what happened at Arlington(Green Line) 2/8?

[concordgirl]

Tonight when I got out of work, the Arlington T stop was all firemen and they wouldn't let people in. They said to go to Park, that would be OK. I went to Park and that was messed up too, walked to Downtown Xing and got on the orange line and was able to make my train. But what the heck happened at Arlington? Ambulances passed me too coming from Park back to Arlington. I haven't seen anything abt it on the Globe website so far...

[edit: first said Gvt Ctr-- meant to say Downtown Xing.]

[mattster]

A friend of mine told me that he couldn't get into Arlington either and ended up walking to work (Canal Street) while trying at Boylston and Park Street with no luck.

[Ricky Smith]

I was at arlington at 7:40 nothing going on then. Although the station was extremely windy the whole day like they opened something up it was coming down from the street access tunnel.

On a side note on outbound today the door to the otherside of the platform was open <the> and I notice a tunnel in the wall down there by the stairs, where does that go?

[captdpl]

There was a small fire, from the sound of things it was in the tunnel between boylston and arlington. FD had a hard time verifying that the power to the trains was turned off before they could go into the tunnels: lots of conflicting reports about whether or not the T had turned it off. Once it was off, they seemed to leave fairly quickly, though I heard one report that the fire was out, but the T was surveying the situation to determine if the trains could run through there.

[Stmtrolleyguy]

I was coming inbound on the Cleveland Circle Line, and things seemed to be a real mess. I was listening to the radio on the train I was on. It seemed like they were having a problem finding space to put all the trains while things were shut down, especially b/c they had to get all the people off the trains first.

They terminated the train I was on at Kenmore, and herded everyone upstairs for bush shuttle service. I figured I'd walk towards the Pru, and see about getting an E train there. I walked Kenmore- Hines, and as I was passing Hynes, the trains started to run again (inspector made an announcement, with another giant crowd of about 200 people herding back into the station), but I kept walking to Symphony to catch the 39 bus, because I figured the bus would clear out long before the E line did.

[concordgirl]

Thanks, guys! I wondered what went on. I thought about Boylston but I knew nothing would get past Arlington if there was trouble there.

Anyone know what caused the fire?? If it was in that tunnel btwn the stops, it must have been T-related, and not like some idiot starting a fire in a trash can or something...

[CSX Conductor]

Tonight when I got out of work, the Arlington T stop was all firemen

You see any cute ones?!? LOL

[concordgirl]

Ahem. Someone, not me, is off topic here! lol

But yes. For the record, firemen are very cool Now, does anyone know why the tunnel caught fire on Friday evening??

[Ricky Smith]

So does anyone know what the tunnel I think I might have seen on the Outbound side of Arlington where the under construction part is.

[sery2831]

It's just a room that has been walled off for years. There is one opposite it too.

[Ricky Smith]

What was the room used for?

[Arborway]

What was the room used for?

Storage. It was pretty unremarkable. Four cinder-block walls, nothing more.

The spaces (along with the old escalator areas) have been reclaimed for use as elevator shafts from the mezzanine to the platforms.

[concordgirl]

Yeah I watched a transit worker go in there last night. Nothin' to write home about

[WonderlandMan]

Any word on what caused the fire?

[concordgirl]

Or are fires in the T so common that people don't really talk about them that much?? I would HOPE not!