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Orange Line service halted after man hit and killed by train at Ruggles
By adamg on Mon, 11/07/2016 - 3:55pm
Around 2:40 p.m. by a train headed towards Forest Hills, the Huntington News reports.
Service in both directions was halted so Boston firefighters could recover his body and Transit Police could investigate the incident. The T swapped in shuttle buses between Jackson and Haymarket.
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Comments
Copley?
But they're busing between Jackson and Copley?
Man, that little side trip would take at least an hour.
Service suspended between
Jackson and Haymarket - buses being provided to Copley to connect with the Green Line. MBTA alerts weren't very clear about this.
Yeah, the alerts are what caught me off guard
Yeah, the alerts are what caught me off guard
Why Are There No Crossovers And/Or Ways To Isolate Power?
Having to shut down such a large segment of the system due to an emergency at one station is one of the Ⓣ's greatest weaknesses. While we're waiting for those new trains, here's something where a modest investment would go a long way towards improving service and safety.
If there were more crossovers, ideally before and after each station, there would be a lot more options available to respond to out-of-service trains and heavy passenger loads because there would be more places where a train could reverse direction.
For emergencies like today, there also needs to be a way of isolating power in smaller sections of track. For example, in Montreal, every station has an emergency switch to cutoff power, but it only isolates the immediate area so other trains are not stopped unnecessarily.
These aren't glamorous improvements that make "architectural statements" on the cityscape, but just common-sense upgrades that would make a real difference. Of course, such things can't be done overnight, or necessarily even before the new trains arrive.
If the new trains don't arrive on time, more crossovers would help ease the crisis that will undoubtedly ensue as the old trains become less and less reliable.
( since, you know, the Ⓣ can't seem to figure out what to spend money on. )
Please find a way to be heard
Please find a way to be heard... Lord knows what kind of value the T gets from its existing "consultants"...
The problem is that
The problem is that crossovers are yet another moving part that requires maintenance, can wear out, or otherwise cause problems. There are definitely a few places where more crossovers might be nice, but for the most part there are enough of them around the system. Just going by locations of crossovers, they could have run trains as far as Back Bay, and only had the shuttle bus from there to Jackson Square. But the real problem is that they can't isolate small enough sections of the power supply, and they need to be able to isolate both the section with the issue as well as the adjacent one to make sure that a train inadvertently rolling into the dead section doesn't "bridge" the power from the live section, since all four third rail shoes on a car are connected. And apparently the power sections on the Orange Line are rather long, so when something like this happens, they have to cut power to half the line.
There are crossovers within
There are crossovers within that stretch. Not sure why they weren't used. Might be issues with the power sections, as mentioned above.
For reference, track diagrams of all the rapid transit lines can be found in the Blue Book: http://www.mbta.com/uploadedfiles/About_the_T/Panel/MBTARidershipandServ...
The Orange Line is on page 34.
My prayers go out to the victiim
I hope the poor soul survives. The T has become a living hell for riders with one disaster after another on a daily basis. It seems like the vast majority of calls Boston Fire and Police respond to on a daily basis revolve around the T.
North Station
I went to Haymarket but they sent me to North Station. Southbound trains were running to Haymarket and then turning around. When I got on the train at North Station, it was empty so they didn't pick up anyone at Haymarket.
That's Because You'd Need To Board On The Inbound Platform
It sounds like the trains were using a crossover to switch tracks on their way back to North Station. So, passengers at Haymarket who wanted to travel outbound, would need to board the train on the inbound platform.
For this to be possible, station staff would need to inform passengers at Haymarket of the emergency diversion, and direct them accordingly to the alternate platform. Unfortunately, the Ⓣ is completely incapable of responding to unexpected conditions by doing something even slightly different to help manage the situation. It was easier to just tell you to walk to North Station.
Meanwhile, at the site of the emergency, other Ⓣ employees were dealing with something so horrific... my heart goes out to them!
In these situations
You'd think more inbound Green Line trains could be extended to N Station. You'd be wrong, of course, but you'd think it.
Globe has more
Young male, dead.
2.40 PM. I think schools near there are getting out then.
How about timely notice T?
I signed up for Orange Line text alerts - and if this accident happened at 2:40, then why was my first text alert at 4:02?
Did it really take them 1 hr and 20 minutes to realize this was a huge wrench thrown in to the afternoon schedule?
Welcome to town
Welcome to town
Perhaps you signed up for T
Perhaps you signed up for T-Alerts only during peak periods? IIRC those start at 7 am and 4 pm.
For an incident like this,
For an incident like this, the trains shouldn't stop service so long that they resort to shuttle buses.
Really?
Really?
How quickly do you think you could retrieve what's left of the body and then clean the tracks and the train, since the T apparently takes too long?
What??
Why? How long should they wait?
Don't you think they need to treat it as a crime scene? Or at the very least, be responsible about all the hows and whys and have a complete understanding of what exactly happened. The area and the people working on the tracks need to be safe while they are performing these initial inspections, and then cleanup has to occur in a thorough (not to mention respectful) manner, followup inspections to ensure the tracks are safe for use and then putting the tracks back into use.
This isn't even my line if business and even I understand this. Jeebus.
Wow.
Someone's life was destroyed in a gruesome way and all people care about is being inconvenienced.