noticed a message appear on the normally blank platform information signs. It read:

ATTENTION PASSENGERS. THE CLOCK ON THE BOARDS IS SLOW. THE TIME DISPLAYED IS APPROXIMATELY 1 MINUTE BEHIND. WE ARE WORKING TO FIX THE PROBLEM ASAP

Train Rider relays a report from a suffering commuter on this morning's P508 Worcester train, whose riders got into Boston three hours after they left Worcester:

... Apparently, the MBTA has known for weeks that the P508 train has "flat wheels." Flat wheels can cause the train to de-rail. The maximum "Wear and tear" that's allowed by law is 1 1/2 inches. Some of the wheels on this train had flat spots of OVER three inches. So, they forced everyone off in Framingham and made us switch trains. I got into the office at 10 AM. ...

On my drive home today I was puzzled by all the emergency vehicles, including a Transit Police car, racing towards Colbert Street in West Roxbury.

Ah, yes, summertime means heat-related speed restrictions on the Worcester Line.

UPDATE: The Globe got it wrong. What needs to be replaced is a 100-year old bridge near the new bridge.

Seems a bridge on the Greenbush Line could increase flooding in a big storm.

Speaking of commuter rail, that story also mentions that the T yesterday extended its contract with the MBCR for another three years. The consortium gets $50 million more a year. There are penalties for bad performance, but that's capped at a maximum $1.9 million a year.

Mike explains why, for a change, North Station commuters got the better deal on something - the new electronic sign boards.

At least once a year, Cleary Squared makes a point of traveling down to Providence, because it's a refreshing change from Boston:

Rhode Island's singleton Ivy League school, Brown University, isn't swarming with hipster doofuses, nutty conspiracy theorists, bums, and other poseurs. I walked up and down Thayer Street - Providence's equivalent of Harvard Square - without being accosted, jostled, harangued, or being passed by as if I weren't there. You felt as if you were part of the neighborhood, not as someone you though was going to freakin' slow and if you had the power, you'd lift the damn sidewalk.

He also shows how to get there for a lot less than taking commuter rail or Amtrak from South Station - in a route involving the Orange Line, a bus trip to Cleary Square and then commuter rail from Hyde Park.

Gary McGath provides the photographic proof.

Annie gets peckish at MBTA e-mail cancellation notes that arrive too late to do her any good.