MBTA Blues, Continued

It seemed like things were starting to get a little better with the commuting, though on Tuesday and Wednesday there was terrible traffic on the Fellsway. I don't know why; maybe people were getting fed up with the Orange Line fiasco and decided to drive instead? The bus trip to Wellington station from my house, that usually takes about ten minutes (about half of which is spent getting through the light at Wellington Circle) took 25 on Tuesday and 20 on Wednesday.

Yesterday I somehow still managed to arrive at work only a few minutes after 9, so I thought today would be more or less the same. That was my mistake: getting overconfident too quickly. Today we were rolling along on the Green Line when we stopped just outside Arlington station, and sat. And sat. And sat for a good fifteen minutes, with occasional announcements about "signal problems" ahead. I could see out the front of the train that there was another train just ahead of us, waiting in the station. What fun.

Eventually we were allowed to move forward into the station, but were told that the problems were affecting the entire Green Line, and that once we got to Copley the train would be sitting for an indefinite period of time, and we might want to consider getting off the train and making other arrangements. Luckily I was able to walk the two blocks down to Copley Square and catch a 39 bus down Huntington Avenue, but it was still nearly 10 AM when I arrived at work.

Of course, we now know that not just the Green Line but the whole system was affected, by a maintenance crew's error. Whoopsie. Not a real good week for the T. One thing about dealing with more than a week of transit problems is that I've been able to detach from concern about what time I'm going to get to work. When there's nothing you can do about it, the best thing to do is stop worrying and let it go.

One other bit of weirdness this morning: as I came out of the Berkeley Street exit of Arlington (the main entrance has been closed for a couple of years while they redo the place) and crossed the corner in front of Shreve's, I saw a youngish woman, her cell phone pressed to her ear, burst into tears and start crying loudly, right on the street corner. I couldn't help but wonder what sort of bad news she had just received. (I assume she wasn't crying about the T's problems.) Did she just get dumped? Not so likely at 9:30 AM. A lost pet? A death in the family seemed the most likely explanation. I felt badly for her, but before I could even stop to see if I could help in any way, she had already turned her back and moved into a corner of the building, to be as alone with her grief as possible on a busy street.