2016 Commuter Rail Delay Discussion Thread

South Attleboro, Attleboro, Mansfield, Sharon, Canton Junction, Readville, and Hyde Park all have intertrack fences to discourage passengers from crossing the tracks. Early after the Acela's introduction, they actually regularly greased the fence to discourage crossing even further.

In a larger version of the above photo, you can see the fence ends where the platform ends. It would be incredibly easy to just walk from one side to the other at the end of the platform. I haven't heard any details, but I wouldn't be surprised if they alighted a train, crossed behind their train at the end the platform, with no clue as to the approaching train, all while trying to reach their car on the other side. It is feasible, albeit lazy and dangerous.

Based on the location of vehicles that were affected, I believe he was struck at the south end of the platforms. The fence there extends past the platform ends and over the bridge.

Full-high platforms really should be installed at all Providence Line stops. Beside the accessibility and dwell time benefits, they definitely present a psychological barrier that makes people much more likely to attempt crossing.

BostonUrbEx wrote:In a larger version of the above photo, you can see the fence ends where the platform ends. It would be incredibly easy to just walk from one side to the other at the end of the platform. I haven't heard any details, but I wouldn't be surprised if they alighted a train, crossed behind their train at the end the platform, with no clue as to the approaching train, all while trying to reach their car on the other side. It is feasible, albeit lazy and dangerous.

I've definitely seen people do this at the northern end of the station--seen in the distance of the above picture, and opposite to the pedestrian underpass.

That being said, whatever happened was clearly beyond the pale--the Mansfield PD just posted on their Facebook page that the impounded cars will be available for claiming at 3pm, but that even then people won't be able to enter the impound area, but rather the cars will be brought out by officials:

Vehicle Retrieval from Mansfield MBTA Station
All vehicles that were impacted by yesterdays train fatality and were required to be left parked will be available for pick up at 3pm. Due to continued cleanup on Mansfield Ave., those vehicles parked there will be brought to you by a representative of the MBTA. The reason for this procedure will be explained to you at that time. Mansfield Ave. itself will continue to be shut down until further notice. We, at the Mansfield Police Department, appreciate your continued patience and understanding while we work through this situation. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all affected by this incident.

BlueFreak wrote:I've definitely seen people do this at the northern end of the station--seen in the distance of the above picture, and opposite to the pedestrian underpass.

That being said, whatever happened was clearly beyond the pale--the Mansfield PD just posted on their Facebook page that the impounded cars will be available for claiming at 3pm, but that even then people won't be able to enter the impound area, but rather the cars will be brought out by officials:

Vehicle Retrieval from Mansfield MBTA Station
All vehicles that were impacted by yesterdays train fatality and were required to be left parked will be available for pick up at 3pm. Due to continued cleanup on Mansfield Ave., those vehicles parked there will be brought to you by a representative of the MBTA. The reason for this procedure will be explained to you at that time. Mansfield Ave. itself will continue to be shut down until further notice. We, at the Mansfield Police Department, appreciate your continued patience and understanding while we work through this situation. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all affected by this incident.

I just heard on NECN that the cars had been "washed down".. <shudder!> That's got to tell you something. I sure hope the crew will get whatever mental health and other services they will need.

Yeah, but uh... what about any BYSTANDERS who were near?

Cosmo wrote:Yeah, but uh... what about any BYSTANDERS who were near?

Yes, they also...

BostonUrbEx wrote:In a larger version of the above photo, you can see the fence ends where the platform ends. It would be incredibly easy to just walk from one side to the other at the end of the platform. I haven't heard any details, but I wouldn't be surprised if they alighted a train, crossed behind their train at the end the platform, with no clue as to the approaching train, all while trying to reach their car on the other side. It is feasible, albeit lazy and dangerous.

The image (undated) I get from Google Earth also shows the northerly end of the fence is indeed at the end of the platform. [Click for larger view]

When I came through on track 1 on Acela 2164 around 8 PM (~2 hours late) on Wednesday evening, there were CleanHarbors employees on track 2 just south of the actual station building. So as others have speculated, it's pretty clear the strike was not at the northern end of the platform.

If you look at Google Maps and zoom in using earth view, you can see the shadows of the fence posts for the fence between the tracks. The fence extends well south of the Chauncy Street bridge. A review of the cab view video of this stretch of tracks shows that there are fences on either side of the tracks and along the sidewalks on the south side of the Chauncy Street bridge and all the way to the mini-high platforms at the north end of the Chauncy St bridge. These fences also extend along the parking lots - making it very difficult to even get onto the tracks to go around the southern end of the fence between the tracks. If someone was going to cut across the tracks without hopping a fence, the only path would be to get onto the tracks just north of the mini-high platforms (on either track 1 or track 2), walk on the tracks south across the Chauncy Street bridge, then around the southern end of the fence between the tracks and back north over Chauncy Street and onto the platform north of the mini-highs. Not plausible. It seems to me that the only plausible scenario is that the person (if they really were trying to cross the tracks) intended to hop the fence between the tracks, just north of the mini-high platforms.

I do recall that when they eliminated the grade crossing walkway at the Wellesley Farms station on the Framingham-Worcester line, they had to extend the fence TWICE to try and mitigate passengers walking a really long way around the fence to cut across the tracks. It became such a contentious issue that is showed up in the Boston Globe for a while. But passengers there could walk alongside the tracks to get to the end of the fence, as opposed to this Mansfield arrangement where one would have to walk directly on the tracks and over a bridge to get around the fence between the tracks.

Dave

dbperry wrote:The fence extends well south of the Chauncy Street bridge. A review of the cab view video of this stretch of tracks shows that there are fences on either side of the tracks and along the sidewalks on the south side of the Chauncy Street bridge and all the way to the mini-high platforms at the north end of the Chauncy St bridge. These fences also extend along the parking lots - making it very difficult to even get onto the tracks to go around the southern end of the fence between the tracks. If someone was going to cut across the tracks without hopping a fence, the only path would be to get onto the tracks just north of the mini-high platforms (on either track 1 or track 2), walk on the tracks south across the Chauncy Street bridge, then around the southern end of the fence between the tracks and back north over Chauncy Street and onto the platform north of the mini-highs. Not plausible. It seems to me that the only plausible scenario is that the person (if they really were trying to cross the tracks) intended to hop the fence between the tracks, just north of the mini-high platforms.

This is absolutely correct--the only reasonable way to cross the tracks at the southern end of the platform (is to use the underpass, of course...) would be to go over at least one, if not multiple, fence.

My first thought was that he was running for a train and attempted this "short cut", but that doesn't make sense, since there were no commuter rail trains scheduled at the time of the incident (the previous one had left at least 20 minutes prior, and the next MBTA trains weren't due for over an hour).

FYI, there's not much content, but the Mansfield PD log can be found at http://www.scribd.com/doc/302196439/Pol ... rch-2-2016" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; -- the entry narrative starts on page 9. Only noteworthy item is that CleanHarbors was on site at 5:25pm, and pretty much worked continuously until 2pm except for a shift change at 5am. I don't even want to imagine what it looked like initially.

A Friend of a Friend is an Amtrak train service employee in the area and his description of events implies that the victim did jump the fence immediately prior to the accident.
Too bad that he had to be in such a hurry that he wouldn't take the safe way around..

v8interceptor wrote:A Friend of a Friend is an Amtrak train service employee in the area and his description of events implies that the victim did jump the fence immediately prior to the accident.
Too bad that he had to be in such a hurry that he wouldn't take the safe way around..

I hope the engineer is doing okay. What a horrible thing to witness.

I am sure the investigators have 619's forward facing camera footage in hand and are watching it carefully as to what happened.

Not a delay, but an avoided delay that doesn't seem to merit its own thread:

On Framingham Worcester P506 Monday AM, coach #744 was taken out of service due to an 'electrical short and burning smell.' The lights and HVAC were secured and passengers were not permitted to enter it. But the train operated on time. That coach was the fourth back in a six car all double consist - I could smell the electrical burning odor all the way forward in the head control car.

I also noticed the train had 2 control cars, both at east end of train.

As a sidebar, lots of complaints about short sets this AM. They even put the skitrain coach in service on the north side. NE Transit doesn't seem to indicate a coach shortage...

dbperry wrote:As a sidebar, lots of complaints about short sets this AM. They even put the skitrain coach in service on the north side. NE Transit doesn't seem to indicate a coach shortage...

There's at least one 4-car set running around and quite a few MBBs in service. Another coach shortage is obvious.