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Blue Line shorts out; some riders forced to walk tracks to escape darkened, fetid train
By adamg on Wed, 07/17/2019 - 9:01am
— Cristina Quintero (@CristiQ64) July 17, 2019
With a large puff of smoke around 8 a.m., the Blue Line lost power between State and Government Center this morning, halting trains and their riders in tunnels, as riders who had yet to board stacked up at stations all along the line.
T workers escorted the riders of at least one train down the tracks to safety at State Street (video). But not immediately: Riders on trains along the line reported having to just sit on trains for quite awhile first.
Kim C reports:
Was sitting half in/half out of aquarium for over 20 mins. They finally backed up and let us out. I’m going to be like an hour late for work and gross from sweating in a humid car then walking to the green line. Thanks for the fare hike @mbta!
Boston firefighters were unable to find the source of the smoke. The T began rolling out shuttle buses between Maverick and Bowdoin - and told riders they could also take the Silver Line from Airport.
Waiting for a shuttle bus at Maverick (photo by Brian Premont):
Waiting for a bus at Airport (photo by hkergrrl):
Uber prices skyrocketed.
Sweet Blue Line pilgrims
May your journey through darkness
Be met with God’s light.#MBTA— MBTA Haiku (@HaikuMbta) July 17, 2019
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Comments
statement from Baker
"We understand your concerns and we're doing all that we can, but we actually just don't care that much and are very happy to see transit as a public service fail so we can privatize it. In other words "Get used to it..actually correction: Get used to it constantly getting worse.""
update
They told everyone to take SL3 downtown, except there are now 20 min delays because they opened the drawbridge. This is Kafka-level absurdity.
And according to the MBTA site the delays are 15 min for the Blue Line. Hah. It took then 20+ min for a single shuttle bus to come.
And they said shuttle buses
And they said shuttle buses were on their way.
Maybe the shuttle buses were on their way, but with the traffic, they didn't get there.
Taking the Silver Line from Airport
Taking the SL3 from Airport to South Station sounds like it should be an easy solution. The problem is, for what should be a relatively quick jaunt it takes HOURS. I witnessed a somewhat humorous demonstration of this the last time I was forced to take the SL3 due to one of the Blue Line's numerous breakdowns. A non-English speaking woman (who had clearly just arrived at the airport from another country) kept trying to get off with all her luggage every time the bus stopped (at a scheduled stop or otherwise), because each time she thought the bus had finally reached South Station. People had to keep telling her we weren't there yet. She simply couldn't believe it took as long as it did.
We need more women in charge
If we had leaders in positions of power like Ayanna, Presley, Michelle Wu and Sen. Warren and Sen Spilka and Andrea Campbell in charge this would get done. There are too many cisgender males like Baker getting in the way of real progress.
#change
#metoo
#womenincharge
#soulcycle
Yah!!! All they can do is add to the Noise in the System
I'm sure they would immediately don hard hat, steel-toed boots, tool-belt and grab a hand-held clamp-on ammeter and take charge [pun??].
Give it a rest -- why don't you mention who was / wasn't in charge in Manhattan during last weekend's major black-out
There are plenty of reasons to criticize the T and its leadership such as the stupidity of locating mission-critical control equipment @ JFK / UMass the one place on the Red Line where a single-point failure could occur. And to compound the folly of it -- since there were lots of rails crisscrossing in the vicinity -- a good place for a derailment to occur.
This power-line related problem near Government Center is just an unplanned though not-expected event -- stuff happens. Unless we find-out that sabotage or negligence was involved -- it's just stuff that happens.
Riiiiight
I'm sure Stephanie Pollack from the RMV would do a better job! BWAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!!!
FMCB Sunshine and Happiness Committee vs. The ENR
Wonder how the FMCB will spin this latest fiasco. Reports about Massachusetts' faulty repair & construction are spilling out everywhere. Engineering News-Record hit Mass hard yesterday
Good point. Reality is coming out in dribs and drabs
One must bear in mind, however, that
One must bear in mind, however, that the problems on the MBTA were there long before Charlie Baker became governor of the Bay State.
Years and years of neglect and failure on the part of the MBTA workers, and the people who've always run the MBTA to do necessary maintenance work before and when small problems came up, have ultimately come home to roost, big time, if one gets the drift.
Cost of delays
It seems every year there is a study published that calculates the cost of traffic delays. Is there a study that show the cost of MBTA delays to companies whose employees miss work or people just standing around waiting?
Drop in ranking in its annual Top States for Business
To answer my own question.
Massachusetts dropped in an CNBC ranking of top states for business because of transportation issues.
https://commonwealthmagazine.org/transportation/talk-of-new-transportati...
Blue Line Blues
There's a light at the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately it is a T-cop with a flashlight sweating her butt off. The tunnels look like a fire hazard does anyone inspect them? Does anyone live down there?
Hearing this makes me so
blue da ba dee da ba daa
Da ba dee da ba daa, da ba dee da ba daa, da ba dee da ba daa
Da ba dee da ba daa, da ba dee da ba daa, da ba dee da ba daa
I'm blue da ba dee da ba daa
Da ba dee da ba daa, da ba dee da ba daa, da ba dee da ba daa
Da ba dee da ba daa, da ba dee da ba daa, da ba dee da ba daa
Isn't this like the third
Isn't this like the third time something like this has happened on the blue line within the past year?
Props to Christina Quintero
Props to Christina Quintero and the transit cop in the tunnel for lining up the shot so perfectly that (1) the officer's little flashlight beam shines exactly along the rail AND (2) creating the optical illusion that the officer has the rail in her hand - making her look like some previously-unknown daughter of Zeus about to javelin some thunderbolts at someone!
Brilliant!
I looked at the photo and scrolled right past. Brilliant observation! Funny a.f.
thankyew
thankyew