From the Field: 4/22/07

I went for a nice tour of the city this morning, enjoying the BEAUTIFUL weather that we have all earned! I must say first and foremost that Boston shines like the jewel it is in this kind of weather -- warming sunlight with a slight ocean breeze refreshing the city air. Quite a day, indeed!

As far as transit goes, I did some riding around as well (I walked more than usual today), and here's a few notes:

PORTER - I arrived at Porter around 8AM on the Commuter Rail, and those of us heading for the subway were greeted with locked doors all around! Only once someone inside heard us banging on the doors were we let in. I've never encountered this before personally, but I imagine it happens every so often, especially on Sunday mornings.

CHARLES/MGH - I really do like the new headhouse (station house, more accurately). I would, however, like to know when they're going to tie in the information boards to the "Next Train..." system, so they don't just repeatedly welcome you to the station.

COPLEY - Work progresses, though honestly I can't visibly tell what's different now than several weeks ago when I was last there. I got a few shots of the outbound headhouses, as they'll be meeting the wrecking ball at some point in this process (one met a wayward taxi last year, so there's not much left to dismantle there).

LECHMERE - I finally rode a Type 8 out to Lechmere. I had never done this yet, but with their return to the E line I was given the chance and took it. Lechmere yard consisted mostly of Type 8s today, and I imagine this is now the norm. Now I've just got to ride one out to Arbor- I mean Heath Street...

ARLINGTON - Work is much more visible here, at least from street level, as they have torn open the old entrance stairwell. Unfortunately I didn't make it here in time to capture it on film, but I did record what's left of it (photos coming soon).

WORLD TRADE CENTER - I had never noticed the security panels in the roadway until the recent incident, and I really like that whole system. They have installed new information screens here, which today were only displaying the T logo, date, and time. The new advertisement panels added at WTC brighten up the station quite a bit, and I actually somewhat like them! They also added some at Courthouse, but I didn't get off to explore further.

ROUTE 1 BUS - The Mass Ave Bridge detour and a Greek parade detour really fouled up the 1 today, but I eventually made it to my destination. On the bright side, I suppose, is that I got to ride a 1 down Comm Ave and through Kenmore Square!


Mike

I would also like to welcome Ron Newman to the CharlieBlog! He will be contributing with posts on various transit topics. Welcome aboard!

Silver Line Driver Flips at Passenger

Quite the interesting story in this week's Starts & Stops. In short, a late night run from the Airport was apparently going to use surface roads from the TWT to South Station, bypassing Silver Line Way (and therefore a passenger's home stop). Said passenger questioned the driver, and the driver told the passenger to get off the (explitive) bus, after stopping it in the middle of Summer Street. The driver has since been disciplined and warned, according to T mouthpiece Joe Pesaturo. Quite the outburst if this is all true!

Mike