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Entire T system comes to a halt, something with the power system at fault

Just Kidding

The tracks are getting better and better, but, oops, something blew out all the power on the Red, Orange, Green and Blue lines around 1:30 p.m. The MBTA reported about 15 minutes later that Johnny plugged the power cord back in, except, oops, briefly not on the Orange Line between Stony Brook and Forest Hills.

Except:

Dr. Neenah Estrella-Luna, posted a signboard at the Government Center Blue Line that showed two lines of "Wonderland Stopped" at 2:01 p.m.:

I walked from Boylston to Govt Ctr only to find the train completely stopped at Bowdoin. Arrived at 1:47 pm and been at least 15 minutes and counting (@ 2 pm). Website says the electricity problem is fixed but still no trains and the platform is getting crowded.

And at 2:12 p.m., the T itself posted:

Orange Line: Delays of about 30 minutes due to a signal problem near Back Bay and Forest Hills. Single track operation is in place between Forest Hills and Stony Brook with all service operating on the northbound track.

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Comments

MBTA said things were fixed and service restored 25 minutes ago. But still no signs of an Orange Line train southbound at State Street. (Nowhere near the other problem reported near Forest Hills.) It’s been 50 minutes without service now. Communication from the T only succeeds when it’s truthful.

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With a similar story from the Blue Line.

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at approximately 1:20

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And it probably won’t get touched until the shutdown, despite the major problem it is causing.

Eng’s T is the same as Poftak’s T. The dysfunction continues unabated.

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Waquiot, you've been around these parts long enough to know that the GM position is just a figurehead. We've had some well qualified people in this position, Eng being one of them.. and the same sht keeps happening.

As easy as it is to point fingers and say "leadership issues", that is not always the case. Aging and neglected equipment and trackage have lead us here and while you could blame the GM for not doing something about it. As we've seen in the 'safety report' that came out a few months ago, several GMs (including Dr Scott!) warned about these issues and were pushed aside. They all knew but their hands were tied. How was this their fault?

Same with just funding. It's not the GMs fault. They can only do so much with what money the legislature has given them.

And report after report, year after year, GM after GM, we learn that the issues with the MBTA aren't just at the top, but all thru the organization. The issue with the MBTA is the MBTA itself, and no matter who is GM, that isn't going to change. Its up to the legislators to really take on this issue (i.e. funding or re-orging the T), but since no one likes the T because it sucks due to decades of neglect, any sort of real MBTA reform is political suicide. The hot potato no one wants to touch.

I've lived here 25 years and while some things with the T have gotten better, much has stayed the same, and some things are defiantly worse.

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Back in the 1980s I was a teen who thought that the Red Line stopping between stations for 20 minutes was normal. Later, I found out it's not.

Honestly, I thought Eng was going to bring in a new culture. I can't wait to count the slow zones in the system on January 1, the deadline for getting rid of them.

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Here's a map of slow zones now. They've removed basically all the ones they've said they would so far.

https://www.mbta.com/performance-metrics/speed-restrictions

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"The dysfunction continues "unabated"!?

Here in the real world, most people think the hiring of Eng is one of the best things to happen to the T since well before Charlie Baker helped lay waste to the system with his neglect, lies about funding "we have all the money we need", horrific management and hack pioneer institute management hires like Poftak.

Sure, there's still problems from previous years of neglect and continuing underfunding, but Eng has gotten tangible results on reducing shutdowns, improving headways, hiring more staff, etc, etc... unlike that joke "emergency" orange line shutdown that Baker/Poftak perpetrated that actually made things worse, somehow.

It's nice to have someone running the system who cares about improving service, now if we could only get people on Beacon Hill to feel the same...

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now that the slow areas are being fixed, but, man, this is embarrassing for the T. Having all four lines on one circuit, without any backup if it fails? Now, really. Time to upgrade.

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This is what kinda blew my mind.

I thought at least parts of the subway had their power provided by a private entity (Veolia?) and not Eversource. We found this out many years ago when Boston (Eversource) had a power outage and parts of the subway still lit and running. (It was bizarre.. dark city, but at park street under it was lit up like nothing happened)

I know newer sections of the Red and Orange lines built after 1975 get their power from the local utility (eversource or national grid electric), but most of the green line is from Veolia. (I can't remember what the deal with the Blue Line is, but I want to say its on Veolia power till Airport, then switches to the local power grid (for the catenary wires)

Now this was several years ago and lots of 'switch projects' and 'rebuilds' of various lines, stations have happened since then so who knows.

Even if its still true, this would lead me to believe this was a internal issue and a bizarre one still as you cannot connect two power sources to the same circuit(s). So either things were streamlined to use one power utility and something happened or something big happened somewhere to take out all lines (and both utility feeds)

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and the latest "fix" crashed it.

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