Might be armed with a knife; climbed up an emergency exit at 136 State St., AlertNewEngland reports. Police are looking for a black man in his 30s, bald, in a gray hoodie and a Red Sox hat. Blue Line service resumed around 1:50.
President enters the Fenway. Photo by Jeff Tamagini.
The Red, Green and Blue lines all experienced delays this evening as the presidential motorcade passed over or under them.
The placid Orange Line remained stolidly unaffected by Motorcade One, but Nay and Steven Leibowitz report the T held an inbound train at Back Bay when a panicked Little Monster reported a lost ticket to the Egg Lady's concert at the Garden. A passenger found the ticket, the kid was reunited with it and the train resumed service.
Photo copyright Jeff Tamagini. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.
Boston firefighters are at Government Center dealing with a trash fire on the Blue Line tracks. Expect delays, traffic problems by the station.
At least one train is stuck in a tunnel because of the power shutdown required to let firefighters on the tracks.
MassDOT is posting photos from today's emergency drill by local and regional emergency departments at the Bowdowin Blue Line stop, including this one of a robot (which got down the stairs by itself) guarding a pair of dummies.
Boston Police tweet:
On Sunday at 8:00AM there will be a FULL SCALE EMERGENCY TRAINING EXERCISE at the Bowdoin St MBTA Station. IT IS ONLY A DRILL!
The Globe reports the T plans to introduce countdown clocks to Red, Orange and Blue Line stations, but will pay for it in part by eliminating the refunds it now offers to people whose trains are way late. Also look for lots more advertising - right down to the CharlieCard - as the T tries to cut a $130 million or so deficit.
By 6 a.m., the T was already reporting two dead trains on either end of the Red Line. Now, an hour later, there are two dead trolleys on the Green Line and dead trains on the Blue and Orange lines. And the snow hasn't even started.
Dead Green Line train at Newton Highlands. Photo by Jenny Mackintosh.
Update, 8:10 a.m.: There's a dead train at Wollaston on the Red Line now.
Dead trains mean lengthy delays on the Green, Blue and Orange lines this morning; well, except the T is urging Orange Line riders to just forget it exists and seek alternate routes. Delays on the Silver Line to Design Center, too, due to a dead bus. Jennifer Musso tweeted from Oak Grove on the Orange Line:
Hundreds of people waiting for shuttle buses at OkGrv sub0 weather! Station worker says he's not answering "any more questions"
Commuter rail? How 'bout those 30-40 minute delays on the Worcester line? Erin Bowles checked in:
At Framingham, there was a woman on platform nearly in tears. Hoping she'll be OK, but there's no way she doesn't have frostbite.
Not that North Station lines were immune from problems. Matt Hrono tweeted:
T alerts failed. Haverhill 208 cancelled, people waiting in record cold for 45 mins, no alert. What gives? Safety issue much?
Where to begin? Oh, yeah, with the fire at Chinatown on the Orange Line that stopped service. Then there's the downed wire at Wood Island, leading to premature termination of the Blue Line at Maverick. The Red Line had a recalcitrant switch at Alewife. And the Green Line has turned into the Snail Line.
On a positive note, no delays reported on the Mattapan Line.
Around 9 a.m, Matt Karolian reported:
Blue Line all screwed up, multiple disabled trains, all passengers deboard at Airport.
Always ready to assume the worst, Herald readers are busy contemplating the downside of the glass entrances the T wants to build as part of a Government Center upgrade, because, as writer Richard Weir helpfully explains, they could "explode into flying shards of lethal shrapnel should a bomb ever be detonated there." Except the T says they couldn't because they'll use safety glass (and good luck getting that song out of your head; you're
One passenger on the Blue Line in Orient Heights seemed a bit squirrelly this afternoon. In fact, the Animal Rescue League of Boston had to be called in.
ARL volunteer Margaret Wirth reports T workers found a baby squirrel running around a Blue Line car around noon. Boston Animal Control worked with the league to corral the critter, whom they promptly named Charlie, of course.
Wirth says Charlie is headed to a wildlife rehabilitation center in Weymouth, where he will be prepared for a life in the wild. She adds that kindhearted T inspectors did not charge him with fare evasion.
Nancy Geshke, whose 8-year-old daughter wound up in Mass. General when one of her feet got caught and crushed in an escalator this past July, yesterday sued Crocs for $11 million, alleging the company keeps selling its plastic shoes despite mounting evidence they are a menace on escalators.
The MBTA forwards this rendering of the planned new garage at Wonderland on the Blue Line. At night. Under a full moon. With Saturn rising.
Power problem at Orient Heights this morning makes for some very unhappy riders. At 8:34, Julianne LaMay tweeted:
Such a cluster. They sent folks to Suffolk first but there were no shuttles there. FAIL
Photo of a waiting horde at Suffolk Downs.
Michael Brannigan, who posted the photo around 8:27, tweeted at 8:41 that one bus finally arrived:
that's having major troubles due to a disabled train (or is it another broken wire?). From the T web page:
BLUE LINE DELAYS: Due to a disabled train in the Orient Heights area substitute bus service has replaced regular train service between Maverick and Suffolk Downs Stations. Airport, Wood Island and Orient Heights Stations are closed. Please expect significant delays and add an addtional 20-30 minutes to your afternoon trip while repairs are made. 8/2/2010 2:04 PM
MBTA police were busy making sweeps this morning through trains at Maverick and Park Street (Red Line toward Alewife). Mediacrity tweets she saw T cops in every station on the Red Line from Porter to South Station and at the Silver Line stop at South Station.
David Guarino came up with that title for his photo of a turkey outside the Wonderland T stop this morning (did it have a meeting downtown?).
For the second time in three weeks, plunging power lines brought the Blue Line to a halt in East Boston and left riders on one train stranded until Boston firefighters could lead them to safety.
A train near Airport station came to a grinding halt when the overhead power lines fell around 5:30 p.m. Shuttle buses are now running, according to the MBTA.
On Jan. 21, a similar incident stranded riders near Orient Heights and disrupted Blue Line service for much of the day.
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