Orange Line riders self evacuate after train begins to smoke
By adamg on Wed, 02/16/2022 - 12:52pm
At least it wasn't one of the new trains. Dave Baron was among the people on an Orange Line train that began to smoke at Chinatown around noon.
Scary scene on the Orange Line this morning. Smelled like an electrical fire. No instructions from T officials as the cars filled with smoke. Eventually the passengers just pulled the lever and evacuated ourselves.
Also onboard: Cambridge City Councilor Burhan Azeem.
The T reports:
There was an issue with one of the motors on this train. The smoke has cleared, the train has been taken out of service and will be leaving the station shortly.
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#freethet
This would never happen if the T was free.
Magoo sez
Magoo ‘members Orange Julius. Does anyone else ‘member Orange Julius. ‘Twas yummy to Magoo’s tummy. Magoo.
Alas...
I thought spontaneous CODE I emergencies were the stock-in-trade of The Red Line!
To quote Die Göttin-Väderin:
"I my Berliner friends about the MBTA tell them about. They ask: 'Why has not the transport ministry been disbanded totally and substantively reformed?!' Alas! The New English way of things doing is so very tragically unique. Even by Auslander standards!"
Ironically, I once taught her how to lead a train evacuation {if no T staff could respond to the emergency in time} and how to seek + find the emergency telephones {indicated by a sky blue light} and exits {indicated by a silvery-white oblong and vertical light} in the subway.
Wonder how many times this has happened on BVG?
///SNARK CONCLUDED///
It happens
Rare, but it does happen. On my first trip to Berlin in August 2004, my German friend who met my train from Frankfurt a. M. at Bahnhof Zoo and I had to take the long way to his place in Kreuzberg (mit dem Bus) because just as I was arriving in Berlin, an S-Bahn train (yeah, yeah, I know: S-Bahn is operated by DB, not BVG, but close enough, same tariff union, they're two components of the same metropolitan transit system) gave up the ghost in the tunnel outside of Potsdamer Platz station, caught fire and created an intense inferno which left several cars as skeletal remains and ground the connecting U-Bhan lines to a halt. It was cleaned up and repaired and trains were running again in about 24 hours.
Scary situation
Was Boston Fire or Boston Police notified that there was smoke showing on a crowded orange line train? This is not only scary it is dangerous.
There is light at the end of this (smoky) tunnel
I do want to note that the T now has 5 new trainsets on the line (per the tracker.) With there typically being 14 trainsets on the line total, that means slightly over a third of the trainsets are new.
Now, we need to perhaps get the number of trainsets on the line to the previous number (16 or so,) and please, if you are a Red Line rider, do not click on that link for your own sanity.
Of course, while having new trains might be good, with all the slow orders on the line, perhaps we might root for more of the boring infrastructure work being done as well.
Oof...
I recently spoke to a Red Line Inspectrix who confided that Sie hath forgotten everything Sie learned in the classes and road-qualifications for the 1900-series...
More $$$ toekamst going to needed "refresher courses" because Steve The GM and CRRC cannot figure out how to make the new Red Line trains "stay red" so to speak...
This is why I'm a street railroader...
If that bums you out, maybe watch this to cheer up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdZQotyTcKU&ab_channel=StevenIsTheBest
Some days I'm convinced The Diamond Authority could run Greater Boston's transit system better than The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority...
///END SNARK///
No Smoking on the T!!!
.
This is not my beautiful
This is not my beautiful Orange Line! My God!! What have we done!! Same as it ever was. Same. As. It. Ever. Was. Water flowing underground.
You left out the best line
"There is water at the bottom of the ocean."
Still cracks me up every time I hear it.
I never get tired of watching
I never get tired of watching The Talking Heads film live Stop Making Sense. What a show.
It was even better seeing it live.
I drove 3 hours each way. Worth it.
(Same tour. Same "show". Not where it was filmed, though.)
New trains
Back in mid-December, on my first ride on one of the new Orange Line trains, the same thing happened! We were at Green St, there was a loud bang and smoke started pouring out of one of the cars. So they opened all the doors and started yelling at everyone to evacuate the train. Wonder how often this is happening?