• Must have been a chilly ride to Middleboro

  • Discussion relating to commuter rail, light rail, and subway operations of the MBTA.
Discussion relating to commuter rail, light rail, and subway operations of the MBTA.

Moderators: sery2831, CRail

  by Rockingham Racer
 
It seems that not a day goes by that some misfortune occurs on the hapless transit system called the MBTA. :wink:
  by ssresident
 
Wish they mentioned exactly which train had this issue...because this was probably my train. On Tuesday, all the Old Colony lines were experiencing delays of at least 20-30 minutes. My train home, 019, departs at 4:40, and is usually at the platform when I get to SS around 4:25.

On Tuesday, there were no trains on tracks 11-13, so when one showed up around 4:30, everyone assumed it would be used for 019, the next Old Colony departure, but they assigned it to 083 to Greenbush at 4:52. So, they did give us the next train when that showed up at about 5 pm, and we departed around 5:05. Now, the next Middleboro train is 021 at 5:12, and it's usually packed with people going to Quincy Center (019 has some people going there, but 021 has waaaay more for some reason), so we took on a lot of people who rightfully didn't want to wait for that train (which also ran 30 minutes late), hence all the crowding and people not getting kicked out of the vestibule like they normally would. I'm betting this door that didn't shut didn't have a handle on it, so there was no easy way to keep it closed, and a conductor would need to reset it for it to work properly.

Last night we had door issues too--one set of doors wouldn't open, and finally the conductor yelled over the intercom for people to not open doors on their own, but they did anyway because the conductor took his time getting around to opening them and people were scared that they'd miss their stop. The conductors also didn't check tickets the past two nights, but that's for another topic...
  by Arborwayfan
 
Would a door that wouldn't stay closed on a train running at normal speed make pulling the emergency brake "appropriate use", I wonder? I am thinking about the legalities, not whether it would actually have been a good idea; I think it would not be a good idea to put a train in emergency with people clinging to the grab bars in the vestibule.

I have often wondered what situation could justify a passenger in using the emergency brake handles. (Also somewhat amused that on the Red Line runaway no one thought of doing it.) It's hard to imagine a situation in which a passenger could actually be confident that they train needed to be stopped.
  by BandA
 
There is a thread somewhere about where the coupler broke & the train came apart, and someone said it did go into emergency. Back in the 1980s they would sometimes run with doors open for ventilation IIRC.

But people riding in the vestibule on a regular basis should get a look-see by the FRA and the MBTA/Keolis should face penalty. Failure to plan ahead and buy coaches several years ago!!