North Station

WBUR reports on plans to finally hide that ugly blank front wall of the Garden with two mixed-use buildings featuring retail space, offices and, of course, 500 luxury apartments and a 200-room hotel.

Transit Police report a surveillance camera captured a man in the act of stealing a worker's T-Mobile Galaxy Note 2 phone out of a North Station information booth around 12:20 p.m. last Thursday.

They've posted a series of the photos in the hopes of tracking down the man, whom they describe as white, about 35, 5'5" to 5'7" with a heavy build. He was wearing a blue, long-sleeved shirt with a black and blue stripped tie and black pants and had a black backpack.

The BPL has posted more train photos by Leslie Jones, including this one of a steam engine pulling out of South Station in 1937, and another one of a train leaving North Station sometime in the 1940s:

A.P. Blake got a close-up look at one of the four new commuter-rail coaches that went into service yesterday. The MBTA is hoping a few dozen more of the delayed two-level cars will arrive later this year and be put into service by year's end, helping it increase commuter-rail capacity.

Emmie reports from the 4:40 p.m. train to Lowell, which confidently rolled out of North Station, then promptly suffered a fatal heart attack some sort of problem and now the brakes won't release.

UPDATE, 5:36: Emmie reports the T has offloaded passengers to the 5:10 train, which, obviously, is a bit late.

Literally on track. At 8:20 a.m., A.P. Blake tweeted from North Station:

Sob Story Guy is spilling his schtick from IN THE MIDDLE OF THE GREEN LINE TRACKS.

Transit Police report arresting a Boston man on charges he openly masturbated on an inbound Lowell Line train yesterday evening.

According to police, a woman on the train, due into Boston at 6:25 p.m., was minding her own business when she noticed some movement in the seat across the aisle from hers:

[Mehmet] Beyaztas was masturbating and looking in her direction. Beyaztas made no attempt to conceal and/or be covert in his actions and his penis was fully exposed. The reporting party moved away from Beyaztas and reported the incident to train personnel.

Police say they were waiting at the station when the train pulled in and that Beyaztas, 24, made an unsuccessful effort to run away. He's scheduled for arraignment today on a charge of open and gross lewdness.

Innocent, etc.

Peter Dunn, who last year gave us a subway map based on estimated travel times, has done it again with a time-based commuter-rail map.

Since commuters probably already know their schedules, the diagram is potentially more useful to new riders. Car commuters can see where they might save time by taking the train. Newcomers looking for a place to move in the region can quickly compare how much of their day they'd spend commuting from various stations. (If you choose the home another six minutes away, that's an extra hour a week you'll spend getting to and from work.)

The MBTA tweets about its new ticketing app for North Station commuters:

In less than 3 days we have sold more than $10K in #MBTA mTickets, app downloaded more than 6K times!

Buy, use tickets on your smartphone, if your smartphone is an Android or iPhone. Versons for BlackBerry and South Station lines are planned.

Firefighters rushed to North Station around 1:40 p.m. today on reports of flames shooting out of an exhaust stack on an MBCR commuter-rail engine on track 1. After initial efforts to douse the flames, MBTA engineers advised firefighters to back away in case the engine exploded. At one point, the Boston Fire Department reports:

The area of the engine and the stack rising from the engine were bright red from heat.

Around 2:20 p.m., the department declared the fire out. Firefighters continued to pour water on the diesel, however, to keep it cool.

Shortly before 8 a.m., the MBTA sent out an alert that an outbound Haverhill Line train was delayed 10 to 15 minutes due to "train congestion."

Boston Police say anybody not ensconced in a bar in those areas by the time Madonna starts to sing on Sunday will be turned away from the area. And people who are in a bar who leave after she starts belting it out will be escorted out of the area.

In its listing of Important Super Bowl Safety Tips for Patriots Fans Looking to Behave Like Champions, police say that in addition to massive presence around North Station and Kenmore Square, they will also "employ extensive use of video-cameras" to capture evidence of hooliganism.

The document warns that five or more people "tumultuously assembled" on the street can be ordered to disperse immediately.

A worker at Conover Tuttle Pace downtown came into work this morning rather distraught because she lost her engagment ring on the train into work. But a conductor found the ring and turned it in and now it's back on her finger.

Seems MBCR will have mimes stationed in North and South stations this afternoon to help usher in the expansion of quiet-car service across all the T's commuter-rail lines.

The T says it's beefing up service on Saturday for the Bruins victory parade, which kicks off at 11 a.m. at the Garden.

All four subway lines will run at "near rush hour" schedules during the day. The T says it will also have extra orange-vested workers stationed throughout the system to help riders unfamiliar with how to use CharlieCards or get to the parade route.

The T said commuter rail will run on its normal Saturday schedule, but that it hopes to announce some additional service tomorrow.

Because of the expected crush of fans at the Garden, the T is urging people who want to be right there to use other stations, such as Haymarket and Government Center, or even Park Street and Downtown Crossing, and then walk over.

The MBTA is soliciting bids for the garage it owns under North Station. Minimum bid price: $65 million to lease it for the next 50 years (payable in 30 annual installments) or $70 million to buy it outright. Bids for the 1,275-space garage are due July 27 to Transit Realty.

Gilmore Bridge fire. Photo by The Wilbur

Live wires that somehow fell from the Gilmore bridge set debris and old railroad ties on fire, causing thick black smoke visible for miles around and shutting down commuter-rail service into and out of North Station.

The fire broke out around 11:40 a.m. on the Cambridge side, bringing fire crews from both Cambridge and Boston and eventually setting fire to the underside of the bridge itself.

Jack Suslak tweeted from a train heading toward North Station around noon:

We are backing up our train to porter square to connect to red line not allowing any trains into Boston.

Channel 4 reports on the afternoon incident at North Station.

What is it about North Station that makes people plunge into the pit?

Arrests on Valenti Way. Photo by Kristen Romanelli.

UPDATE: One of the two men arrested has a violent record dating to the 1980s.

Arrested?State Police and the FBI are currently swarming around Valenti Way and Canal and Friend streets - as a State Police helicopter hovers overhead - arresting at least two people.

The Globe reports the operation was linked to bank robberies in Everett and Winthrop by a guy with a fake bomb. Channel 7 reports authorities think he was about to try to rob a Bank of America branch on Canal Street.

Video of the action at Friend Street and Valenti Way, by John Brissette:

Matthew Woitunski captured a commuter-rail train on the bridge over the Charles River to North Station.

Copyright Matthew Woitunski. Tagged as universalhub on Flickr.

Last night, Cathelyne marveled at four women in micro-skirts, appearing somewhat lost at the North Station T stop and a bit unsteady on the high heels they were wearing.

Historygradguy has been ambling about downtown and the West End at night. Above, he captured the train bridge into North Station; below, the Zakim.

Copyright Historygradguy. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

The T reports it will be bustituting starting at 9 p.m. tonight and tomorrow because of the need to shut Science Park for elevator work.

Today's fire was under a train just past the southbound platform at North Station, shortly before 11 a.m.

The Boston Fire Department reports the cause was lubricating grease catching fire under the train. The fire was quickly put out; power was shut off in both directions so that firefighters could evacuate roughly 200 passengers back to North Station. The department says there were no injuries from the incident - although as 40 firefighters were in the tunnel, another call came in for an unconscious person on a commuter-rail train at North Station.

This was at least the third track fire on the Orange Line this week and the fourth since Jan. 14.

Ishtany, who was on the train, took some video of other passengers being helped up to the platform at North Station after a walk down the tracks: