MBTA: MayBe Train Arrive?

The level of suck on the Orange Line is reaching epic proportions. Since last Wednesday, the morning and evening commutes have been disastrous.

This morning started on a wrong note even before I even reached the train. My usual bus was 15 minutes late (the usual gap between buses in the morning is 20 minutes). When I reached the platform at Wellington I saw a coworker (we are our office's only two Medfordites), and we immediately noticed how crowded the platform was. After almost 30 minutes and two trains that were too full to contemplate boarding, we were able to squeeze onto the third.

We switched to the Green Line at North Station, and eventually made it to the office at 9:35. I left my house at 7:50, so that's one hour and 45 minutes. On a good day, with fortuitous connections, I can make the trip in 50 minutes; on a more typical day, one hour. Today I need to get home to tend to the dog, so I'm wondering what time I should leave work.

I don't know what is wrong with the Orange Line's signals (since that's where they keep telling us the problem lies), and I don't know why it's taking the T so long to diagnose and fix it. I do remember a few years back, being inconvenienced for months at a time while the signal system on the Orange Line was supposedly being upgraded.

Regardless, the situation is unacceptable, and the T is not helping matters by not giving the riders any useful information. Cryptic robo-announcements about "signal problems" don't do us any good. Telling us to use the Green Line doesn't do us any good if we're stuck at Wellington.