Orange Crush

So, did everyone have a fun time on the Orange Line this morning? Yeah, this one was special. I almost want to suggest that we should be thanking the MBTA for providing us with so much entertainment value, except that, as a transit agency, it's their job to get us where we need to go, not make us laugh (or, for that matter, cry, which I'm sure plenty of people wanted to to today).

I signed up for the T-Alerts program when it was first offered as a pilot test program in late 2007. I think it's one of the smartest moves the T has ever made, and generally it works as it's supposed to. Every weekday morning I check my email right around 7 AM, just as I'm having my first sip of coffee, to see if there's any weirdness going on with either the Orange Line or the bus route I take into Wellington. There have been one or two occasions when the Orange Line was either running with a delay or not at all, and I was able to make an end run around the problem by taking an express bus that runs into downtown via 93. But this involves a ten-minute walk in the opposite direction, so it's best decided upon before leaving the house.

This morning I learned that due to that old wintertime favorite, a "switch problem at Wellington," the Orange Line was "experiencing 20-25 min delays between Oak Grove and Forest Hills." Wait a sec, that's the whole line! Eesh. The alert also noted that this situation had been going on for over an hour (as of the time I was reading it) and that I should "seek alternate transportation to avoid delay." Hmm, that didn't sound good.

Usually I try to check again just before I'm ready to leave the house, to see if problems have been resolved, or if anything new has popped up. The alert was still on and hadn't been updated, but I naively thought, it's been two hours, they must have fixed it by now and just haven't gotten around to posting the update yet. Considering it was again very icy out this morning, I opted not to take the alternate route into work, and blithely headed to the bus stop hoping everything would be fine. I had to meet with a coworker at 9:30 to go over some changes to our content management system, so I was trying diligently to get to work on time. Silly me.

In retrospect, I got to Wellington at just the right time, because I got to witness some T-foolery the likes of which I've never seen, and hopefully won't see again any time soon. As I came down onto the platform and tried to make my way through a crowd I would conservatively estimate at about 500 fellow commuters, the PA told us that a train would soon be coming in on the northbound platform, but from the opposite direction, and that it would be reversing direction and going back up to Oak Grove, and that the next train after that would be going inbound.

As the train came into the station, everyone noticed that it was pretty full, which didn't make a ton of sense if it had come from Malden and was to head back that way. The doors opened, a few people got on, and the train sat for a couple of minutes. The PA announcer came on and said that he had been mistaken, and this train was in fact heading into Boston. The people who had boarded got off the train, looking disappointed, and everyone else surged across the platform to try to cram onto it; I stood where I was, not wanting to be crammed.

The train sat for a minute, and people were starting to wonder why it didn't go on its way. Then the PA announced that this train WAS going back to Oak Grove after all. Everyone oozed grumpily back out of the train and onto the platform, including all those who had been on the train to begin with, and shortly after a second, empty train came in on the opposite platform, again from the "wrong" direction. The PA announced that THIS train was the one going into Boston, and everyone oozed onto that one. I continued to wait and observe, and both trains continued to sit.

After a minute or two the PA guy, who by this point was probably starting to really hate his day, informed us that BOTH trains would be going into Boston (which, to the T's credit, probably made the most sense in terms of serving the riders' needs at that moment). At this point, the original train had only those few poor folks on it who were just trying to get to Malden or Oak Grove. For the second time in less than ten minutes, they had to exit the train and wait for the rest of us to get on our way. But this was actually better for me, because I happened to be standing a bit closer to the first train, so I scooted inside and grabbed a seat.

We were then told that this train would be leaving first, which was another small victory, so to speak. Miraculously, we were underway soon after. The rest of my commute passed without incident, and I was able to send an email to my coworker letting him know that I would be late.

Wow. As an observer, this was a glorious, marvelous little piece of human theater. I can't imagine being provided with a better dose of free entertainment before 9 AM. But as a user of the system, this was a pretty epic fail, as the kids say on the intertubes these days. And this sort of thing happens at least once every winter at Wellington, usually when things get cold and icy. Surely there must be some sort of de-icing compound that can be applied to the switches? Or maybe it's worth it to pay someone to stay at the station and operate the switches continuously all night to ensure that they keep working?

The other question that comes to mind is: given the duration of this episode, why didn't the T start running shuttle buses? I know it takes time to round up a bunch of buses and drivers and get them all to where they're needed, but the first alert email I received was time-stamped 5:40 AM, and the situation still hadn't been resolved nearly three hours later. You'd think someone would have decided that enough time had elapsed to call in the substitute service. It's a good thing it wasn't 15 or 20 degrees colder today.

The T is such a paradox. When it works, it actually works pretty well. But when it breaks, oh boy, watch out. I wonder what the ride home will be like...

Update, 5:10 PM: Just got this email: "Orange Line service experiencing 10-15 minute delays due to a disabled train." You can't make this stuff up...