Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Universal Hub / Today on the MBTA

Wow! Seems like I got linked on Universal Hub. <>Verrrry niiice.< / borat >

I read a few of the comments and a few persnickety people pointed out that all us T bloggers seem to do is complain on the Interwebs without ever notifying the MBTA. Well I did submit a complaint using the form on MBTA.com to no avail. I also always fill out those silly little surveys they pass out occasionally at T stops and drop them in the mail. However, usually my feedback on those surveys entails something along the lines of "WHY DID I SEE FOUR TIMES AS MANY B-LINE TRAINS GO BY ME DOWNTOWN TODAY BEFORE A C-LINE SHOWED UP"

Anywho, today's commute home to Brookline was the standard, except for the medical emergency at Arlington. I had just hopped onto the train and was standing by the driver on the second car when his radio blew up. Someone on the train in front of us had passed out, and the driver of that train sounded very concerned. Since I was standing right there I could hear "Command Central" (I'm not sure what the MBTA calls it) come over the radio and tell the other drivers to announce multiple times that there was a medical emergency up ahead and we'd be moving shortly. As the minutes ticked by, I looked down my train. The people who were closest to the front, and could hear the information coming over the driver's radio, were the most patient looking. Hope everything turned out okay.

Earlier in the day, I rode the Red line from Cambridge to downtown. I sat down, quietly sipping my soda and nursing the beginnings of a migraine headache when the guy sitting next to me started screaming something about the government, cops, and the fall of society. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine my "happy place," which at that moment involved anywhere but that particular train, and two aspirin.

1 comment:

Porter said...

I get the T alerts notifications by email... Yesterday apparently Arlington was a locus of issues.

Green Line experiencing 10-15 min delays due to signal problems in the Arlington Station area. 2/17/2009 2:43 PM
Sent: 2/17/2009 2:44 PM

Green Line service is experiencing 10-15 min delays due to an ill passenger on a train at Arlington Station. 2/17/2009 5:46 PM

Green Line service is on or near schedule from the earlier delay caused by the ill passenger. 2/17/2009 6:54 PM
Sent: 2/17/2009 6:55 PM

Note they never ever sent an indication that the signal problem had cleared up. And I left work prior to receiving the ill passenger report. Upon walking down the long, long hallway from the Berkeley street entrance of Arlington station... And approaching the stairs to the outbound side and seeing them completely clogged, I peeked down the stairs and it was wall to wall people. A complete and utter deathtrap if any real emergency were to occur. I turned around immediately, and left the station to hail a cab.