At least one train has already been cancelled as police investigate the 12:30 p.m. incident, but the T is bracing passengers to expect "significant delays." Mansfield Police report the person is dead - on a stretch of tracks where Amtrak trains travel at well over 100 m.p.h.
The Boston Business Journal reports Amtrak hopes to have the new trains barreling down the tracks by 2021, which is roughly when the T hopes to have the new Red and Orange Line trains mostly on the tracks.
A dispute over whether Massachusetts should pay Amtrak $29 million for Acela service over tracks the state owns got ugly this week when the national railroad filed a court document suggesting it might have to stop service north of Providence rather than continuing to deal with the "chronically delinquent" MBTA. Read more.
A federal railroad law passed in 1938 means the two railroads don't have to comply with a state law - passed by voters in 2014 - that requires Massachusetts employers to set aside paid sick leave for their workers. Read more.
The T is warning of delays up to 50 minutes on the Providence Line due to "an Amtrak signal issue near Attleboro Station."
MassDOT reports Amtrak finally fixed all the wire problems at Rte. 128 at 6 this morning, so commuter-rail service should be back to normal.
Amtrak catenary tester testing catenaries at Readville.
A downed power line near the Rte. 128 station continues to frustrate MBTA commuters, who find their trains running way late, if not just canceled altogether.
Around 9:05 p.m., an Amtrak catenary-testing train slowly moved outbound on the inbound tracks at Readville. Read more.
News 12 reports the idea would involve a tunnel under the Sound and new tracks to relieve crowding on the existing Northeast Corridor.
An overhead wire that obeyed the laws of gravity near the Westwood train station is wreaking havoc on the Northeast Corridor this afternoon, causing massive delays for both Keolis and Amtrak riders in both directions - including many Pearl Jam fans trying to get to Fenway Park for their concert tonight. Read more.
Muerl was amazed to see an Amtrak train chugging through Cambridge today.
Amtrak uses the old Grand Junction bridge over the Charles and the tracks through Cambridge to get diesels and cars between its main system and yards south of the Charles and the Downeaster tracks to Maine.
Seems some pundits decided to call yesterday's primaries the "Acela primaries" - and that caused all sorts of fits among local action news anchors, at least those not located in states served by our fast-ish train.
H/t Michael Ratty.
Somebody was hit by a train near Mansfield station this afternoon. The station itself was shut - and the parking lot is closed - and delays persist along the Providence Line.
MBTA Commuter Rail tweets:
Amtrak does not have an estimated time for restoration of the signal system at South Station. Delays should be anticipated tomorrow.
This was, of course, after a horrible evening commute that mirrored the horrible morning commute - with the main exception being that this time, when a Red Line train died downtown, it didn't gum up the entire Red Line.
Amtrak is reporting 1-2 hour delays on its trains in and out of Boston due to the same South Station problem that screwed up commuter-rail service this morning (and which continue to screw up commuter-rail service), adds:
Signals are currently being operated manually which significantly limits the amount of trains arriving and departing the station. Amtrak engineering forces are actively working to fix the issue and restore scheduled service.
Orange crushed: Keolis refugees at Forest Hills. Photo by Michael Morgenstern.
It's Amtrakageddon this morning as trains can't get past Back Bay and the T throws up its hands and tells riders to find some other way to get to work. That sort of worked for riders coming in from the west, but riders on trains from the South Shore got on Red Line trains that just sat there.
UPDATE, 9:50 a.m.: Read more.
An Amtrak train headed to Boston lost power this afternoon, and possibly had a bit of a fire, an MBTA commuter-rail train was enlisted to push it to Boston and now things are still bollixed up betwixt Boston and Providence.
At 7:19 p.m., Brian Moore reported that after 89 minutes, his Stoughton-bound train from Back Bay still hadn't made it to Westwood. The T was reporting similar delays from Providence to Boston.
The MBTA this week sued Amtrak over the $29 million Amtrak is demanding the authority pay for the right to have Amtrak keep running trains over Northeast Corridor tracks that are owned by the T.
The T warns that if it's forced to make the payments, it might have to take the money out of its already precariously financed mass-transit services. Read more.
Trains that pass through Forest Hills are being forced to slow down due to Amtrak signal problems, the T reports.
The driver of a tractor-trailer had some trouble making the turn onto High Street at the West Medford stop on the Lowell Line this morning, taking out the crossing gates and becoming an instant obstacle to rush-hour trains, as Colleen Mirabello shows us.
Ken Krause has photos of the quick work to remove the truck, the now ruined crossing gates and a light pole the truck also took out, and posted video showing some of the aftermath of having a crossing in the middle of a city with no crossing gates: Read more.
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