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The Orange Line was hell when one train got a death knell
By adamg on Thu, 08/17/2017 - 7:32pm
Tim Hanafin shows us the sitch at Community College around 6:50 p.m., after a train dumped him and everybody off there, leaving them stranded, waiting for a shuttle bus or a sign from God or something.
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Comments
Picture
That piece of rotting concrete doesn't look safe enough to handle all that weight.
Exactly what I was thinking.
Exactly what I was thinking. The picture gives a great view of the rotting infrastructure in this station.
Cut the GLX, put the money into the existing system.
Problem solved
$1 billion goes a long way. Reinforce every station instead of running a trolley 4 miles for 15 new riders (the rest are current bus users on half empty buses)
I drove by there around that
I drove by there around that time boy did it look brutal! The line of people waiting for shuttles stretched all the way around the corner by 99. Tons of folks gave up and were hiking it to sully.
(Btw is it possible to upload pictures from a phone on here?)
Smoking train at Wellington
Was waiting at Wellington station shortly after 6 pm to go to Malden when I saw a train headed northbound that stopped short of Wellington and then, shortly thereafter, saw smoke coming out of its rear. Not sure if this was the initial cause of the delays or one of the number of the disabled trains that affected this evening's commute. After seeing this, I decided to take one of the buses to Malden Center to minimize dealing with the delays.
After 20 minutes of waiting
the train on fire came by, and then got stuck. Another train came, packed to the gills, and then 10 minutes later another train came.
Both of these trains came back and dumped out their angry passengers. I walked to Lechmere and caught a bus. Good job, Baker. World Class
Are you kidding, playing the "blame game"?
I'm no follower or "supporter" of the Governor, but what the hell does he have to do with any of those instances?
Is Baker supposed to have a crystal ball that magically informs him when equipment is about to malfunction? S*** happens, not because any one or number of people made it that way...things just happen. Also, the T is the one who dispatches trains, and instructs what each consist is supposed to do. That has no involvement from Governor Baker.
If your gripe is with the cars themselves, I get it...we've all been down this path before about how the whole Orange Line fleet is over 30 years old, and sucks. Assuming you read anything about MBTA developments, you should know CRRC should be providing the first few Orange Line cars at the end of this year, which will lead to an eventual start of fleet delivery at the end of next year...replacing the ENTIRE Orange Line fleet.
So with the T calling shots on when trains go out-of-service, and CRRC actively prepping for their pilot car manufacturing (yielding an eventual fleet replacment), I ask you again...what the hell did this series of occurrences have ANYTHING to do with Governor Baker? Don't be one of those people, pointing fingers at a politician because it's the easy thing to do. Tell us what your grand plan would've been to handle this, how you would've deployed it, and why you didn't do so, but rather, decided to crap on someone who wouldn't have been able to do a damn thing about it.
What a lovely station design
In case we wondered whether public transit was for the lower class, to free up streets for the cars of the upper class.
Yes, I'm so jealous of
Yes, I'm so jealous of everyone that gets to sit in their car and deal with all the traffic, exhaust, and aggressive idiocy of other drivers.
(I totally agree that the T is poorly managed and in need of major repairs, but honestly unless you walk to work I consider us all losers as far as commute options go.)
The horrible smell of locked brakes
When I rode l down the pathway alongside the Orange line around 6:30 or so (approaching assembly) there was this absolutely horrendous burned up brake stench all along the tracks until the path turns and the trains Cross the river to Wellington.
My husband biked through just after six and did not smell anything like that.
I wonder if it was related. Maybe limping an empty train to Wellington? It was nasty.
I'm just trying to reconcile
I'm just trying to reconcile this post with the people screaming to close the Jway to traffic because people drive like lunatics. After all there are so many other reliable ways besides driving your own car that exist for getting around Boston such as taking the Orange line from Forest Hill to downtown. Oh wait, you say there was a broken down train today? That must be a rarity.
Driving a car isn't "reliable
Driving a car isn't "reliable". Cars break down just like trains do. Trains don't get stuck in miles of traffic. Trains don't kill 35,000 people in the US every year. Trains don't take up countless acres of valuable city property.
Oh wait, you say drivers killed hundreds of people in the world yesterday, including yet another car used as an act of terrorism? That must be a rarity.
I also saw the throngs of
I also saw the throngs of people pouring out of that station as I drove by. Didn't know what was going on.
I grew up in JP, went to school in Dorchester (go, Girls Latin School!), and lived at home while I went to college. So I basically grew up on the T. It was a lot more reliable in those days.
That's why I shake my head when people say that they want to ditch their cars and live in downtown (as opposed to some of the lovely neighborhoods like mine). WHY would you want to depend on such an unreliable form of transportation like the T everyday?
Also, I'm confused when T sends of bids for new trains, etc., that they always select a foreign supplier. ??? You mean that there is no vendor within the US or Canada that can be our suppliers? Aren't some of these suppliers from China? And there is no other company that can manage the T services, except for a French company (Keolis)...really?
Also, I'm confused when T
Essentially, no. The vast majority of rail transit in the world is located outside the US, so that's where the vast majority of suppliers are.
There used to be a few manufacturers in the US, but as they got less and less business they all shut down or got bought out by foreign companies. Some have manufacturing plants here (e.g. CRRC for the new Red and Orange cars), but the only real supplier of rail transit rolling stock left in all of North America is Bombardier in Canada, and they have a pretty mixed track record, and tend to be on the expensive side.
And this isn't a new phenomenon. This has been the status quo for 50 years now.
One little point
The rail sudsidiary of Bombardier is headquartered in Germany.
Is it really? Interesting!
Is it really? Interesting!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardier_Transportation
Still a Canadian firm though.
The parent company, yes
On the other hand, every time I get on a Hawker Siddeley Orange Line train, I am impressed that it was made in Thunder Bay. Then I remember that Jimmy Carter was a very unpopular President when the cars were being delivered, and ponder that the guys who delivered them wanted the Iranian hostage situation to be resolved soon.
I third that motion. The
I third that motion. The only thing my eyes immediately zoomed in on was the crumbling concrete. Holy shit!
Is that a record for the
Is that a record for the number of people at Community College Station?
Community College Station
Why do we tolerate such ugliness in our public structures? There are always alternatives.
It was the 70s
Every public structure was made of poured concrete.
Today, the platform would naturally still be the same, but the covering would be glass and of no help to anyone, but at least it would be astetically pleasing to you.