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Red Line riders were rattled when the PA started screaming expletives about the next stop
By adamg on Sun, 02/23/2020 - 8:14pm
Transit Police are investigating an incident last night in which somebody commandeered the PA system on an outbound Red Line train pulling into Broadway.
A Red Line rider who was on the train reports:
Someone hijacked the announcements so that passengers heard "next station fucking Broadway" and other four letter words. Passengers were actually afraid because they had no idea what was happening and worse yet who was really controlling the train. At Broadway, Transit police showed up and a couple of teenage boys ran.T police ran after them. Then the bogus announcements stopped. How did they hijack the announcements? Did they break into one of the driver's areas on one of the cars and access the microphone?
Transit Police Supt. Richard Sullivan said police are looking into the matter - but emphasized that safety of the train was never at stake:
We are looking into this. We have had similar issues in the past with our young people who forced their way into a restricted area (Trespassing) and use foul language via the intercom. They would not be able to control the operation of the train car.
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Comments
No Assing Rough!
No Assing Rough!
As a long time user of the Red Line
I appreciate this historical reference. I can also remember that someone used to scrape off all references to MGH at the Charles/MGH station.
I haven't noticed the assing rough or MGH alterations lately. Maybe I just became immune. I will have to check both tomorrow.
Ass stance
At Assembly Row, someone has rubbed the “i” out of assistance (on a call box or something similar on the platform ) and it amuses me every time I see it.
Pretty much business as usual
Honestly, I'm not sure how much worse this could be than the usual announcements by T drivers. Most are unintelligible, some are utterly contemptuous, sounding resentful that they have to speak to the minions at all, some have the microphone so close to their mouth that it comes out a soft voiced blur, and invariably all of them cut off mid sentence, "this train is going out of service at..." like a cliffhanger. I was one one train where the announcement of a train going out of service was simply "unload". I'm not kidding. And then there is that utterly unhinged sounding woman on the Blue Line going on and on about the Aquarium.
Love Blue Line Drivers
She is awesome!!! There is, also, one that give the history of the tunnel between Maverick & Aquarium.
Too bad what she says is wrong
The spread of misinformation. Its killing the Boston T
A solution. Every transit advocate has to register as a lobbyist
There are transit advocates everywhere in the US. But in Boston, the transit advocate per person ratio is off the charts. And nearly all of them throw out anecdotal info as facts. Force advocates to register as lobbyists, and the bad information drops significantly.
Hey bub...
...don’t be dissing the Blue Line Lady.
Damn straight
She tells everyone to have a wonderful day somewhere around Orient Heights each day too. Love her.
I ride the T daily and this
I ride the T daily and this is not my experience, most drivers are articulate on the intercom and provide appropriate information.
If you happen to board one of
If you happen to board one of the trains with the recorded announcements, yes.
cool exaggeration
she probably noticed alot of tourists trying to figure out which way to go and decided to make a helpful comment, even though it has to be super repetitive for her all day long. instead of being glad there are drivers with a sense of service and general positive attitude, you call someone "unhinged". okay.
At 7 AM?
Tourists going to the Aquarium at 7 AM? I've heard her do the routine at that hour. It just comes across as loopy. Someone should tell her the only people on the Blue Line possibly going to the Aquarium at 7 AM are people who work there. And they already know the way.
does it really matter what time it is?
Why does a very brief, helpful public service announcement affect you so much, to the point of insinuating things about her mental state?
Or wait, let us know when you plan to call her unhinged and loopy to her face, if you're so righteously indignant about it.
Why does this person's
Why does this person's comment affect you so much?
because it's meanspirited
and that kind of attitude doesn't make the T any better.
you want to be a grump in public? fine, put your headphones on, read some kind of literature, watch something on your phone, or just sit quietly and think terrible things to yourself about the people around you.
but don't crap all over well-meaning helpful people who are doing nothing wrong.
when I lived out in Western Mass, there was an older man who sometimes drove the express bus from Northampton to Amherst, which was almost exclusively filled with grad students. Every time, without fail, arriving at the UMass stop, he would say "everybody have a good day", kind of like grandpa dropping you off at school. It hurt no one, it wasn't creepy, it was just a nice person being aware of his surroundings and being nice. And it would take a shitty person to decide that's "unhinged".
Nobody minds "have a good day"
Nobody minds "have a good day". Wacky Blue Line Lady prattles on far longer than that. I wonder if it's even permissible within T guidelines for rogue drivers like this to make random, unauthorized, off the wall comments. I don't know how a code of conduct for live announcements could be enforced though. There would have to be "secret shoppers" doing spot checks I guess.
off the wall?
Come on.
"This is how you get to the aquarium, one of my favorite places" is hardly off the wall, wacky or inappropriate.
Goodness, what do you have against her?
I haven't heard this
I haven't heard this announcement. But I figure if it was a simple, "Use the exit to the right for the New England Aquarium", people wouldn't be annoyed.
Pretty funny
Given that's how lots of people around here talk anyway.
Damm Teenagers are Terrors
So youths with keys break into the cab of the train screaming swear words and terrifying passengers over the PA system. The Transit Police arrive on the scene and the teens outsmart them and escape their dragnet. Now we learn this has happened before and probably will happen again. The T should release the video showing the valiant police foot chase through the bowels of Broadway station. This police version of the story is bull....t
Wrong Stop
A number of times I have been on the Green Line and the automated message has announced the wrong stop. I feel bad for any tourists on board.
Happens on the Red Line too.
Which is bad even for non-tourists if the train is packed and you can't see much outside the windows. Also, the general signage at stations is unhelpful (which is probably a reason T ambassadors are needed). The tourist experience must be poor.
It would be instructive for some T official to do the "tourist experience" and pretend they know very little about the details of where they are going.
Or red line trains that say
Or red line trains that say they are going the wrong direction.
We Needn't Be Too Worried...
If any doofus gets into the cab they'd still need the special key to activate the controls. You also cannot have multiple controllers concurrently activated unless you follow a very meticulous procedure. {This is sorta like how with a motor car you can't be both in "neutral" AND "reverse" and still try to drive.}
P. S.
Does anyone else remember the lady on the Orange Line back in the 1990s who would **sing** all the announcements?
"next station fucking
What four-letter word? "next"?