Hey, there! Log in / Register
Trolley dies in tunnel, onto tracks riders funnel
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
The train derailed just after
The train derailed just after the swtich (and it was a Type 7, not one of the low-floor Type 8s).
A single dead train
is cause for such chaos. There's no way to just move that train out of the way? There are no tracks in the tunnels where disabled trains can be moved, so tjat everything doesn't grind to a halt?
I thought the same thing
I was on an inbound Green Line B train when this happened. They made everyone get off at Blandford Street at Comm Ave. We had to wait for buses which just didn't seem to be coming to me, so ended up walking to all the way Back Bay Station so I could hook up with the Blue Line. A single disabled train causes the entire Green line to shut down? Combine this with the fact that the Government Center project is causing the Blue Line to run with extremely diminished service on weekends (one track only), and it took me hours to get home.
Turns out, the train derailed
Which takes much more time to deal with than a "normal" disabled train.
And it's long past time for the MBTA to ditch their idiotic "we don't want to panic our customers" attitute towards their alerts. If a train derails, what is so wrong with stating "due to derailment" in your alerts? It gives the passengers a much more accurate portrayal of how long the delays or service suspension will be.
Of course, Kenmore to Arlington is probably the absolute worst section of the Green Line to go down for an extended period and have to substitute buses on.
Why do greenline trains
routinely de-rail? They already move at a snails pace in the tunnels, sometimes even above ground. How come everything is so fragile?
Also need to know where and what direction
I agree that the T should be more specific in the nature of the problem, although I'll take police action and medical issue for what they often seem to be. In addition, all announcements of delays should include the location of the problem and the direction that is primarily affected. All to often, the announcement is simply that "we're experiencing delays due to a disabled train" with no other information.
Totally agree
The T also has to stop this infuriating practice of sending multiple alerts (often within minutes)that only repeat the same information. Obviously, they don't seem to understand how texting and e-mail works - that people will receive the message, even if you send it only once.
Not at that part of the Green Line Tunnel
They must not have been thinking of that way back when it was built, or else the engineering is really difficult. There are extra tracks between Park and Boylston.
The "extra tracks' between Park and Boylston
were never intended to store disabled trains. They were put in originally because they served additional streetcar lines that branched from the Central Subway after Boylston Station. The last of the lines served by those tracks, which went to City Point, stopped running in 1959.
The tracks and tunnel beyond Boylston Station are still mostly in place, and would be a logical point to tie in a Washington Street light rail line. Of course, the "buses are great, buses are good, all hail the mighty bus' management at the T decided to bulid the boondoggle called the Silver Li(n)e instead.
I don't disagree with your comment
I was just saying that those tracks can be used for disabled trains.
Actually, only the westbound track
between the powered crossover after Park Street and the manual crossover before Boylston can be used to quickly stash a disabled train. The eastbound track cannot, as it is actively used for trains that go beyond Park Street (incluidng those that currently terminate at Park Street but use the Government Center loop).
The "outside" tracks within Boylston Station cannot be used to store disabled trains. The westbound track would require a backing move to retrieve the train, which T operations tries to avoid at all costs (no pun intended). Besides the fact that the "museum' cars are presently stored on it, the eastbound track does not currently have a switch connecting it to the mainline. If this track was connected, you'd still need to do a similar backing move to dump the disabled train in there.
Emergency action plan ?
Does the MBTA have an Emergency Action Plan (EAP)? And I don't mean one in a notebook gathering dust on a bookshelf or moldering in some computer somewhere. But an actual plan for what to do when things go south. It seems that every time that something happens, an almost daily occurrence now, that the MBTA is pulling whatever hobbled solution they have completely out of thin air without much preconceived thought.
For example, yesterday, I was on a Green Line train and we were told by the driver to get off at Boylston and skeptically told that there might be shuttle buses upstairs. The driver was right to be skeptical and since it was early in the incident, it was no surprise that shuttle buses were not yet available. I took the Orange Line to Copley, hoping to connect to a Green Line or shuttle bus there. I walked over to one of the entrances of Copley and asked one of the six MBTA employees there how I could get to Kenmore and they pointed me to corner of St James and Dartmouth, an intersection that I had just walked through. When I returned, there were no MBTA personnel to assist people in getting on the proper bus for their desired destination. A shuttle bus finally pulled up, escorted by an inspector in an SUV who told us that this bus would take us to Hynes and Kenmore. It became obvious that the inspector was guiding the bus along the detour since the bus driver had no clue where to go. Stopping at the Prudential stop along the way, the bus driver was telling these poor confused people to find the 99 bus to get to Copley Square - instead of telling them to just walk through to other side of the mall.
When there is a emergency bustitution because the subway is not running, I don't expect the buses to be up and running immediately, but I do expect the MBTA to use their staff, including the transit police, to be stationed outside of the closed stations and at where we are supposed to pick up the replacement buses. But all to often, we are just left to our own to figure it out because they could not be bothered to do their job.
There's a problem with this
from WKRP in Cincinatti