Apparently, it's a fun new game: Try figuring out if the trains are really going where the signboards say they are. Guess correctly and you win a trip to your destination. Make the wrong choice and you get to get off at the next stop and take the Orange Line back to North Station for another try.

The good news today was that all the faregates and Charlie machines at North Station subway appeared to be working properly today.

The bad news is that North Station has been given over to the latest attack of "station domination" (the T's really obnoxious way of raising revenue). In this case, it's really hard to tell you're actually in a subway station and not an airline terminal, thanks to all the JetBlue posters and ads and banners and decals plastered everywhere there's a blank space - yes, even on the FLOOR of the station as you approach the faregates.

This morning, NONE of the faregates at North Station subway were accepting monthly passes. Instead, they had a single CSA manning the 'Reduced Fare' faregate, and you flashed your pass at them as you went through.

Also, the ticket machines were apparently not accepting debit cards today, as the single CSA at the gate was yelling to people who were having problems with the machines. And yes, there were no other CSAs in sight near the machines to actually help those people who had trouble.

Sean Sullivan photographed one of the train bridges over the Charles behind North Station.

Copyright Sean Sullivan.

Actually, it was a man in a mosquito suit greeting commuters making their way through the concourse under Causeway Street. The man in the suit, and a group of people, were promoting a charity that is working to reduce the spread of malaria in Africa.

The chain dredged up the guy who played Charlie in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" - the 1971 version - to help hand out one-ride Charlie Cards at North, South and Back Bay stations between 7 and 10 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 23.

One person will get a year's worth of free Dunkin' Donuts coffee and a pass good for a year's worth of subway ridin,' according to a company press release, which mentions how Oompa-Loompas are not eligible but which otherwise does not, as far as I can tell, explain the connection between kids getting stuffed down garbage chutes and greater Boston's transit sysem, except, of course that both the movie and the T have a character named "Charlie," and, presumably, Starkist wanted too much for a guy dressed up like a tuna and, besides, Dunkin' Donuts doesn't sell tuna sandwiches.

After a few months away from Boston, Jim Kane arrives back at South Station to see an electronic signboard stating the next train to Fitchburg leaves from track 6.

The Commutant reports from North Station:

Apparently the elders of North Station, in their wisdom, have decided that the low bass voice of the text-to-speech PA system is too easy to understand in the cavernous space that is the waiting area for trains. So, added to the mix is a bunch of ethnic folk song rejects caterwauling their oh-so-politically-correct holiday songs that I don't recognize.

And lucky for him, he got to listen even longer because at 4:48, he posted a photo of an empty platform where the 4:40 express was supposed to have just left from, only it hadn't even pulled in.

Man on a hill watches the city on a hill.

Lori Magno got to Wedgemere station this morning to see a sign (taped to a trash can) telling riders that track work meant they need to board the inbound train on the outbound track.

Guess which track the train came on?

... When the conductor stepped off I asked him what he knew about the sign and he just shook his head (trying not to chuckle) and suggested I speak to customer service at North Station. Feeling up for a challenge, I did stop by customer service and spoke to a nice young woman who asked me to forward the photograph so she could send it to her supervisor. I left my business card too in case they want to respond.