UPDATE: Then the signals went on the fritz between Central and Kendall.

A train that had to be taken out back and shot at Charles/MGH is getting Red Line riders all grumbly.

Christina Visconte reports: Read more.

Ari Ofsevit takes a look at the state's shelved plans to extend the Blue Line 1,300 feet to Charles/MGH and explains how the state screwed up all the cost estimates by proposing ridiculous construction techniques just because they don't feel like building the thing.

Firefighters had to foam down a smoking Red Line on the Longfellow Bridge just past Charles/MGH around 6 p.m. Gabriel Fishman, who captured the scene just as firefighters arrived, reports they made short work of whatever the problem was and that service seemed to start up not long after.

Around 6 p.m., the outbound platform at Charles/MGH looked pretty much the same right after a train pulled out as it did before. As Lindsay Devers reports, the train was so crowded nobody could get on it.

Elsewhere? At least people waiting for trains out of South Station were inside. Ditto for North Station, where Ben Higgins snapped the departure list:

Firefighters responded to Charles/MGH around 10:15 a.m. for a fire that started in the wheel assembly of an inbound car on a Red Line train. They made short work of the fire, but, of course, that meant "severe" delays - as well as smoke in Kendall station.

Around 10:40 a.m., the train was pushed into the station for inspection before being pushed to the Cabot train yard in South Boston.

The afternoon T woe report: A Red Line train somewhere north of Charles/MGH is stuck with doors that won't close and switch problems on commuter rail just outside South Station are doing wonders for Tavern in the Square.

Death pointed a bony finger at an inbound Red Line train at Charles/MGH shortly before 4 p.m. A trolley on the C Line departed this mortal coil before it could get to Cleveland Circle.

There's a train at Charles/MGH with door issues.

But not all Red Line trains are stuck. Kat Nicole reports:

Stuck? My Alewife subway car is actually sliding backwards a bit on Longfellow bridge now. Hopefully we scrape across?

No, they won't be counting down to the rockin' New Year tonight, but will tell you how long until the next Red Line train. The T reports they blinked into existence today.