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When it rains Michelob, it pours on the Orange Line
By adamg on Fri, 08/09/2013 - 4:36pm
Lining up for an Orange Line shuttle at North Station around 6:15 p.m. Photo by Nick Palmarozzo.
Lengthy delays on the Orange Line originally due to problems related to the Michelob truck stuck on I-93 only escalated during the evening rush when power went out on the tracks north of North Station.
Amanda Smith reported at 6:20 p.m.:
No accurate info for folks waiting 30+ mins at north station for Orange line. Signage wrong, no announcements.
The line continues. Photo by Amanda Smith.
Nick Pamarozzo managed to get on an outbound train at Community College that promptly died. No lights, no air conditioning, an endless repeating message acknowledging the delay - and other trains passing his heading north on the southbound tracks.
Some hero cracked a door. I heard my first "are we gonna die in here?". Third "we'll be moving in a few minutes" and counting.
Other trapped riders began posting tweets that they had to use the bathroom and wondering what they should do.
Problems initially developed on the Orange Line shortly after 4 p.m. when firefighters ordered train service shut between Community College and Sullivan Square as a precaution as crews removed the truck cab hanging over the side of the highway - directly above the Orange Line tracks.
At North Station, T workers initially told northbound commuters to hop on Haverhill Line trains - which themselves were delayed since their tracks also pass under I-93.
The T eventually eventually organized buses to get passengers north. Passengers headed south from North Station, meanwhile, were told to squeeze onto Green Line trolleys to Back Bay.
Passengers all along the line reported delays and confusion in the interim.
Around 4:10 p.m., Nikki reported:
Just got kicked off the orange line at Back Bay. Absolute confusion.
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Comments
Seriously, how long does this take?
Step one: call big truck tow truck (or two)
Step two: attach cables.
Step three: lift it up
Step three and a half: yank the damn thing back onto the road.
Step four: LET EVERYONE GET ON WITH THEIR LIVES.
This crash happened around, what 1:30-2pm? 2+ hours later they still hadn't cleared the crash enough?
Please, do take ALL AFTERNOON to deal with a truck crash, it's not like a million or so people need to get somewhere later.
Just updated the post
The original delays were due to Michelob. Now, they're due to some sort of power problem on the tracks.
I like your old post titles, Adam.
Whilst this title is cute, I preferred it when you posted stories like this under titles like "Our Crumbling Infrastructure, Part 106". I think it nicely communicates what we all know - that we need to figure out a way to properly fund, maintain and manage our transportation infrastructure, and we have to do it soon.
I think a good place to start would be determining (in a statistically acceptable manner) a $$ value for how much delays like this this (caused by the power problem, not the pisswater truck). Between the Blue Line power issues over the last 10 days and this, we've already got to be well into the tens of millions of dollars in lost productivity, wages, etc.
Until we begin to better quantify and publicize these numbers, there will be not be enough critical mass to ever do something serious on Beacon Hill, much less in DC.
As someone who used to run a
As someone who used to run a towing company in Boston (I know, I know), This is a crime scene and the police will literally have you sit there for hours till they complete their investigation. Only then will they allow you to get near the vehicle. Then you need to assess the situation and see what you need. It is very easy to screw up an accident like this and make it 1000x worse.
ayup
As I said in on the other thread. I was at N Station around 4:15 when they were kicking people off the train (I was already on the green line). Stating that there was no power to the third rail and they were telling people to go to Copley and walk to Backbay for service to Forest Hills. Nice!
Of course the green line train I was on became VERY packed, very quickly.
I got on the 111. Traffic on N Washington Street, and it was slow thru Ctown to the Tobin on-ramp, but there was ZERO traffic on the Tobin Bridge. The 111 breezed right over the bridged. Wished it could be like this everyday! I got home at my normal time!
15 min walk
Wait on that ridiculous shuttle... or just walk the 15 minutes between the two stops? (10 minutes if you know the shortcut under the locks)
Shortcut under the locks?
Do tell!
Go across the locks, through
Go across the locks, through Revere park, and take the Millers River path, then cut through the parking lot to Community? Quickest way I know.
Echoing something you retweeted earlier...
There's no way in hell Boston could handle the Olympics. None.
Unless someone on par with Bill Gates decided to shower the MBTA with tens of billions of dollars in exchange for a forced restructuring.
Things have been so bad for so long that it's now ingrained as The Way We've Always Done It. Part of the background noise.
Even LA (!!) is running circles around the city that introduced subways to North America.
the MBTA shuttle bus system
the MBTA shuttle bus system is horribly flawed. For one, they make every bus visit every stop; it would make sense to designed a few buses to head straight to popular stops down the line. Send one directly to Wellington, another directly to Malden, and another directly to Oak Grove. Don't make the Oak Grove people ride though Sullivan Square, Medford and Malden for a few hours.
logistics?
Well, speaking as someone who wanted to get to Malden this evening, direct shuttles would have been great. But given the chaos that usually develops when people are trying to get on shuttle buses, would this actually work in practice? Add to that the logistical complexity on the T's side of managing which buses are supposed to go where, and I have to wonder if this would cause more problems than it would solve.
The T could certainly do a better job of communicating with people when this sort of thing happens. But I think a lot of the confusion probably happens because your average T passenger isn't actually all that good at following instructions. ("Oh, that can't possibly apply to me," and all that.)
How about we use some of that
How about we use some of that sweet sweet DHS money and run what if scenarios on every single subway line in the event a station or section of line is shut down (be it bio terror drill or scenario where somebody futzes with the tracks). Figure out the people in charge, how fast shuttle buses can get there, how to inform customers etc. This is not something new (well truck over the overpass is but the line closed for x reason is not new) we should have this figured out by now.
Blame CLF
Thank the Conservation Law Foundation for the DOT wasting money needed for maintenance on expanding the Green Line in order to further increase operating losses.
Drive off a pier, troll. Stop
Drive off a pier, troll. Stop trolling.
Bullshit
The CLF was the messenger - the Commonwealth fucked up and got called out on their little game.
Blame the Republicans for doing such a shitty job of riding herd on their contractor friends, who underbid, overspent, and sucked up all the money that was LEGALLY REQUIRED AS A CONDITION OF CONTRACT to be spent on mitigations.
Oh, and shove it already - please!
Also, I hope that idiot state senator from Northhampton dies horribly and rots in hell and that we don't have to subsidize it, either.
Still waiting for....
... an "ignore routinely annoying poster" option.