Hitachi Rail, hired by the MBTA in 2015 for what is now a half-billion-dollar project to install a network of devices designed to prevent trains north of Boston from running into each other or getting up to unsafe speeds, yesterday sued the authority for what it says are $158 million in overruns and delays caused by alleged T bumbling. Read more.
WCVB reports MBTA General Manager Phil Eng said today that the power cable that shorted out or blew up or something that tripped all the other power cables at North Station to shut down, taking the Blue, Green and Orange lines with them didn't belong to National Grid - it was the MBTA's own cable. Read more.
John Mcboston watched as a T crew filmed an actor and commuters making a video at North Station about how to use the new faregates - just moments before all faregates everywhere on the T were set to spring free for four hours as recompense, or something, for this morning's non-service.
Right out of the gate, at like 5:15 a.m., the T was announcing delays on the Red Line because of problems completing overnight repair work.
At 6:56 a.m., the T reported delays on the Orange Line after one of its new Orange Line trains developed a case of the Mondays at North Station. Read more.
The MBTA reported at 11:14 a.m. it had suspended all Providence Line service "until further notice due to debris on the tracks from severe weather in the Mansfield area. At 11:37, Keolis reported a train to Boston had left Wickford Junction but would hold at Attleboro because some of that debris remained on the tracks. Read more.
Update: Union Square shutdown delayed until at least September.
The MBTA announced today that the Green Line Extension will be shut between Lechmere and Union Square for six weeks starting July 18, not because there's anything wrong with the tracks this time, but so MassDOT can make repairs to the Squires Bridge, over which McGrath Highway crosses the tracks near Union Square. Read more.
Surveillance photos via TPD.
Updated with new photos via TPD.
Transit Police report they are looking for a guy they say stole property belonging to a man who died under the wheels of a Green Line trolley early on May 30. Read more.
Transit Police report a man died on the outbound Green Line tracks at North Station around 12:18 a.m.
In a statement, police say: Read more.
Surveillance photos via TPD.
Not from smoking them, but from getting caught stealing more than $1,000 worth of tobacco products by breaking into a stand at North Station, as Transit Police say these two did at North Station on May 14.
If the alleged wet-behind-the-ears thieves look familiar, contact detectives at 617-222-1050.
The T reports a train out of Newburyport is at least an hour late getting to North Station because it's developed one of those embarrassing mechanical issues somewhere near Swampscott. A train out of Rockport, meanwhile, is 15 to 25 minutes late because of signal problems between Beverly and North Station, the T reports.
Amtrak has run the Downeaster train up to Portland for more than 20 years, but New Hampshire officials only just realized people could buy alcohol not purchased at a New Hampshire state liquor store while the train briefly passes through, and they are just not having it, the Portland Press Herald reports: Starting March 20, alcohol sales on the train will be halted while in the Granite State because state law bars the sale of alcohol not purchased in state, and Amtrak stocks up in Maine.
Transit Police report that around 5 a.m., a man from Lowell began yelling racial epithets at commuters and station workers, and that he refused entreaties from officers to shut up or leave, so they arrested him for trespassing.
The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that rules it issued in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic to temporarily halt statutory time limits on court actions are of no help to a contractor that kept suing the wrong corporate entities for payment for work it did to build North Station movie theaters - because the suit it also filed was largely based on the "mechanic's lien" it filed in the Suffolk County Registry of Deeds, which is not a court. Read more.
Surveillance photos via TPD.
Transit Police have released photos of a guy with a big dog - and his own glasses - they say attacked a person over 60 on an Orange Line platform at North Station and then stole his victim's eyeglasses, around 5:15 p.m. on Oct. 18.
If Slick Backed Hair Guy looks familiar, contact detectives at 617-222-1050 or send an anonymous tip to 873873.
Morning riders on the Orange Line spent more time than the might have wanted to waiting for the ol' grandad trains this morning even though T workers were working to overcome the problem.
Transit Police report they are looking for this guy "relative to Malicious Destruction of MBTA Property incident," at the North Station Orange Line stop at the height of the smashing and looting Sunday night.
More specifically, police say, around 11:10 p.m., the guy: Read more.
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