Jwill's Log

Some issues I have with the T at times. It’s not all service based; sometimes, the customers do things that annoy me.

On the T, I don’t like…

• When people hit the stop button when the bus is reaching a terminal station. It’s going to stop!
• When people keep trying and trying to hit the stop button when it’s already been pressed. True, sometimes they don’t work, but usually, it’s because somebody already pressed it.
• When MBTA officials try to close the train doors on you before everybody that wants to get in gets in. We know there’s a train behind us, but we don’t want to wait 10 more minutes for another one in the hot, musty train station!
• When people on the bus don’t move all the way back. They make the driver think the bus is full, and then they end up skipping over people they could have picked up.
• When the fare increases. It’s still cheaper than driving a car, though…
• When you’re waiting for the rear door to open and they don’t open it, and you have to yell out “Rear Door”. It’s bad on a bus…one day I was on a green line train going to either Cleveland Circle or Riverside (I forget) and the operator didn’t open the back door. Everybody had to run for the front before the doors closed.
• When riders don’t sit down in free seats to free up standing room on the bus or train.
• When crazy people try to talk to you.
• Long lines at CharlieCard service machines. Get a CharlieCard and buy your transportation money in bulk, whether it’s with a $10, $20, or even more, at a time. It saves you trouble, time, and everyone else a space in line.

Source: Boston.com, Original Article

At 6 AM this morning, a man was killed by an Orange Line train while walking along the tracks.

The man had travelled about 200 feet from the station when the impact took place, Pesaturo said. It was not immediately known why the man was walking along the tracks, which are powered by a third rail, he said.

For one, ouch. Now I know to believe “Danger Third Rail” in MBTA stations. This is more a weird story than anything else. I doubt the train operators would’ve seen the man before the train ran him over, so what do you do in a situation like this?