Sandy's Impact on the MBTA

Lets discuss any issues Sandy brings here.

We're New Englanders. We chuckle at this stuff.

passengers won't be chucklin' when our trains are stranded due to downed tree's and downed wires on the mainline

Amtrak just cancelled all NEC trains: https://twitter.com/AmtrakNEC

Amtrak Northeast ‏@AmtrakNEC

@bostonnewsnerd All NEC and Keystone trains for 10/29 are cancelled.

According to the City of Boston's official Twitter account, MBTA service disruptions are expected tomorrow.

While we as New Englanders do have a "bring it on" attitude to weather, fact is there WILL be disruptions. Probably some very severe. No matter how you get to where you're going, whether driving, taking the T, walking, or however, expect that there will be downed trees, power outages, lousy conditions all over the place. It is not going to be just another day, and anybody who thinks it will is living in a fantasy land.

So ... if forecasts hold and I'm on a Kingston/Plymouth or Middleborough train early tomorrow morning (before 8, when it's supposed to get really bad), am I getting into the city? I'm more worried about flooding in any low-lying track areas at that point of the day.

So far the T's running on a normal schedule tomorrow. School's been canceled statewide and the Gov.'s declaration encourages all private offices to either close or allow employees to work from home. So that ought to blunt the worst effects of the likely delays by simply removing a large percentage of riders from the schedule.

PM commute's going to be much much worse. If things tonight aren't getting delayed left and right conditions at daybreak aren't supposed to be dramatically worse. Different story tomorrow afternoon.


With Amtrak out-of-service for the day are they going to de-energize the NEC overhead for easy cleanup of downed wires? I could see the Providence Line being an especially dicey proposition with that MOW risk.

For Massachusetts, 3-4 ft coastal storm surge and hurricane-force gusts on the cape. For the rest of the state it is a tropical storm. There is danger, but shutting down the "T" will cause more harm (how will medical personel or patients get to hospitals?). 11PM news reported they are staging sandbags at Fenway in case the muddy river causes problems. There is probably some wind-speed threshold at which they shut down. New Bedford and the Charles River have flood control dams, and rain will be moderate. We're getting correct information, but also way too much hype.

7news is reporting mbta service will be suspended after 2pm today.

3rdrail wrote:We're New Englanders. We chuckle at this stuff.

Thank you for this. This has to be the most craziest frenzy the media has ever whipped us up too!

Yes High tides will cause some flooding, I am on the beach so I keep an eye out. However. I have lived through three hurricanes that gave us a direct hit. This is barely a tropical storm hitting way down in Delaware. Come on people!!! What happened to being a hearty New Englander?

As of 2PM the MBTA will be shutting down for the duration of this hurricane. http://mbta.com/weather/

Shortly after the last outbound train* passed West Cambridge, one of the white MBCR pickups went inbound on the rails, its bed full of cut lengths of wood...looked like tree branch sized stuff, nothing too large. I'm not sure why they'd be bringing them in toward North Station, though...do they have a wood burning stove in the conductor's lounge there?

Dan

* Last regularly scheduled train...I don't know if they were planning to run sweepers, leaving at 2PM to pick up stragglers, but at this point I haven't seen signs of one.

The last outbound to Worcester was held, supposedly to allow more people to get to the train. However, the MBTA did not advertise it would hold any trains, nor did they hold any others as far as I know. I'm not sure when that train departed, but the last two trains to leave were the 1:45 to Providence and the 2:00 to Needham.

The train to Fitchburg is still at North Station, however, due to fallen tree.

"Haverhill line train #217 experiencing delays due to fallen power lines. Passengers will be bussed from Andover Station."

Apparently the last Haverhill train (217) was bused from Andover east. @mbtagm posted this photo, I think from somewhere in Lawrence:

https://twitter.com/mbtaGM/status/26301 ... to/1/large