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The disgruntled operator on the Orange Line
By adamg on Thu, 05/20/2010 - 2:44pm
Orange Line regulars know the shrill blare of her voice only too well, the scream that demands people back away from the doors NOW. For unlike other subway workers, who first tell people to stop holding a door fairly calmly before escalating into DefCon 4 mode, she is the permanently irritated throbbing nerve of every station between Forest Hills and Oak Grove.
Desiree Headley reports a new, even more severe edge to her this morning:
Nothing makes my commute more enjoyable than listening to an MBTA employee curse over the intercom. Love it!
She screams: "Attention passengers do not hold the door! ... What the f**k???"
One wonders how long we have to wait before she rips open the door to her compartment, finds the evil door-holder, puts him in a headlock and begins whaling away at him.
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Comments
They need to automate all of
They need to automate all of the announcements on the orange line. They are often too cute or too shrill.
Whit
Are you kidding? She's my
Are you kidding? She's my effing favorite!!
I love re-enacting her at-first-pleasant "Next stop, Stony Brook" followed sharply by a "WHY YOU STANDIN' IN THE DOORS!?"
I like her, too, for the
I like her, too, for the exact same reason.
I would stand up and support her in an employee tribunal!
She's an antidote to stupidity on the Orange Line.
I can only imagine what would happen if they unleashed her into the passenger compartment and she spotted one of those people who stand directly in front of the left side doors during rush hour. Especially the ones who get on at Forest Hills / Green / Stony Brook and cannot possibly pretend they don't know what they're doing.
If only we had Japan-style "pushers" to grab each one of them and forcibly move them to another part of the car.
Teach Her Portugese, Spanish and Mandarin
Then she could be entertaining and effective in four different languages (and a substantial segment of bonehead Orange Line riders who are not currently reached by her cranky wisdom would then have no excuse).
I wonder if she used to wait tables at the defunct Deli Haus ...
Ah, you had to mention Deli
Ah, you had to mention Deli Haus! How I miss that place!
Missed but...
I don't mind Lower Depths there.
I'd kill a man if it meant they'd give me a free plate of their tater tots as a reward.
Don't diss Deli Haus!! I
Don't diss Deli Haus!! I loved that place... (sheds tear).
Maybe...
...she's related to Mrs. Crabtree?
http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/103450
She is one of my two
She is one of my two favorites, the other being her polar opposite: "Good morning ladies and gentlemen, the next stop on this train is Ruggles, change for commuter rail and buses, doors will open on the left side." She is amazingly polite and has quite a pleasant voice.
I love her! Totally makes
I love her! Totally makes the commute home worth it. A (one-sided) exchange from three weeks ago:
Clear the doors please.
Stand behind the yellow line.
BEHIND THE YELLOW LINE.
THIS TRAIN AIN'T GOING ANYWHERE TILL YOU GET YOUR ASSES BEHIND THE YELLOW LINE.
(10 second pause, while the doors fail to close twice more)
YOU PEOPLE!
The whole car lost it at "You people!"
She's tied for 'favorite orange line conductor' with the guy who really, really likes drawing out the name of Haymarket. Terse and quiet station announcements for the whole ride north through JP and Boston, until we pass State Street and he comes on with "Haaaaaaaaymarket!"
I kinda wish all operators
I kinda wish all operators were like that. Nothing beats the time a couple years ago I was getting on the red line at Harvard, and a whole group of people were running down the stairs just as the doors were closing. One guy managed to get to the door and force it back open, where he then blocked the door so the rest of his group could finish their descent and board. It happened to be the car with the door operator, who came on the intercom and said he wasn't going to close the doors again until all those people got off. At one point, he came out of his cab and pointed at a couple people specifically saying the car wasn't moving until they got off. After a few minutes, they finally did and we were on our way. Makes me long the London subway where the doors don't stop for anybody.
The disgruntled operator on the Orange Line
I'm dreadfully familiar with that character. Once I was enough ticked off by her excessive histrionics that I reported her to T authorities. There also used to be an old guy on the Orange Line trains who would berate us so hysterically I feared he was about to have a heart attack or stroke right then and there. Haven't heard him in a while, guess he's retired--if he didn't keel over first.
Excessive Histrionics
... would not be necessary if the rate of craniorectal impaction were a tad lower, don't you think? If somebody does something stupid and gets hurt, it isn't the stupid that gets fired.
The rules are simple. They apply to everyone. Too many people don't get number 2.
She's got nothin' on the Red
She's got nothin' on the Red Line operator who, at each stop and in total sincerity, says "Thank you, thank you SO much for riding the T, thank you," among other exaggerated yet still sincere expressions of gratitude.
i like that guy
I was on the red line a couple of weeks ago and there was the usual delay. That guy was on the intercom every minute apologizing profusely!
He's a pleasant change from the guy who says something like 'take your coffe cups, Metros and other TRASH'.
I love that guy... Especially
I love that guy...
Especially after a long crappy day at work, it's nice to hear a pleasant voice!
Someday we'll miss her
The Orange Line door operators are getting laid off soon. Maybe that's why she has more attitude these days. I've never heard subway announcements like hers anywhere in the world.
The Orange Line cars are
The Orange Line cars are based on the old NY/NJ PATH cars. With new PATH cars coming into service, there's a chance the Orange Line may get the old ones. Those, despite their age, have automated stop announcements and VERY sturdy doors (i.e. they don't give like the Orange Line's elevator doors do). If Bostonians are forced to deal with those doors, they'll wish they had a sassy door operator to give them warning.
The (older) red and orange
The (older) red and orange line had "elevator" strips added a decade ago. Before, they closed, and did not stop. Thats not safe, so now they stop.
I think some signs still say "this door does not recycle"
There are no plans for the
There are no plans for the MBTA to buy used cars from PATH. PATH cars are only 51 feet long, MBTA Orange Line cars are 65-feet long. There are no lifts at the MBTA Orange Line mainenance shops to lift a 51-foot long car, plus a 7-car train of ex-PATH cars would still have less capacity than a 6-car train of MBTA Orange Line cars, while an 8-car train of ex-PATH cars would be too long for MBTA platforms.
The PATH cars would also have to have automated signal system eqipment installed to run on the Orange Line, and would have to have full-width cabs installed.
So costs for new carhouse lifts, new signal control (ATO) systems for the cars, and new full-width cabs becomes very expensive for cars that are already almost 25 years old (the PATH PA4 cars were built in 1986-87, the present Orange Line cars were built in 1980-82), plus there are only 93 PA4s, not enough to replace the 120-car Orange Line fleet even if the cars had an advantage. The MBTA plans to buy 146 or so new Orange Line cars by 2015 to replace the present fleet and increase the size of the fleet.
I stand corrected
That's far more information than I had. Thank you for sharing it. Looking at the PA4s, that makes a lot of sense. Seemed just as wide, but didn't take length into account.
I realize it wouldn't make sense to couch 25-year-old equipment in new infrastructure, but is there any plan to automate the system when the new cars go in? Automation would seemingly eliminate the need for schedule adjustments and improve scheduling altogether.
The recycling doors and cascading-vs.-solid configuration likely has been argued to death long before I arrived here, but why did the MBTA switch to recycling doors? Safety seems to be the motivation, but subway systems in London, Chicago, New York and elsewhere seem to address those concerns without changing the door structure. I can remember William Bratton's "Those Doors Mean Business" PSAs in New York. Was his message different here?
I remember her from when I
I remember her from when I took the Orange Line regularly - I loved her! She said what everyone was thinking, anyways, it was awesome.
I for one totally support the
I for one totally support the disgruntled Orange Line operator if and when she puts someone in a headlock and whales on them for holding the doors.
I never ride the Orange LIne
I have a couple of favorite drivers on the Green line, one guy who considers the train his own personal stand up zone. He keeps me laughing no matter how long my commute, or how crushed the train. He even made a bunch of unhappy Red Sox fans laugh after a very bad loss.
Then there is the taller half's father, but that's family.
I mostly use the blue line, and when the weather is really nice in the summer some conductors remind people to wear sun screen.
501 bus operator was a character too
There used to be an operator on the 501 Bus from Brighton who used to give a little speech as we were about to get on the turnpike. It loses a lot in writing, but it went something like:
"Gooooooooooooood mornin' again, ladies and gentlemen, this is your driver speakin'. I would like to take this opportunity to once again welcome you aboard this 501 exxxxxxxxxxxxprrrrress bus to downtown Boston - that's right, I said downtown, so if you were wantin' to go somewhere else, you should get off here, because we're about to get on the turnpike [all of the people who had slept walked onto the 501 thinking it was the 57 would jump up]. As I said, the next stop will be downtown, so I would like you now to sit back and relax, or staaaaand up and chill, and I'll try to get you downtown just as quickly and safely as I possibly can. On that last note, I'd like to remind you that God is my pilot, and he's yours too, and now I'll quiet down so you can enjoy the ride. Next stop, Federal Street, downtown Boston. Have an outstandin' day."
The first time I heard the reference to God as pilot, I was a little uncomfortable (well, I was always uncomfortable standing up while barrelling down the turnpike at 60 mph - how the hell is that allowed, anyway?) because it occurred to me that I might have just been told in code language that this guy was going to end it all and take us with him, but I got over that pretty quickly. I can't remember his name (it was 10 years ago), but that was a guy who really took pride in his work and I appreciated that a lot.
There was another great 501 driver
Who ended every trip thanking everyone and wishing them a wonderful and sucessful day. Was really nice.
He disappeared shortly after getting pulled over for running the red light at the South Station exit. Too bad, he was great.
I'm gonna play devils
I'm gonna play devils advocate. It's hard for me to not try and hold the door for an extra 3 seconds watching as another person behind me is running up the stairs as hard as possible.
Blue Line
I love the woman who does the announcements on the blue line (I usually pick inbound between 8:30 and 8:40) -
"Thank you for riding the T, have a WONDERFUL day! Go out there and enjoy that BEAUTIFUL weather!"
Oh, if I knew who she was, I'd bring her flowers or something.
Watch the doors!
WATCH THE DOORS THE DOORS ARE CLOSING. GET MOVING, THE TRAINS GOT 18 DOORS YOU BETTAH USE ALL OF 'EM.