Prevailing sentiment in progressive haunts is “2016, don’t let the door hit you on the way out.” Between a stressful election season, acts of terror, and the crisis in Syria, many of us will be glad to see the calendar page turn on Sunday night. Still, to every cloud there is a silver lining, and at least when it comes to tackling climate change in the US, Massachusetts was a bright spot amidst the clouds of 2016.
Track is whack at Packards Corner, so the T is hauling B Line passengers between there and Washington Street by bus. On the Red Line, there's a dead train just moldering somewhere on the tracks between JFK/UMass and Braintree.
"Moderate" delays between Quincy Center and Braintree, the T advises. Its passing comes about 30 minutes after the T reported "minor" delays inbound on the Ashmont branch due to signal problems.
Robert O'Connor walked along the Fore River in Braintree this morning.
Around the same time, meanwhile, KK was leavin' on a jet plane: Read more.
And shuttle buses went around the Red Line station at the start of the morning rush hour until police determined the bag was not dangerous.
A train is so dead between Braintree and Quincy Adams that the T is now running shuttle buses. On the Green Line, meanwhile, an E trolley has expired at Government Center.
They're packin' 'em in at Park Street thanks to a southbound train that could pick no better time than rush hour to die.
Somewhere between JFK/UMass and Braintree, a Red Line train saw eternity and now there are "moderate" delays on the line.
A MassDOT report concludes the driver of the infamous train was to blame for it heading towards town by itself, but notes the T is also aiming to fix the condition that led him to leave the train in the first place - problems with an old cabling system leased from Verizon that was making signals fail and trains stop on the tracks south of North Quincy. Read more.
The T's reporting some travails getting riders into town from Braintree due to a train that decided to join Elijah. This was after earlier signal problems near JFK/UMass.
WBZ reports on the incident yesterday in the road outside the Barnes & Noble near South Shore Plaza.
Yes, it's another commute with signal problems at Braintee on the Red Line. However, all trains are operating with drivers.
WBZ reports the driver of the runaway train used a cord to tie down the speed-control lever to bypass the "dead-man's switch" feature before getting out of the train to flip the switch that would let the train travel through red signals - the ones that had been plaguing the Red Line in Braintree all week. Oops: He didn't set the train's brakes first.
WBUR reports Gov. Charlie Baker called the untended ride "an isolated incident" that resulted when "a single individual made multiple errors."
The T is warning of "moderate" delays on the Red Line to and from Braintree this afternoon, due to signal problems. Of course, Braintree has been having signal problems all week, including this morning, when a train left the station without the driver who had gotten out to deal with them.
State Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack acknowledged this afternoon that the train's driver left the train to prep it to deal with signal problems that have plagued the Braintree branch of the Red Line all this week.
But at an afternoon press conference, Pollack added that "operator error" is the primary focus of an MBTA investigation into the incident - in which a train traveled from Braintree to North Quincy without a driver. Read more.
Just in time for the afternoon rush, the T is warning of "moderate" delays on the Red Line to Braintree.
Flea adds:
My MBTA train is stuck at North Quincy and it sounds like an airplane about to take off.
The T is reporting continuing signal issues on the Braintree line, meaning Red Line riders who had problems getting home last night now have problems getting to work on time.
The MBTA reports "moderate" delays on the Red Line to Braintree due to signal problems, or as Dan Moore puts it: Read more.
David Parsons watched the horde sweep into H&M at South Shore Plaza early on Black Friday.
Ed. note: We went in the afternoon, when things were a bit calmer. But much of the second floor smelled overwhelmingly of stale popcorn butter - like a popcorn butter truck had exploded and they hadn't finished cleaning it up. Also, Lord & Taylor had a DJ at their first-floor entrance playing "Uptown Funk" cranked to 11 - who knew the store's demographic had changed so much.
Photo copyright David Parsons. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.
The T is currently advising of "moderate" delays on the Red Line due to a recalcitrant switch in Braintree.
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