'It really looked like Charlestown was under attack and was being forcibly evacuated'

Malden Center this morning, as commuters try to get from the Orange Line to commuter rail, photographed by TC Cheever.

Aren't Friday commutes on the T fun? This morning, thousands of people were forced onto shuttle buses or sidewalks because of a seemingly never-ending series of busted-train problems on the Orange Line.

EnuhCork, who takes the Orange Line in from Malden, reports one conductor told his car the problem was a broken-down work train on the line somewhere between Haymarket and Back Bay:

... One person offered a simple solution in response: "Well, move it," he said.

Maybe it was just that simple. Maybe the T didn't think of that. ...

,According to railroad.net, it was a rail-grinding car that derailed outbound at Chinatown, "taking several ft of 3rd rail down" - which might explain all the other problems if the trains couldn't get enough power or something - and why the T couldn't simply move the thing.

Third Decade came up from the south on the Orange Line and witnessed a mass of Orange Line refugees walking and hobbling toward Science Park on the Green Line from Community College on the Orange Line:

... I felt bad for them considering how so many of them were overdressed for a walk in the warm weather or wearing uncomfortable shoes. It really looked like Charlestown was under attack and was being forcibly evacuated. ...

C. Grace was one of those Orange Line evacuees; she reports on the chaotic scene on the Prison Point Bridge - and on a completely incompetent 911 operator:

... As we walked down the right side of the bridge the sidewalk disappeared, as it was in the middle of massive construction. There were no police or city authorities present. Tons of people were hopping the barricade and running across the traffic When I saw a guy with a stiff artificial leg try to do this, I called 911 to request police crossing guards.

Here's the truly amazing part. The state 911 transfered me to city 911, and the city 911 operator couldn't figure out where I was.

My cell was transmitting from a tower which was apparently in Roxbury. I explained the "nature of the emergency", and explained that I was not in Roxbury.

+"I'm at Community College Station, the Orange Line."

-(witheringly)"M'am, do you know how many thousands of community colleges there are in Boston?"

+There are hundreds not thousands...and far fewer in the CITY juristiction...and there's only one Community College Station. Near Bunker Hill Community College."

-"Where's that?" ...

But wait, it gets even better, because after the 911 operator simply hung up, she found nobody could get into the Science Park station because the crush of people already there resulted in one person fainting, which led to the station being shut down until the ambulance arrived.

TC Cheever reports it took him two hours to get from Oak Grove to Harvard Square:

... Then I get to Malden Center... where the platform was wall to wall commuters. Angry, surly commuters who clearly had been waiting far too long for a train, and were not pleased to see our already-mostly-full train pull up. Angry commuters who had long ago decided to ignore the laws of physics and wanted to all get on THIS TRAIN RIGHT NOW. So the usual pushing and shoving and "Can you people move all the way in?!?" starts up, except that of course we all are already all the way in, and pushing any further means we're only moving away from one door to the other door that also has people pushing in, until finally people can't move any further and we're all nose to nose angry surly commuters who, for the most part, still haven't moved. ...