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PSA: do not take the Red Line shuttle

By Matthew Miller on Thu, 11/21/2024 - 8:16am
A map of Boston. A blue line meanders and loops across the map, approximating a random walk. It goes on tiny streets, loops around, and seems to seek out busy intersections intentionally.

I knew it would be bad, but oh my god. It took an hour to get from Broadway to Kendall yesterday, and this was before rush hour proper. Find some alternate route instead.

I guess the insane loop is to avoid a tight left turn, but it costs 30 minutes!

Neighborhoods: 
Boston
Topics: 
The T
Free tagging: 
Red Line


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Comments

By Zhu Hengpeng on Thu, 11/21/2024 - 9:39am.

The goal is to stay away from the Park Street stop as far as possible.

By Eastie Girl on Thu, 11/21/2024 - 9:43am.

I think the bus driver was lost. Or following crappy GPS like many Uber drivers. Every bus I see takes a left at Milk St on to Congress St.

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By CuteUsername on Thu, 11/21/2024 - 5:01pm.

When the MBTA hires charter busses for when they need extra for things like this, the company also provides the bus drivers, so the bus drivers may not be particularly familiar with Boston. And even MBTA drivers can get confused when they get assigned a new route.

By anon on Thu, 11/21/2024 - 9:44am.

What's up with the escalators being shut down at Broadway? It happened a few weeks ago during a planned shutdown and it's happening this week too. But between the shutdowns the escalators were fine.
It's almost as if the escalator shutdowns are planned to inflict as much pain (literal pain for my legs) as possible. And yes there is an elevator, but with the entire train being emptied at Broadway, the lines are long, and the elevators crowded during respiratory virus season.

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By anon on Thu, 11/21/2024 - 9:47am.

Arrived at Harvard station at 8:40
Arrived at Central square at 9:30

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By flatrick-westrox on Thu, 11/21/2024 - 9:54am.

This nightmare is almost over

https://www.mbta.com/performance-metrics/speed-restrictions

It's a shame they don't clear a path through the financial district for these buses with temporary bus lanes or something. Better off hoping off at South station and walking the rest of the way

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By BostonDog on Thu, 11/21/2024 - 10:21am.

When Baker shut down the OL for a month, the city and state went into emergency mode and tried to make special corridors for the shuttle. It seemed to basically work or wasn't much worse than the OL at the time.

But for all the shutdowns since, it's just a shrug. Why haven't they done the same thing?

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By Zhu Hengpeng on Thu, 11/21/2024 - 10:24am.

Who are you questioning? Are you also a bot?

By Whit on Thu, 11/21/2024 - 10:38am.

.

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By Lane Straddler on Thu, 11/21/2024 - 11:32am.

Seems like your driver was winging it.
I'm not in charge, but I'd have driven Milk/Broad and then taken Broad to State+Court to trim the fat off that unnecessary loop...
Kilby to State is a lil bit of a sharp turn.

But why not take Summer to Devonshire/Winthrop sq to Franklin to Arch to Milk, to Washington to Court? It's a bunch of zig zagging... But much more direct and pretty easy turns.

By Lane Straddler on Thu, 11/21/2024 - 11:33am.

20yrs ago, I used to make deliveries to the transportation building (10 Park plaza)...
The offices started on a mezzanine, with a food court on the ground level.
Upon reaching the mezzanine level atop an escalator/stairs, you would have to sign in to proceed to the elevators.
Building security had their crowd herding ropes set up in such a way that people entering had to cross paths with people exiting...
This was the transportation building... With a bunch of transportation planning agencies within.
Tells ya something...

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By Frelmont on Thu, 11/21/2024 - 1:05pm.

There was one heck of a good burrito stand there then.