I get both Green and Orange Line alerts, and I also didn't get any notice when they closed Downtown Crossing or Park Street. But, I did get two notices when the stations reopened.

How did a Red Line fire affect Green Line service?

By adamg on Tue, 05/27/2008 - 9:38pm.

The Outraged Liberal scratches his head over that.

smoke in park street station

By anon on Wed, 05/28/2008 - 6:10am.

smoke in park street station / station evacuation

Nothing like a little exercise

By adamg on Tue, 05/27/2008 - 9:50pm.

Zolok reports:

In case Dan Grabauskas is wondering, if there is a debilitating fire at Downtown Crossing, then it does indeed take about ninety minutes to walk from South Station to Central Square in Cambridge minus some drag time due to an untimely downpour on the Longfellow bridge. ...

Sean Riley reports:

... I'll spare you the details, but 2 hours later, I walked through my door, soaked, chaffed from the soaked blue jeans and pooped. God love the MBTA!

Whiteboy reports:

I walked off the Silver Line and found a Red Line train with no service. I walked from South Station to the Orange Line, finding Downtown Crossing closed. I walked to Park Street and it's closed. I was assuming I could walk to Back Bay to catch the bus, but walked to Boylston and was surprised to find out I could get on a E line train.

No where along the way was there an announcement. There was only angry commuters asking T employees what was going on. The usual response I heard was that there was a fire and there would be shuttle buses. On the sidewalk, there were a lot of people with umbrellas in one hand and a cell phone in the other, asking the people on the other end what was going on, but I didn't see any shuttle buses until I was half way down Tremont on my way to Boylston where I saw one bus with the word "Harvard" on the front stuck in traffic on Temple Street. ...

Jiffywoob requests that, during emergencies, T workers stop making up stories about mythical "shuttle buses" being on their way:

I got to Central at 5:15. I stayed until 6:30. #1 buses? Plenty. #47 buses? Every five minutes or so. "Out of Service" buses that stopped just to excaberate our misery? Don't get me started. ... So, Monsieur Grabauskas, and all of your minions at the MFTA, thanks for making me miss an important appointment today, and making me stand in the rain for an hour. I'm sure one of your underpaid clerks will read this post, ignore it, as they do every other comment/suggestion, as you relax in your overpriced suburban living room tonight. Yay for progress!

MFTA? Just imagine if the T changed the first two letters of its name to something you might do with your female parent, if you were so inclined.

Happy to own a folding bike

By SwirlyGrrl on Tue, 05/27/2008 - 10:06pm.

Days like today I am glad that I own a folding bike.

Folded up, it goes on the train with me. Expanded out, it goes when and where the trains don't. It also fits on the little racks on the front of the buses, so I can hop a bus going in the right general direction if the trains aren't running, and then ride to my destination.

Made driving there ugly too

By BostonMike on Wed, 05/28/2008 - 8:01am.

We were heading for the Orpheum last night, and the Park Street/Downtown Crossing closing made driving in that area a nightmare as well. Took over 25 minutes inching along the off ramp from Storrow onto Cambridge Street, another 20 minutes to go 3 blocks on Cambridge Street towards Tremont. And, of course, no cops trying to move anything along. We were finally able to bail into Beacon Hill and get around the State House and into Back Bay to park in less time than it was taking to get another block on Cambridge St.

Smoke, no clues

By adamg on Tue, 05/27/2008 - 10:06pm.

Unappropriate may have been on the last Red Line train out of Downtown Crossing:

... [W]hen i got to the red line platform at park street, the whole level was filled with smoke, and there was one, one, T worker there, alternately talking on her cb radio and texting on her cellphone (cuz T workers are awesome like that), and any time anyone said anything about the smoke, all she kept saying was "yeah, they're working on it."

Small electrical fire

By adamg on Tue, 05/27/2008 - 10:13pm.

And nobody injured.

A Silver Line hybrid was

By OldProfessorBear on Tue, 05/27/2008 - 10:21pm.

A Silver Line hybrid was spotted (by me) on Mass Ave between Central and Harvard, outbound and packed, shortly after 7:00.

Wonder when it left Boston ...

Her new plan

By adamg on Wed, 05/28/2008 - 12:11pm.

Alyssa Boehm reports that when Plan A (taking the Red Line home to Alewife and Plan B (walking across the metallic Longfellow in the middle of a thunderstorm) didn't work out, she went to Plan C:

... Plan C means I hole up in a nice pub, sip some whiskey and wait out the delays with my friends. It's a good plan, I don't see what could possibly go wrong.

Photo: Waiting for a shuttle at Park Street

By adamg on Wed, 05/28/2008 - 12:19pm.

Ezra Ball captured the madhouse in front of Park Street station.

way to go Boston Fire dept!!

By anon on Wed, 05/28/2008 - 12:46pm.

the tiny fire was put out in 5 minutes, but the Boston Fire Dept kept two subway stations closed for 2 hours during rush hour.

Ever heard of people dying

By anon on Wed, 05/28/2008 - 4:23pm.

Ever heard of people dying from smoke inhalation? The fire itself is not the only danger in such situations... The FD usually also has to determine if the fire is really out and what caused it to ensure it is safe for people to return to an area. Given that, two hours sounds pretty fast to me.

Fire in the Downtown Crossing hole

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