Speaking of streetcars...

It's about quarter 'til nine, and I get to the Red Line platform at Downtown Crossing and have just missed the train to Alewife. I wait for the next one.

Ten minutes goes by.

At the fifteen minute mark (9:00am), an announcement that starts repeating every 30 seconds... and I'm sure it's something important and relevant to the fact that no train has yet appeared (even though fifteen minutes has gone by and I'm reasonably sure that 8:45am to 9:00am is still in the "Morning Commute" range) but it doesn't help much because you can't make out what the announcement is saying.

Finally five to ten minutes after that, an MBTA cop shows up on the platform and tells us all, "There ain't no train coming here. You gotta walk up to Park Street if you wanna go to Alewife." Apparently there's power problems-- I learn this from overhearing another employee who also speaks the immortal quote "No power, no trains"-- and they're running shuttle buses between JFK and Park Street. 

So I walk upstairs to the Orange Line platform at Downtown Crossing, and walk down the Winter Street Concourse down to Park Street. I get to the Red Line platform at Park Street. (For those not familiar with Park Street's Red Line platforms-- there's a platform between the Alewife-bound and Ashmont/Braintree bound tracks. When you're there, you can board trains on either track. That's where I am standing at this point in the story.)

It's JAMMED with people, all waiting expectantly on the side of that platform that's on the Alewife bound side.

Along comes ONE guy on the platform in an MBTA inspector's uniform, yelling across to other side of the Alewife tracks that everyone there is on the wrong side. If they want to get to Alewife they need to be on the same side we're all on-- because during the time they're fixing this power problem, they're actually running service between Park Street and Alewife on the Ashmont/Braintree tracks. (Park St. to JFK is running on shuttle buses.)

So we all move to the other side of the platform.

Another five minutes or so goes by.

The train finally shows up. Everyone on it gets off to go to the shuttle buses that will take them to their final destination. All of us waiting to get north of Park Street get on the train to get to Alewife. There is an announcement, while the train is sitting there, that 'the next train to Alewife station is approaching.' 

Ten minutes goes by...

...and they start announcing "This train is coming out of service. PLEASE GET OFF THE TRAIN. This train is coming out of service." We all dutifully get off onto the now completely overcrowded platform.

The train doesn't move.

Another five minutes goes by, and they announce 'This train is going to Alewife.' So we all get back on...

and its another ten minutes before we actually move.

Rapid transit, my ass.

Comments

[Browneyedgirlie]

I'd taken the Red Line for 7 months up until earlier this summer and never had a problem like that.

The only time I was even remotely inconvenienced was when they were doing track work at MGH and I had to be shuttle bused from Park Street to Kendall so I could get back on the Red Line to get to Davis.

Makes me actually APPRECIATE the slowness of the Green Line.

[Anonymous]

My experience that day was similar, but not as horrible.

A cop directed all new comers at downtown crossing to go back up the stairs, and walk to park st.

Once at park a train was waiting on the southbound track that wan't moving. Everybody going north expected a train on the north bound track.

The new fancy expensive announcement system kept repeating an incoherent message every 10 seconds that nobody could make out. 5 minuites later, to everyone surprise the train on the south borded track started moving north. Well I sure would have boarded the train if I knew where it was going.

Too bad. They kept saying the next train to arrive on the south bound track would also be turned aroud and heading to Alewife. It came, and we boarded and even told the southbound occupants on the train what we heard. They seemed surprised some left to catch suttle busses, others waited to hear more information. Well turns out the train would continue southboud making all stops. I felt bad for the people who listined to instructions and left for the busses.

[Anonymous]

I boarded an Alewife-bound Red Line train at North Quincy shortly before 9AM; multiple announcements were already made regarding the problem, so I thought my delay would be moderate, at worst. The train pulled into JFK-UMASS about 10 minutes later, where all I noticed was a sea of passengers already waiting for bus service as well as on the Commuter Rail platform towards South Station. I would say prior to my train unloading, there were probably at least 1,000 passengers already waiting, then add almost that many passengers to that growing crowd. I thought there would already be a line of buses waiting and ready to take passengers to their Red Line destinations, but in 10 minutes of waiting, I only saw ONE bus come in, with a swarm of passengers pushing and rushing towards that bus. I decided that given the amount of time it might take me to get to Harvard, I decided to just get back on the Braintree-bound platform and wait for the next outbound train to head back home. At about the same time a Braintree train arrived at JFK, another Alewife train pulled in, when they made an announcement that the Red Line was back up and running, but will be running with significant delays from Andrew to Park St. By then, there was no way I wanted to deal with an excessively lengthy commute (it already takes me an hour each way to commute to/from work). I was back home within 15 minutes and worked from home all day, where I saved all the commuting time and was able to put in an extra hour of work that I would've otherwise lost by being stuck in the commuting chaos.