Another Green Line horror

Submitted by LawrenceSan t3_10myl64 in boston

There's an article about another mishap on the Green Line last night:

Passengers sent walking through tunnels after Green Line shutdown

(BTW, a bot here is likely to send me an email complaining that our beloved MBTA doesn't have "Lines", it has "Branches"… it always sends me that… of course the article itself, and everybody I know, calls them "Lines". Oh well.)

By comparison… many years ago, I was stuck in a train tunnel under the East River in New York City for about an hour… not only was that kind of scary, thinking about all that water over our heads, and no announcements from the train crew as to why we weren't moving… but also I was a high-school teacher at the time, commuting from Brooklyn to my job in Manhattan, thinking about all my students sitting there wondering what had happened to me. Pretty upsetting.

I guess this little mishap yesterday wasn't as bad… although walking along the tracks wouldn't be fun, but there's no electric third-rail on the Green Line (excuse me, Branch), right? OTOH, we seem to have far more mishaps here than the (comparatively solid) NYC subway system. And I guess walking along the tracks is better than climbing out a window to escape a fire, and maybe jumping off a bridge!

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Comments

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petal_in_the_corner t1_j65znap wrote

It's sad that people having to evacuate through the tunnels happens enough that it doesn't even seem newsworthy around here anymore.

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DumbshitOnTheRight t1_j6623s7 wrote

Incidents like this are why my bag has a flashlight.

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Anustart15 t1_j66lqqg wrote

>BTW, a bot here is likely to send me an email complaining that our beloved MBTA doesn't have "Lines", it has "Branches"… it always sends me that… of course the article itself, and everybody I know, calls them "Lines". Oh well.

The MBTA has lines, the green line has branches. It's not that confusing. Nothing you said required the use of branch. If you talk about the green line as a whole, you say line. If you are talking about a specific branch of the green line (i.e. the B branch), you say branch.

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-CalicoKitty- t1_j67a18c wrote

I've been riding the green line for 15 years and I don't think I've ever heard anyone say branch IRL. I always hear B line, C line, etc.

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LawrenceSan OP t1_j66srhp wrote

Ah, I see, makes sense. Now I know why the bot didn't email me this time.

Of course, since I'm an illustrator and not a train guy… when I say "line" I usually mean something I make with a pencil, and "branch" refers to the tree I'm drawing… context is everything! :)

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massahoochie t1_j68pbs8 wrote

This has happened at least one time before on the green line in my experience. It’s a daily occurrence to be on the green line, it stops and then you sit there for 20+ minutes, then they say everybody has to get off. No explanation ever. Just everybody gets off. One time it happened to be in the tunnel. It was scary. No first responders either. Everybody just got off with their phone flashlights and walked out. I can’t believe how frequently it happens.

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oliviajoon t1_j67q14d wrote

i have nooo idea how trains work so maybe someone can explain…a signal problem underground, from the sounds of it, was preventing the tracks from switching.

but that would mean the tracks were just leading to the wrong place, yeah? so how and why is it considered BETTER to evacuate trains and make people walk back to copley in the tunnel, rather than just continuing any “stuck” trains into the next station, even if they ended up on the wrong side of the platform, and letting passengers out there?

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LawrenceSan OP t1_j69frua wrote

Somewhat off-topic, but… for anyone who loves train stories, I highly recommend the classic silent film "The General" from the 1920's… stars the great comedian Buster Keaton (who also co-directed it). He did his own very dangerous, potentially deadly stunt-work on the film. It's based on a true-life story from the American Civil War. I believe there are other filmed versions of the story, including Disney's "The Great Locomotive Chase"… but I've only seen the Keaton version. Fantastic.

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