Anna B reports on the past week at the Ruggles commuter-rail stop, at which not a single train's destination was announced, forcing commuters to play commuter-rail roulette:

... This Friday, fed up, I asked a conductor who was collecting fares about why no one announced what line the train was. He told me, "We did but you probably couldn't hear us going by 30 mph." I call bullshit. Not a single conductor was in a doorway as it pulled up to Ruggles. ...

Takes the 28 this morning to see just how much marvier life for riders will be when it transmogrifies into the 28X Super Bus, which I know because Alex Owens is live-twittering the ride:

... Aloisi and Chang-Diaz getting breakfast @ Brother's...

Ed. question: Is there any station in all of T-land with a better name than Ruggles? I'd rank it even higher than Wonderland.

Peter Maranci reports that not only did he get into Ruggles 35 minutes late - because the train ahead of his died and had to be pushed off the tracks (and then shot?) - but then he and other commuters had to rely on the kindness of a conductor just to get out:

... [B]oth of the doors on the side that I was on were stuck (no conductors around, of course!). We all turned and ran for other doors, but the train was moving by the time we got to them. Finally a conductor stopped the train, and we got off. But the doors now opened on the closed part of the platform, the part that has been crumbling for years. We stepped out onto a thick sheet of unsanded ice. We all made it across the ice and around the "CLOSED" barrier safely ...

Charlie on the Commuter Rail shows (with both photos and video) how a stairway at Ruggles, re-opened just last year after a couple of years of being shut, are already falling apart - individual steps are coming loose as the nails or bolts that hold them to their base rust away.

Charlie on the Commuter Rail notes that the issue of commuter-rail conductors not announcing where their trains are going at Ruggles grows only worse:

They often don't bother to announce the destination of the train, and sometimes they don't even step out on the platform! Since the trains have been more and more erratic, time-wise (they can vary from the schedule by five minutes or more) this is particularly worrisome. Often passengers have to go into a train and ask the passengers inside where the train is going.

Also, there was a car on the Franklin Line last night that smelled like sewage.

You may recall how the initial "let's mess with commuters' heads and not announce destinations at stations like Ruggles" thing started during the secret work action, which is supposed to be over, but, you know, conductors just wanna have fun.

Meanwhile, Train Stopping shows that what we have on commuter rail is a failure to communicate: In response to a commuter complaining about inaccurate delay info on mbta.com, a customer-service manager at MBCR (which actually runs the trains), replied:

We provide the MBTA with the delay information but we cannot access their website to post delay information; that falls under their purview.

Allegedly the MBTA is working on a fix, but has provide no completion date.

Michaela reports the Ruggles Dunkin' Donuts has some guy who made such a good French vanilla iced coffee with sugar and milk that:

By the time I got to Back Bay station. I wish I asked him his name and hours for September so I can specifically go out of my way to get that iced coffee again and again when I'm back in Boston for good.

Both Friday and Monday, Quasit's train from Franklin never stopped at Ruggles due to - sing it with me - signal problems:

I've put in for the on-time service guarantee on both days. Since the train never arrived at my destination, the MBTA can hardly claim that it was on time!

However, he does report some progress: At least conductors announced the bypass on the train.

Charlie on the Commuter Rail describes what one might think is a scene from a third-world railroad station at Ruggles the other night, except that's probably an insult to third-world railroad stations:

... Nothing came in when or where it was supposed to. The Needham Heights train that shows up at Ruggles at 4:13 PM...didn't. Trains came at the wrong time, half an hour late or more.

And in every single case the conductors didn't bother to announce what the train was.

Some of these trains were coming in within a few minutes of the arrival time of a completely different train. You'd think that conductors would realize that people would be confused, and would announce the destination. But they didn't.

We passengers had to run up and down the station platform every time, looking for a conductor to tell us where the train was going. And even then, most of the conductors still didn't bother to make the announcements. Passengers had to pass the word along instead. ...

Earlier:
What? Commuter-rail brakes can't handle the cold?

Some teen beef at Ruggles station escalated into gunfire yesterday afternoon; nobody injured, however, according to Boston Police, who report they have a gun and one suspect - a juvenile arrested after a foot chase at Tremont Street and Melnea Cass Boulevard. A second suspect eluded MBTA, Northeastern and Boston police.

The Herald reports that police Commissioner Ed Davis had to delay his visit to the grandmother shot on Dubois Street Saturday night to respond to Ruggles and another shooting in Jamaica Plain.

Back in June:
Shooting shuts Ruggles.

Jeremy Thomas, 18, and Jonathan Thomas, 20, face charges that they shot a guy twice (well, that one of them shot the guy repeatedly but only managed to hit him twice) as their Orange Line train opened its doors at Ruggles station on June 28. Roxbury District Court Judge Edward Redd today ordered the brothers held on $200,000 cash bail, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's office.