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Time to load up with dread: Is the entire T dead?
By adamg on Mon, 12/23/2019 - 2:20pm
Reports are coming in from the Red, Orange and Green lines: No trains, no nothing on the arrival boards.
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Comments
Magoo sez
REM was right. Magoo
Lenny Bruce
Is not afraid.
MBTA alerts page says:
MBTA alerts page says:
"Were experiencing a network outage thats affecting countdown clocks and real time predictions in stations and online. Our teams are working hard to resolve this as quickly as possible."
https://mbta.com/alerts/subway
Based on Twitter reports from
Based on Twitter reports from other users, it's not just the countdown clocks that are the problem. Trains and buses were simply not showing up.
Good time to skip town!
Hi from Logan!
I have completely cut out the T as a to/from Logan option
Best transportation decision I ever made
New definition of hell
Frozen Tufts Medical Center platform with a woman in a screaming match with an invisible enemy - and she's losing.
We hiked over to South Station, where we're hoping the Needham Line is running.
I waited for 25 minutes
I waited for 25 minutes at Wollaston for an Alewife bound train... will I be able to get back?
Dead Line
I waited 30 minutes at State Street for an O Line... ended up just walking
As of this comment...
About 5,000 people on the South Shore are without power. What the heck is going on?!
MEMA Outage Map
http://mema.mapsonline.net/public.html
As of this comment, the statewide map is showing a total of 1,310 customers without power and there are several outages shown on the map, the largest being in Rockland.
The Financial control board just announced
That the number of reindeers leading Santa's sleigh will be reduced from eight to four and Rudolph was terminated. Your children's toy train sets will be arriving some time next month.
Toy shipment update
We regret to inform you that Santa's new sleigh has been taken out of service after the doors opened unexpectedly during a test run.
But our forty-year-old rust-bucket sleigh is fine and will still run since Christmas is not on a weekend.
The T tweeted, "Were
The T tweeted, "Were experiencing a network outage thats affecting countdown clocks and real time predictions in stations and online. Our teams are working hard to resolve this as quickly as possible. [...] This caused gaps in service and late departures out of terminals. Communication with trains and their operators have not been affected by this outage." https://twitter.com/MBTA/status/1209199104468930562
How is this even supposed to make sense? Are they saying they rely on their countdown clocks... which are based on their timetables... as a reference for their train scheduling??
Wish I’d recorded our train operator’s announcements
I was stuck on an OL train near Green for almost 30 minutes and our operator updated us many times with a VERY different story.
At first it was the usual “standing by.” Then it was misc versions of “we are trying to reach the people who can help,” “due to tech difficulties are not able to communicate to people who can help,” “continuing efforts to contact people who can help, it may take a while.” Nothing about countdown clocks. Then we were told it was system-wide.
Riders were incredulous and jokes were made about Morse code v cell phones.
Despite the inconvenience, it got people to look up from our phones and talk to each other. I saw photos of grandkids. So in the end, thank you MBTA for giving me a chance to laugh with some strangers.
Sounds like their whole
Sounds like their whole routing/scheduling/communication system was out. The countdown clocks are just one customer-visible endpoint on that system. Not the cause but an end symptom.
Surely We’d Know
Surely we’d know if no one had been able to board any train in the system in the half hour since this post? Anyone who can give an update?
yes
Before we enter the maelstrom...tried the Globe, no info but a good Adam Sandler movie opening. If they had an office downtown they might send a reporter down into the depths.
The globes office is downtown
The globes office is downtown.
That was sarcasm, my friend
Occasionally I worry about you.
According to the T's Twitter
According to the T's Twitter feed (https://twitter.com/MBTA) 26 minutes ago:
"Teams are still working on a fix for this incident. Real time information in stations and on http://MBTA.com remains unavailable. Until predictions are restored, countdown clocks will remain blank.
All subway lines are operating with regular service."
They're pretty good with updates on that feed...much better than the Alerts.
Interestingly
Although at the time of this writing, the T is still noting that the clocks are off, Stefan Wuensch's map is still telling us where the trains are.
thanks Waquiot
thanks Waquiot
So
Can we confirm trains are not moving?
According to the map
The trains are indeed moving.
I may just do the transit metric thing and start a stopwatch when I get to Back Bay to see how long I wait for a train. It is usually not more than 8 minutes. I imagine that will be the case.
Those clocks are great, but we survived for a century without them. We'll handle today.
Since I said I would
Got to Back Bay. The signs were on, showing a 5 minute wait. Six minutes and six seconds later, the train stopped in front of me.
Either I’m lucky or the problems on the Orange Line are overblown, though the answer could be in the middle.
Can’t use credit cards either
You missed the best part; none of the fare machines are working for purchase or add-value. If you don’t have a pass or existing value, you’re screwed — a well-run agency would leave the gates open, but this is the MBTA.
ETA Boards Back Up
ETA boards are up on the green and orange lines and the ride to Park Street was fine. Trains are actually half-empty on that stretch since rush hour is very light today.
No credit cards
At Harvard the machines weren’t taking any card payments, only cash. You can imagine how efficient that was.
Big board at South Station....
...was blank when I caught the 4:52 to Greenbush. Departure was delayed but they made up the time. People waiting for commuter rail or Amtrak were relying on the PA announcements
Probably not related...
I walked through there early Saturday evening and the Big Board was blank, there was a monitor displaying train departure info on an AV cart directly below the Board.