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Something that could only happen to the MBTA: Third-rail fire in the rain shuts Red Line at JFK

Third rail on fire in the rain

From video by Timothy Dunn.

The MBTA shut power on the Red Line in both directions at JFK/UMass after a third rail caught fire just before the station around 4:20 p.m.

No injuries, but, of course, increasingly long delays on the Red Line.

The T began rounding up buses for bustitution between JFK/UMass and North Quincy - except for the passengers on the train that was halted just before the fire. For those people, the T's plan was to send a rescue train up from North Quincy, load them onto it, then take them to North Quincy.

Waiting for Godot, or a bus, at JFK/UMass (photo by Liz):

Scores upon scores of increasingly wet Red Line riders

The fire stopped as soon as the T shut off power, but the T decided to wait until it could get an electrical inspector up to the scene to make sure the third-rail segment wouldn't simply start blazing again when the turned the power back on.

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Comments

Not only can a third rail catch fire during a thunderstorm but somehow water manages to pour through stations made of concrete turning the platorms into slip and slide.

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somehow water manages to pour through stations made of concrete

Nothing bad can happen from water flowing through cracked concrete, right?

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a third rail caught fire just before the station around 4:20 p.m

It's probably just some weed.

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blaze it

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Credit where credit is due:
Thanks, Charlie!

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Because he won't get any votes here again.

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Why haven't people collectively organized jumping the fare-gates at this point? Clearly the money we pay doesn't go to fixing the T, but fleecing pockets of higher-ups. When will people rebel against this system. If our money isn't going into actually fixing this, what is there to lose?

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People slip past the turnstiles or piggyback on paying customers every day at Fields Corner. The Red Shirts don’t try to stop it and just ignore it.

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It's no more the "red shirts" job to enforce the law than it is yours, knock yourself out.

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We do have a world-class city dignitary transit.

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