From There to Here

The MBTA completely screwed commuters on the Red Line because the train I was on had to go out of service, forcing hundreds of commuters on a train to join hundreds of commuters on the platform at Harvard. Then they all tried to pile onto a third train that had hundreds of people on it. Basically, it amounted to total chaos and people being forced to watch two or three trains roll by before being able to get on a single train.

I played it smart. Stay on the train going out of service until you’re the last person off of it. Last person off = first person on the next train. Unfortunately, it was already full of commuters who had gotten on at Alewife, Davis and Porter, leaving very little room for tons of people trying to squeeze on. And the problem just gets magnified as the day goes on because there are now an ungodly amount of people at Harvard all morning.

Basically, the bus was late picking me up, but I finally got to Davis, where I had to wait between 10 and 15 minutes for a Red Line train during morning rush hour — this is basically unheard of. Most mornings, I’m waiting less than five minutes or running right on. So the train goes — extremely slowly — to Porter. And then it stops between Porter and Harvard for about 5 minutes. Then it goes out of service at Harvard. And said chaos above ensues.

I wrote Daniel Grabauskas, the MBTA head, an e-mail about it — never expect to hear anything back knowing the MBTA’s customer service — but I basically told him I know they have a difficult and complex job to do and they often do it quite well. But there are these instances that don’t make any sense, and I wish they’d consider alternatives. For example, if you have to take the train out of service but have to run it down the tracks anyway to get to a turn off (not sure where the closest one is), run it to Park EXPRESS. Why make the people get off if you’re simply running it to a turnoff? I believe there’s a turnoff in the Park-Downtown-South Station area.

This would be much better for a number of reasons:
- Everyone going to Park or further would stay on the train, not causing a backup at the Harvard platform.
- Those waiting at Harvard to go to Park or further could get on.
- Those not going there would get off, joining the others who are getting “local” service.
- You keep nearly the same number of people on the train as people off the train, not creating a huge backup and destroying morning service.

I proposed this, and of course, never heard anything back. They always have a “write to the top” campaign, where they encourage folks to e-mail top managers, but then this happens and you don’t receive a response. Disappointing? Sure. But at least I vented there. And now I’ve vented here. It’s all I can do so I’m ready for Monday’s commute.