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Needham Line

By adamg - 8/14/15 - 3:37 pm

Franklin and Needham Line service was shut for about 20 minutes as Boston Police pursued a burglary suspect who kept running across the train tracks south of Canterbury Street around 3 p.m. Officers swarmed both sides of the tracks for the suspect, who eventually tried to make good his escape through wooded yards on the Roslindale side - only to be caught by Transit Police officers who had arrived to help out.

By adamg - 8/6/15 - 8:33 am

Gus Coldebella reports a Needham Line conductor felt compelled to make this announcement this morning:

Please don't crawl under the train. It's dangerous. We'll wait for you to walk around.

Ed. note: Unlike other lines, the Needham Line only has one track, at least until Forest Hills.

By adamg - 3/2/15 - 8:41 am

Because that allegedly improved commuter-rail service this morning still means that trains are roaring into Roslindale completely full, so they can't stop and they won't stop.

By adamg - 2/4/15 - 10:18 pm
Ed Coppinger shoveling a bridge in West Roxbury

State Rep. Ed Coppinger (West Roxbury) despaired of the state ever shoveling the Park Street bridge over the Needham Line. So tonight, he and a volunteer went out with shovels and dug a path so people don't have to worry about slipping and killing themselves on it.

MassDOT ignored - We deserve better.

By adamg - 10/17/14 - 9:49 am

Lagrange Street north just past Centre is currently blocked thanks to the latest big rig storrowed at the Needham Line bridge, Cottonmanifesto reports.

By adamg - 10/7/14 - 8:08 pm

MassDOT says Saturday and Sunday service will start up again on the Kingston/Plymouth and Greenbush lines, while the Needham Line will gain back the Saturday service it lost two years ago.

The restored service starts Dec. 27, thanks in part to funding by the legislature.

By adamg - 9/25/14 - 11:02 pm
Fall leaves along the Needham Line train tracks

What made these trees turn so much earlier than the rest of them along the Needham Line tracks? Spotted this afternoon from across the Charles in Millennium Park in West Roxbury.

By adamg - 8/2/14 - 12:19 pm

Wicked Local Needham reports the current state budget has funds to restore Saturday service on the commuter-rail line.

There is no start date set for the resumption of service, according to an MBTA spokesperson.

By adamg - 6/24/14 - 6:51 pm

According to T alerts, Needham, Providence and Franklin Line riders who just want to go home are currently delayed due to "congestion."

MBCR explains that, in this case, "congestion" means an outbound Amtrak train was mistakenly switched onto the Needham tracks, which is sort of like the train equivalent of a truck trying to get on Storrow Drive, given that Amtrak trains use electric power and the Needham Line, well, doesn't.

By adamg - 5/5/14 - 6:12 pm
Squirrel at Bellevue stop

Daniel Guzman reports this squirrel has taken up residence at the Bellevue commuter-rail stop on the West Roxbury/Roslindale line.

By adamg - 1/3/14 - 9:02 am

As Rich Davey predicted yesterday, the T has been having problems with the cold this morning. Red Line trains kept dying south of the city, leading to massive delays and eventually bustitution.

Several commuter-rail lines had weather-related delays as well, although, ironically, the Needham Line ran on time.

By adamg - 3/14/13 - 8:35 am

Co-op

A concerned citizen filed this photo of a shelter at the LaGrange Street commuter-rail stop:

By adamg - 1/25/13 - 8:33 am

Dead trains on the Red, Green, Needham and Providence/Stoughton lines (so far) made for another interesting commute for many this morning.

UPDATE: "Significant delays" possible on the Fitchburg Line due to signal problems.

By adamg - 1/10/13 - 9:40 am

Kristina Cary reports from an inbound Needham Line train:

We're stopped right after Forest Hills with all power off.

The T estimated a 30-40 minute delay for the 8:30 train she's on. Steve Poftak, also on the train, though, tweets it took 50 minutes to get from Bellevue in West Roxbury to Ruggles.

By adamg - 1/7/13 - 7:31 am

Commuter-rail lines that share the Northeast Corridor with Amtrak (Providence, Franklin and Needham) are reporting delays thanks to an overhead Amtrak wire that came down somewhere between Forest Hills and downtown.

By adamg - 8/14/12 - 10:14 am

An incensed citizen posts a photo of a couple of obscene drawings at the Roslindale Square commuter-rail stop, one of which also has a text explanation, in case you couldn't figure out what the artist was trying to draw.

By adamg - 3/10/12 - 9:23 pm

Brian D'Amico and Dan Adams report a guy was hit by a train around 8:30 p.m. on the Needham Line tracks between Home Depot and the West Roxbury Education Complex.

By adamg - 9/23/11 - 8:59 am

The MBTA reports a woman was so intent on trying to light her cigarette at the Needham Center station last night she didn't notice how close she was to the tracks - and the train that was entering the station.

The woman, 44, a worker at the Center Cafe next to the platform, was taken to Beth Israel Hospital with a non-life-threatening head injury and a broken collarbone following the incident around 8:50 p.m.

According to an MBTA Transit Police report, the woman:

By adamg - 8/12/11 - 9:32 am

Commuters on a Needham-Line train report they've now been sitting outside South Station for more than 30 minutes thanks to a dead engine.

Scott Katz tweets:

Waiting for push into station - could spit and reach platform now but stuck here going on 30 minutes.

Aaron Perrino adds:

If that fails they are going to send a pick up truck to save us.

By adamg - 6/10/11 - 8:18 am

Switching problems mean harried South Station commuters are even more harried than usual this morning. In at least one case, on the Needham line, commuters heading into Boston suddenly found themselves heading away from the city to get onto another track.

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