Ruggles

Person hit, killed by Amtrak train at Ruggles

adamg — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:43:33 +0000

Update, 7:25 p.m.: One track was cleared and limited train service through Ruggles resumed.

Commuter-rail and Amtrak service through Ruggles is stopped as transit and fire officials investigate a fatal train-vs-person collision on the inbound side this evening. The T is describing it as a "trespasser strike."

Dan Esdale reports his outbound train to Franklin stopped, then headed back to South Station.

In the other direction, Craig Herman reports an Amtrak train is just sitting at Forest Hills.

Teen charged with repeatedly stabbing man who sat next to him on a bus seat

adamg — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 03:37:20 +0000

Tarik Muhammad didn't want any company on his trip out of Ruggles on Aug. 31, 2010, so when a man sat next to him, he told him to move - and when the man refused, they got into an argument that ended when Muhammed began beating and stabbing him, prosecutors say. Channel 4 has the surveillance video shown in court today.

Student robbed, sliced with knife down street from Boston Police headquarters

adamg — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 02:08:24 +0000

10/6/11 - 9:10 pm

A student was robbed of cash and then sliced in the hand around 9:10 p.m. at Ruggles and Tremont streets, the latest violent incident within a quick walk of the Boston Police headquarters building.

Police are looking for a black man with a goatee in a dark hoodie, who wielded the knife and who may also be packing a gun, and a black woman, also in a dark hoodie.

There was another two-on-one knifepoint robbery in the lower busway at the Ruggles T stop Sunday night.

Ruggles repentance reminder

adamg — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 17:29:37 +0000

Melissa J. Gibson spotted Repent Now Man on the Orange Line.

Copyright Melissa J. Gibson. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Police: Students beat, robbed, threatened classmate from Ruggles to Cambridge

adamg — Thu, 12 May 2011 15:03:34 +0000

5/11/11 - 2:00 pm

A 14-year-old student who was punched, robbed and warned not to snitch by two classmates at the Ruggles stop on the Orange Line around 2 p.m. yesterday thought he'd managed to escape them by making his way to the Cambridgeside Galleria.

But, he told police, the two - and an older guy - were waiting for him when he left the mall around 5:40 p.m. and they jumped him again, stole his cell phone and threatened to "drop him" in class if he told anyone what had happened.

MBTA: Real-time Green Line tracking 'several years away,' but commuter-rail riders could soon get apps

adamg — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 21:17:28 +0000

Tim Murray, Catch the T developer Jared Egan and T GM Richard Davey at Ruggles today.

MBTA and state officials today announced the release of real-time data on three of the system's four subway lines, along with plans to install monitors showing train and bus arrival info at every station where subways and buses connect.

Over the next several weeks, application developers who have already built smartphone and other apps for bus arrivals will use the new data for similar train-based services. At a ceremony at the Ruggles stop on the Orange Line, Catch the Bus builder Jared Egan showed off his upcoming Catch the T app.

MBTA General Manager Richard Davey said the Green Line was left out because, unlike the other three lines, buses and commuter rail, its trains do not have the sort of tracking systems in place to allow accurate predictions of when trains will arrive in a station. It's the same reason you don't hear "the next train to [wherever] is now approaching" announcements on the Green Line - the new real-time data is based on that announcement system for the other three lines.

Davey said real-time tracking of commuter rail trains could be just a few months away.

He added that monitors unwrapped today at Ruggles and Back Bay will eventually be joined by similar monitors at other key stations.

Wanted for attempted murder on a bus right by Boston Police HQ

adamg — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:58:48 +0000

MBTA Transit Police say this is the guy who repeatedly stabbed somebody on a 23 bus at Ruggles and Tremont streets yesterday evening, then fled toward the Whittier Street project. He's described as 25 to 30, 5'7" and weighing between 185 and 220 lbs, with dreadlocks.

UPDATE: MBTA Transit Police tweet they've caught the guy.

You might not want to lean too hard on the railings at the Ruggles commuter-rail stop

adamg — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 04:02:46 +0000

Charlie on the Commuter Rail shows how the stairs are failing apart, barely three years after they were repaired following two years of being shut as unsafe.

Commuter-rail conductors back on secret strike? They're not announcing trains again

adamg — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 00:07:53 +0000

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. ...

Jim Aloisi rides the bus from Mattapan to Ruggles

adamg — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:28:28 +0000

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.

Rough ride to Ruggles

adamg — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 19:46:20 +0000

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 ...

Stairs of doom at Ruggles commuter stop

adamg — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 13:13:19 +0000

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.

Forget getting the trains to run on time; just get the conductors to announce where they're going

adamg — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:22:38 +0000

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.

Best iced coffee ever

adamg — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 23:57:44 +0000

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.

Cutting a Ruggles

adamg — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:12:47 +0000

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.