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The heat was extra exhausting with a dead train at Downtown Crossing
By adamg on Tue, 07/16/2024 - 6:11pm
Sweltering riders can't get to the Kendall platform because it's already full of other sweltering passengers waiting for the Godot Line. Photo by Johnmcboston.
Yes, of course, on one of the hottest, most humid days of the year, a train would jam up the already partially not running Red Line by dying (of heat exhaustion?) at Downtown Crossing.
The MBTA first reported the prostrate train at 3:24 p.m. and announced delays of 15 minutes. At 3:40 p.m., with the train still in Downtown Crossing and still pushing up daisies, the T increased the delays for passengers caught in fetid Red Line stations to 30 minutes.
At 4:09, the T announced the train had been disassembled for parts or taken out back or something, but that, of course, there were still "residual delays" of 20 minutes, leaving passengers caught on platforms and in stairways and tunnels to wonder if they would soon also have to pay Charon another fare for a ride on his ferry, since he does not take CharlieCards.
Johnmcboston reported from Kendall at 4:14 p.m. that the line of riders too prostrate from the heat to get outraged at the latest nonsense stretched from the platform all the way up to the street, and that the line just kept getting longer as bustituted passengers from Harvard and points yonder kept pouring out of buses that at least were air conditioned.
At 4:33, he reported he finally got on a train. His car, of course, had no air conditioning.
At 6 p.m., riders were still waiting up to 20 minutes on This Is Fine platforms.
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Comments
Sweltering riders can't get
[chef's kiss]
Also
Magoo sez
Hey ya’ll did ya hear about the Parisian Poop Protest in the Seine protesting the Olympics. Magoo is officially spear heading the Offiicial Boston Poop Protest of the MBTA whereby all ye’ Bostonian shall poop on the MBtA tracks this Friday. Thus sayeth Magoo. Magoo
They are not MBTA riders
They are not MBTA riders
LOL What?
You got me this time, I've got no idea what you are alluding to.
I think he's referring
I think he's referring to they are not real MBTA riders, but actors playing MBTA riders.
You know like Crisis Actors that people believe exist when there's a school shooting or something.
Ah, yes
That would have been my only real guess.
But I think they've missed the point, since trains aren't real. /s
When does heat become a design criterion?
And not some "thing we can't predict or anticipate will happen"?
The MBTA needs to pull its head out of the 20th century and get with the program. These conditions are dangerous and are no longer exceptional.
(ETA: fixed homophonic spree)
heh
A design criterium, huh?
Too much TdF watching
Lol! I think my brain is spinning ... and melting from the heat.
Fixed!
Hon...
...there is no such thing as too much TdF watching.
I was there...
...at Downtown Crossing, waiting to go southbound, for the whole damn thing. I got there just before the disabled train mishegas started, like maybe 3:20-ish. And then, I made the fatal mistake of not getting on the one train they let through just before 4:00. It was mega-crowded, and I figured I'd just get on the next one in a few minutes now that the disabled train has been resolved. Or so I thought.
First, the LED signs told us that the next trains would be at 12-16 minute intervals. (Well, that was unexpected bad news, because as far as I knew, the trains should be running again, and there's probably a bunch waiting to catch up, right? Wrong.) A minute later that got changed to 9-11 minutes headway. Ok, good, I thought, it's really hot and this has already been insane, but I can suck it up and wait 10-ish more minutes and then be done with it and on my way. But then nothing came. And nothing came. And nothing came. And nothing came. And nothing came. And nothing came. And nothing came. 9-11 minutes my ass. Every now and then a "teaser" would go up, saying "Braintree train 5 minutes away" or something, only to be delayed/deleted yet again. And again. And again. And again. It was as if trains were in the tunnel on their way and then they suddenly dematerialized. WTF?
Finally, a Braintree car arrived at maybe 4:45-ish? With the LED's telling us that an Ashmont train was also a few minutes away. As folks who could cram their way onto the Braintree car were doing so, that sign told us the Ashmont car was 1 minute away. And we were hearing a bunch of announcements of "there's a train directly behind us." Good. I'll get on that one instead of trying to find room for me, my 2 bags of groceries, and my backpack, on this already packed train. But then the Braintree train left and NOTHING followed it. NOTHING. The supposed Ashmont train "1 minute away" vanished into thin air apparently. For the next maybe 15 minutes or so, the signs kept telling us different things about approaching trains, none of which came true. I was actually starting to go into panic attack mode - not just because of the wait, but because the announced promises on the LED screens kept being reneged over and over. No, no trains were clearly ever going to arrive "in 3 minutes" or whatever they put on those screens. It just wasn't happening. Finally, maybe around 5:00-ish, another train showed up, and I finally got on that one. Packed to the gills, of course. I don't know how long the people still stranded at DTX had to wait for their train after that, and how many times they were told a train was on its way only to disappear like Flight 33 from the Twilight Zone.
Honestly, it was the absolute worst T delay experience I've been through, though I'm sure there have been worse ones. The worst thing was the constant unmitigated slew of disinformation being given us. They would have been better off making announcements saying "we have no F-ing idea when the next train is coming, so just deal with it."
The good news - the sashimi I bought from Roche Brothers survived the wait. (I was half thinking I should just throw out the perishables I bought.)
Epic fail, Charlie...epic f-ing fail.
Tldr
Tldr
And yet...
...it wasn't too long for your useless bot ass to comment on.
Charlie hasn’t been in office for almost two years now
Phillip Eng has been at the MBTA helm for over a year. The millionaires tax generated $1.8b in extra revenue that never existed and the MBTA is getting 11% of that. Maybe start blaming the people in charge and not some scapegoat? You’ll get better results.
Charlie
Charlie could also refer to "Charlie of the MBTA", their mascot.
Also, Baker IS to blame for a lot of this. As is Deval Patrick, Mitt Romney, Jane Swift, Paul Cellucci......
Years of disinvestment have gotten us to this point. Doesn't look like that is going to change with the Healey administration either. So expect more of the same.
Yes
Charlie as in "on the M(B)TA." Thank you.