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One dead bus can ruin your whole morning
By adamg on Wed, 10/29/2014 - 7:47am
The dead bus. Photo by Tyler.
Just ask anybody who tried getting to the medical area via South Huntington Avenue this morning, thanks to a 38 bus whose poor little heart just plum gave out just before Huntington around 7:20 or so, close enough to the trolley tracks to box in a trolley and so jam up the entire inbound side of the road back into JP.
Yes, a 38 - it was one of the buses making a morning run from the hinterlands up to Boston Latin School.
Ed. note: I know this thanks to updates from the kidlet, who abandoned her own stuck 39 bus at Heath Street and fast-walked to school.
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Comments
Take the train!
My daughter gave up on those hinterland buses long ago, favoring the Needham line instead. The walk from Ruggles is better than an emergency speed walk from Heath St.!
While lots of things could imobilize the bus...
...too bad it's now boxed in with several trains up behind it. Usually the first method for clearing a disabled bus out of the way are the inspector's Suburbans. That's why they have those huge bumpers on them - just get behind the bus and shove.
Of course, if it's any failure that can lock up the brakes, that ain't gonna work.
The parked cars to the right of the bus
would also prevent any 'shoving to the side". Unless they pushed it down into a bus stop.
The one time kidlet tried that ...
She was late to school because the Needham Line is the Wednesday's child of commuter lines.
You have to take the earlier train
Daughter leaves pretty early, so even if her train is late, she should still make it. But yeah, definitely a risk if you try the train that gets to Ruggles at 7:20. Were it me, I'd go bus to Forest Hills, then Orange Line. A bit slower than the Needham line, but more flexible and reliable. And definitely faster than the special bus routes.
Not really
VoE - bus to Forest Hills to Ruggles is not always more reliable or faster than the T charter bus. It may just feel that way because one is taking a more active role with the transfers and the final walk. It gets delayed just as often and when it does you are well and truly stuck with no options.
And sure, my child could take the early Needham line train - if she left the house 20+ minutes earlier than she does now. So what would the point of that be? Travelling with a better 'class' of commuters?
This city already calls the teens to school far earlier than is healthy. That's what has to change. We should be sending middle/high school kids out to school around 8 and dismissing school around 3:30-4. Less traffic and fewer teens wandering around unsupervised in the early afternoon.
"Wednesday's Child" - parents
"Wednesday's Child" - parents of adopted kids everywhere would just LOVE to read this term in this context. Right? Sure, because things aren't already tough enough for them without such cracks.
Really, the choices are endless, yet you chose this. And spare me any comments about thin skin.
Perhaps you need a refresher
Perhaps you need a refresher on where that term comes from:
"Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace;
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go;
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for its living;
But the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay."
--Mother Goose
OR, perhaps you could realize
OR, perhaps you could realize that UH is a local blog in a city where "Wednesday's Child" has a specific meaning involving foster care and adoption.
AND, perhaps you could realize that when a reader of said blog sees the term "Wednesday's Child" in print, foster care and adoption, not Mother Goose, are what comes to mind.
For many around here, foster care and adoption are a really big deal.
But those who don't live in that world don't get it, I suppose. And never will.
My apologies
Yes, I was thinking strictly of the nursery rhyme, not the good work that Jack Williams has been doing all this time.
I see what you did there
I see what you did there
Meanwhile my petition to the
Meanwhile my petition to the creators of Downton Abbey to kill off the dog because its name triggers my fears of organized terrorism goes unanswered.
Maybe I should start petitioning the BPL to remove books on Egyptology instead.
Way to take it seriously
smh
Get over yourself
Adult adoptee here, sister of another adoptee, aunt of yet another, cousin of still others. I "live in that world." Have every day of my life. Quit speaking for everyone as though we're special snowflakes that need to be protected from off-hand references to literature as construed through some local TV segment.
Frankly, if you're this offended by the reference to a well-known poem, you might not have the temperament to be part of the adoption and foster system. I've lived all my life with some pretty nasty stereotypes leveled at me and my family from people who run the gamut of rude, ignorant and well-meaning but misinformed. This doesn't even register.
Read it again, arrogant one.
Read it again, arrogant one. Where does that poster "speak for everyone?"
"This doesn't register." Screw you. That sounds like you're speaking for that poster now.
Grow a thicker skin
"Wednesday's child is full of woe" goes back hundreds of years.
check your colloquialism
check your colloquialism privilege
It's a well-known nursery rhyme
that is often referenced in pop culture (for example, Wednesday Addams). First time I heard the feature I thought they were referencing the poem, which seemed a bit insulting to the kids, actually.
Oh good grief
I'm an adopted kid from right here in Boston. You need to grow a thicker skin. If you are part of the triad, this shouldn't even register on the list of mildly uncomplimentary to absolutely gross shit you will hear about adopted children.
Frankly, naming the segment "Wednesday's Child" is FAR more offensive than Adam's traditional use of the poem. I may be an adoptee, but I am not now and never was "full of woe," thanks very much, WBZ.
If you are part of the triad,
Yeah, well, I've always heard that those Chinese mafia types were tough.
Having known a Wednesday's Child
Your comment is way off base, Adam.
These kids don't bring their misery on themselves.
What about Sunday's children?
Are they inherently blithe and gay? Or do they choose to be blithe and gay?
your comment make zero sense
Neither do the stuck commuters, and in any case the term "Wednesday's child" to refer to a special needs foster child is a very recent and localized usage - pretty much unknown to those without direct contact with that particular organization or with WBZ.
The poem - based on an even centuries older folk tradition - was itself officially first published nearly 200 years ago. I think that gets to be the default and accepted referent, and you folks need to direct your outrage elsewhere.
How dare Adam
Quote from literature?
To be fair, I always thought of the phrase only in terms of what Jack Williams did at WBZ, but then again I am Boston bred. So the phrase was taken from this poem? Go figure.
Further, WBZ's name
of "Wednesday's Child" has absolutely no basis in the poem, but merely refers to the day of the week that their feature appears on.
I'm pretty sure the WBZ
I'm pretty sure the WBZ feature was named after the poem.
"...very recent and localized
"...very recent and localized..."
Much like UH.
Smart, time-conscious JP kids
also learn to take the Orange Line to Ruggles and walk. My kid learned this during the big snow storm in December, 2007 when the whole city was brought to a standstill. Only the trains were moving.
Yes, indeedy
The problem comes when a kid is already on a 39 bus that has made it all the way to Heath Street, at which point, even if she knew how to get to the Orange Line, it would still take less time to walk to BLS, since the alternative would be walk to the Orange Line, take it to Ruggles, then walk to school from there.
Still, this morning, at a licensing-board hearing, I ran into somebody who lives on South Huntington. I jokingly expressed my surprise that he made it into town on time, and he said he never takes the bus, he always gets himself to the Orange Line, for just this sort of reason.
Walk down the hill , get the
Walk down the hill , get the Oak Square return bus to Dudley , get off at Mission Church , walk down St. Alphonsus. Inverse of Dudley to Oak Square bus, sorry don't know the numbers. No problemos , amigita !
When and where
This is the Boston City Archives' Mystery Photo of the Day for August 27, 2108.
Fun Fact
The 38 supp (and a few other BLS supps) are the only MBTA bus routes that officially travel via Saint Alphonsus Street. I had a friend back in high school who took it and found that segment of the route particularly handy in the morning when she wanted to go to Mike's Donuts.
Dead bus - no surprise.
How many folks notice the screaming brakes on several buses now. The 39 is notorious but 4 is competing for worst screatch. Not only is the T managment allowing the trains to disintegrate but they apparently have given up on buses.
We need only wait, what 5 years before new trains start arriving? By that point there will be very few trains running. Will the buses be replaced? Not until they crumble most likely.
Meanwhile the T mgmt reads children's books and presses the flesh of the public pretending with a nice smile that everything is okay.
This comment is more bizarre than ignorant.
Several buses? The T has 1,000. Do you have vehicle numbers?
Do bus routes make noises? Or is it the vehicles that operate on them?
Granted the Route 39 runs 60 foot buses, but so does the 28 and the SL4/SL5. Are those routes "screatchy," as well?
So the Route 4 is "screatchy," too? What if I told you that the buses on the 4 also do the 1,8, 9, and 66 on the same shift? So those routes must be "screatchy," too, right?
So you think the trains are disintegrating? I agree.
But you think the bus fleet is in worse shape? Jesus take the wheel.
What if I told you almost every single bus on MBTA property has received, or will receive, a mid-life overhaul?
The NABIs are almost done. The Neoplans are getting there. The 60 footers are starting. The RTS fleet had their overhaul in the early-mid 2000s and are now running 20 years strong.
What if I told you there are TEN (10) BRAND NEW BUSES ON THE PROPERTY RIGHT NOW and fifty (50) more are coming before 2015?
And in six days, your vote counts just the same as mine. Fuck.
Many of the buses are at
Many of the buses are at their 10 year lifespan now which means they need an overhaul or to be replaced entirely.
2004-2014
Doesn't seem like long but for buses driven 8+ hours up to 365 days a year it takes a toll.
And a medical emergency will leave a dead T
Haymarket shut down due to medical emergency. No direction from T staff regarding alternatives. Typical T FUBAR. Meanwhile GM reads children's books
What is so systemically wrong with the T? More dead would than a petrified forest?