MBTA hiring union members to shovel out the Red Line tomorrow

It is the fact that we have not had a thaw while being repeatedly mowed by medium to epic sized storms.

For example, the two storms in January and February 1978 had a thaw in between, not yet another moderate storm. Juno and Marcus were both top ten all time storms, interwoven with two other storms of lesser note but important volume.

The only thing close to this in any sort of records: February and March of 1717.

I don't think it's that simple.

True, but the really serious issues started showing themselves after the first storm when the Braintree branch totally collapsed. Everything else after that just made it 100Xs worse. I don't agree with the thinking that it is either the weather or it's either the T positions on this. It's a combination that made for a perfect storm, so to speak. You can't remove the weather piece and say it's 100% the fault of infrastructure because anything would be hampered by this amount of snow and cold, but you also can't ignore the long standing issues the T has had maintaining acceptable service when it's not perpetually snowing in Boston. I'm not saying it would have never happened, but well maintained equipment and having enough of it, along with better communication and coordination with the public could have lessened the blow for everyone.

The poor communication to the public has also been a big factor here. When people are told that normal/regular service will resume, that is what they plan for. I feel like my commutes have been a lot easier since the T got realistic about what it could actually do and adjust service accordingly. Keolis, on the other hand, continues to insist they will run regular schedules as planned as if we don't have 7 feet of snow and sub-zero temps. It is incredibly frustrating trying to plan around BS information or total lack of it short of "I will avoid the commuter rail entirely", which is what I've resorted to doing at this point because thankfully I have that luxury. Not everyone does.

It's sad that we have none of the (working) equipment needed to get and keep our subway lines functioning. But nothing's going to fix that in time to clear this mess. Anything ordered now won't be here before the snow melts - at this point we'd be lucky if it's here for next winter.

Thankfully they're trying something to clear the line. As traffic has shown, we can't have a functioning city without it, even if it has to be dug out by hand.

I'm really skeptical that Braintree will be up and running and will cheer wildly if it does (lived there 35 years before moving to the Ashmont side, so it's kind of personal). It's not just the snow on the tracks causing issues down there. Snow removal is a huge piece of it, but unless the issue with losing power to the third rail has been resolved, we'll see more of the same as more snow comes in. Without reliable power, and then trains stalled out on the tracks, it's kind of hard to run snow trains overnight during storms. Without being able to run those snow trains, the tracks get completely buried overnight. That has to be a huge contributor to Braintree woes right now. Ashmont and other portions of the T that are above ground have been fairing pretty well through all of this in comparison to the Braintree branch.

Throwing out that line that it's the "Oldest Subway System" is a totally bogus excuse for any of the Ⓣ's failures. If anything, with all that experience, it ought to be the best running rapid transit system in the nation.

...if the snow farms managed to survive until next winter's first major snowfall? To be honest, I think should strive for it, in fact. We need to stop using multiple snow farms and make one hideously massive one. Maybe it will turn into a glacier and last for decades.