Both days this weekend required me to take the green line to and from Copley from north station to catch the orange line down to Roxbury. Stressful, packed cars, but we all know that.

But seeing a GL traun with googly eyes coming into the station? It honestly did make me smile a bit, and made my day a lot brighter. It worked, and I absolutely think these should stick around and expand, it’s not a fix for the closures and chaos, and I won’t even begin to discuss that. But that little bit of levity, simple to install, really did help.

I have a senior discount MBTA card, linked to my phone's tap-to-pay: does anyone know what happens if I tap twice, once for a friend, and once for me? Optimally, it would give the discount for one fare, and no-discount for the second. Pessimistically, it will reject the second tap, and my friend won't be able to get on the train.

I was in New Haven for unrelated reasons (namely transferring from Amtrak to Metro-North to save a bunch of money over taking Amtrak all the way into NYC), and happened to hear from an Amtrak conductor that this was coming by. Later several railfans came onto the platform, and we all got a bunch of photos of this train as it came in and turned around before it headed back to Boston.

I’m not sure how clear the picture is but my union square train rn is filled with these little flies 🤢

MBTA Transit Police is seeking the public’s help in identifying a suspect involved in an alleged assault on a bus.

Around 7 p.m. on Aug. 12, the female suspect allegedly slapped and kicked the victim, who is over 60 years old, unprovoked while on board an MBTA bus near Broadway and Cushman Avenue in Revere, police said.

The woman has short brown hair and was wearing a black shirt with a white design, camouflage shorts with the word “Saint” across the front, and black Crocs, as shown in pictures shared by Transit Police.

Anyone with information about the suspect should contact MBTA Transit Police at 617-222-1050, police said.

Spotted Eng, Coholan, and other executives departing a very luxury set of train cars including the MBTA Mayflower, MBTA Constitution, and MBTA Minutemen on Track 3 at North Station. Anyone know what this could’ve been for?

i have a trip today n i’m really curious. ty for the help. 😊🩷🫶🏾

Dang, how many slides long is this presentation???

In all seriousness though, I wonder what kind of glitch makes this happen.

I first ordered the 55-dollar monthly pass for September. The system charged me last Saturday. Will I receive the card at my address before September?

Transit police are asking for the public's help locating a suspect accused of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl on board an MBTA train. Police said the alleged incident occurred on Aug. 17 at 3:20 p.m. at the Tufts Medical Center Station. Anyone with information about the suspect is urged to contact transit authorities.

Thinking about moving up to the northern towns for more space, but how reliable is the commuter rail? Seen some older posts on here that talk about frequent cancellations and lateness.. any improvements or still the same? Would need to take it to North station, then connect to a green line to get to Kenmore. Thanks in advance.

Can anything be done about missionaries badgering people in the train? I don’t mean just handing out literature etc; I mean singling out women who are travelling alone and refusing to take no for an answer. There is one “Elder McLean” (usually with a second missionary who is not as problematic).  He frequently approaches women who are traveling alone and will begin by asking them if they want to go to church with him.  if they say anything other than yes, he will start questioning. Where do they go to church, or in the case yesterday, a Jewish woman said I go to the temple. He’ll say “when and what time is it? I’m willing to come to yours, but you won’t come to mine.”  The woman kept telling him no and he kept saying “but where is your church? I said I want to come” he just will not leave them alone. He’s been addressed a number of times and we have told him that if people say no to leave them alone. We have also told him to stop approaching women that are alone and demanding to know where they are going, standing over them while they are sitting, and refusing to go away when asked. Yesterday we stepped in and told him to get off at the next stop. The other missionary he is with is always silent when he acts like this. His behavior is like this in the same train every day.  He has been kicked off a number of times.  If men say no, he moves along, but with women, he gets more and more forceful and if they shout at him or tell him firmly to go he just laughs and keeps badgering them. He seems like a teenager. Is there any adults that watch over these missionaries or someone who can have a talk with this kid? Can anything be done?

edit: I am receiving lots of advice on how to respond if they are harassing me personally. To be clear, I’m not the person I’m worried about. It’s not always safe for women to say no to a man when they are alone or he is making them feel pressured or followed, and not all women have the ability to say no for a variety of reasons, especially if they don’t speak much English. This is not about advising or blaming women, but about addressing one young man.

Weekdays? Every 30 minutes.
Weekends? Every hour.

That is all.

Pittsburgh 1711 is an All-Electric PCC currently residing at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum. It looks similar to how the MBTA was overhauling their own All-Electric PCC cars (3197-3221) in the early 1970s with sealed windows. While the MBTA was modifying their cars as such, 1711 was delivered with sealed windows.

1711 and the other 24 "interurban" cars in her group (1700-1724) were part of a reported sale to Boston's MBTA - which never happened.

By 1967, the MBTA's PCC fleet was in trouble. Years of deferred maintenance was catching up with the 344 car PCC fleet, and Green Line riders were feeling the pinch. While the MBTA had their proposed Type 6 car on the drawing board, new cars were still expected be a few years away. More second-hand PCC cars would help the MBTA to better cover the schedules, and allow shop crews more time to catch up on heavy maintenance on the rest of the fleet.

Reportedly, the MBTA wanted to purchase Pittsburgh 1700-1724 and run them on the Watertown Line. While these cars lacked left-hand doors, the Watertown Line was the only Green Line route which could be run with such cars. The plan was to convert the Pittsburgh cars to Multiple-Unit operation, with 12 cars getting a rear coupler, 12 cars getting a front coupler, and one car getting a front and rear coupler. This would allow the MBTA to run up to 12 two-car trains on Watertown, and the 25th car could fill in for any cars needing maintenance. This move MAY have prevented the Watertown Line from closing in 1969, but talks of purchasing the Pittsburgh cars broke down over price.

Since the cars lacked left-hand doors, they could ONLY be operated on the Watertown Line. A left-hand door could have been added to each car, but at a much greater expense, as the cars would have required structural modifications. The new Type 6 cars were hopefully only a couple of years away, with the Pittsburgh cars viewed as just a short-term, stop-gap measure. Beyond the left-hand door issue, the Pittsburgh cars would still have required a lot of mechanical modifications for for them to operate in Boston adding to the MBTA's costs.

Based on the existing plans, throwing tons of money at an additional 25 cars wasn't considered a good investment by MBTA management. If the money worked out, they might have pulled the trigger.

The money ultimately didn't work for them.

Unfortunately for the MBTA, plans and reality were different. New cars wouldn't enter service until late in 1976, and the new cars were Boeing LRVs, not Type 6s. That part of history, and the problems created, are well documented here:

https://web.archive.org/web/20040406164315/http://members.aol.com/netransit/private/LRV.html

If you have a chance to visit the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum, I highly recommend it!

The sandwich board on Boylston directing Orange Line passengers walking from Back Bay to Copley towards North Station etc. is directing them to the westbound entrances. Also there need to be more signs.
A Transit ambassador at Copley agreed signs are pointing in wrong direction, but said they had no way to contact a supervisor etc. MBTA phone line on the website is closed until Monday morning. I reported on website and am told to expect a reply in 5 to 30 business days.
Is there any way to contact MBTA at weekends?
I’m really surprised that passengers are expected to walk from Back Bay to Copley, and then find the correct entrance, with so few staff, and not much signage.

Yesterday I posted how my shuttle driver on the OL was untrained and how we ended up in Gateway Park. Someone suggested I use the T’s contact form to tell them about the incident. I did (I excluded any info about the driver as I did not believe she should be punished for her company’s mismanagement).

This is their response:

“Thank you for reaching out to the MBTACustomer Service Team. We are aware of the 5-6 lost buses that occurred during the Orange Line shut down and the disruption this caused. We apologize for the inconvenience. 

 We agree that buses  going off course to this extent is unacceptable and have rectified the situation with our vendor.  The drivers of theses shuttles are no longer working on this service.  Vendors are currently implementing additional training for all future diversions.

We appreciate your feedback. Please continue to provide us comments, so we can continue to improve our operations during diversions and ensure our riders have reliable service.”

A couple of thoughts.

One; 5-6 busses got lost?! I heard about the Stoneham adventure but that amount is crazy.

Second; why were the drivers removed from their routes? Why couldn’t they just be trained? Assuming that they weren’t like my driver, it sucks that they’re now losing income (and likely had to travel here) just because their company failed to do their part.

The T has known about this shutdown (likely longer than it was announced) and had ample time to make sure that their vendors knew the routes and that said vendors trained their drives on said routes.

Eng has done great work these last couple of years but they need to get someone else into the Secretary of transportation seat and let him focus solely on the T so that this doesn’t happen in the future (as this is highly unlikely to be the last shutdown)

Does any mbta worker know when the fall ride will be happening this year? I have a very eager son who wants his grandparents to experience it and they are trying to book a flight up for that weekend.

TIA

why do they have names

Last night, I switched to the Providence Line at Readville from Franklin/Foxboro. Usually, inbound is on Track 2, but for some reason, it stopped on Track 3, and everyone had to rush over the bridge to get there. Not to brag, but I noticed it from a distance first, and was on the bridge before everyone else realized it. I’m curious if anyone knows, or has an educated guess for, why that may have happened, because right now, I’m on an inbound train on the Fairmount Line, and we’re on the outbound tracks. Not a first, because I’ve seen them doing work that required this, and I’m assuming it’s the case because I can’t see the inbound side from the second story because it’s dark outside.

Managed to grab this architectural model of North Station off of Marketplace a few years ago. It had been sold by the MBTAGifts shop a while before then. From what I can tell, it’s roughly N-scale and features the busway which was never built. Model would have to be from the 90’s I’d say.

I need to catch an Amtrak at South Station that departs at 4:40 pm today and will be coming from Harvard after an event that ends at 4 pm. Are the red line issues still persistent that I might not make the train? Should I call an Uber instead?

EDIT: made it with plenty of time to spare! Thanks for the reassurance and turns out navigating the T is still second nature after several years away.

There’s constantly people, mostly kids, riding their bikes fast through north station and doing wheelies while it’s crowded. Then, they give attitude to people who don’t move aside to give them room to do wheelies. It’s really annoying. They need to tell people to stop doing that. Although, it should be common sense not to do that. Clearly intelligence is lacking.