2014 Discussion for Commuter Rail Delays

Crossing signals on north side of High st in West Medford just hit and knocked on to both tracks by a semi flatbed truck. It appears there will br delays on Lowell line service. Apparently the truck was making the right turn on to High st/rt 60 from Playstead rd when he hit the crossings. Not pretty.

NRGeep wrote:Crossing signals on north side of High st in West Medford just hit and knocked on to both tracks by a semi flatbed truck. It appears there will br delays on Lowell line service. Apparently the truck was making the right turn on to High st/rt 60 from Playstead rd when he hit the crossings. Not pretty.

Keolis sent a generic T-Alert. Here's what they SHOULD have sent:

"Lowell Line 355 (7:55 am from North Station) and 356 (8:30am from Anderson/Woburn) cancelled today due to a jackass who thinks he can drive his flatbed truck on our railroad tracks. Idiot. Next time, buy a Zone 1A pass like the rest."

And now the T-Alerts are peering into the murky future!

Service change on Providence/Stoughton Line today due to mechanical problem. train 819 will have a limited seating train and may be overcrowded. Passengers are advised to take train 817 or train 821 out of Boston if possible

"Unsentimental Commute"
(Tune: "Sentimental Journey")
(written aboard Fitchburg Line train 402, operated by Keolis for the MBTA Commuter Rail, December 4, 2014, with the last four lines added a little later)

Goodness me! It's just a little train set:
Only five one-level cars.
Some official mustn't have a brainlet --
Overcrowding will be ours!
[repeat]
Seven, that's the number needed --
Seven! It would really seem like Heaven
If everyone could have a seat --
Oh, what a treat!
We don't need this standing aggravation.
Proper planning should be done.
Can't we have more public transportation
with a seat for everyone?!

-- Subversifier (Stephen T. Wagner)

T-Alert this morning for a wire down at BBY. Most NEC line trains are 10-20 minutes late.

Framingham/Worcester Line, Needham Line, Franklin Line and Providence/Stoughton Line delayed 10 to 25 minutes Forest Hills to Boston due to an Amtrak wire down in Back Bay

Needham Line Train 606 (8:02 am from Needham Heights) will head back to Forest to de train passengers due to switch problems

Diverging Route wrote:T-Alert this morning for a wire down at BBY. Most NEC line trains are 10-20 minutes late.

Just 1? I got 19 alerts for the Needham line alone!

Flooding at Natick is killing the Worcester line thus evening. Track 2 is underwater at the station and trains are crawling along track 1 tonight between Yawkey and Framingham. That drainage project must have had an exceedingly low flow capacity, this is probably the second time a moderate rain storm has swamped Natick since it was installed.

Komarovsky wrote:Flooding at Natick is killing the Worcester line thus evening. Track 2 is underwater at the station and trains are crawling along track 1 tonight between Yawkey and Framingham. That drainage project must have had an exceedingly low flow capacity, this is probably the second time a moderate rain storm has swamped Natick since it was installed.

About 3" of rain has fallen in the Natick area today. For the area, that isn't merely a moderate rain storm.
Regardless, it doesn't seem that the drainage improvements there are doing the job.

Fitchburg line got into the act as well - a retaining wall in Belmont collapsed and blocked the outbound track. 457 ended up over an hour late to Littleton.

Pictures at the tweet: https://twitter.com/MBTA_CR/status/542453258027945984

EdSchweppe wrote:Fitchburg line got into the act as well - a retaining wall in Belmont collapsed and blocked the outbound track. 457 ended up over an hour late to Littleton.

Pictures at the tweet: https://twitter.com/MBTA_CR/status/542453258027945984

Small picture. That's recent construction! If that was a permanent wall, it was poorly built.

Some sort of incident at West Gloucester. 131 was significantly delayed there due to "police action" and I don't think it made it to Rockport, trains 94/95 are cancelled, and 133 is being bused past Manchester.

Fatal trespasser strike at West Gloucester:

http://www.tpdnews411.com/2014/12/tresp ... ester.html

Train 114 died just west of Prides Crossing and hasn't moved since. 116 just got up to it and it seems that they will be doubling up for the limp home. 114 stopped showing up in the data feed around 10:35 so that's just an educated guess until they get to Lynn (where I'm waiting). 114 is coming up on 1 hour late. Yuck.