MBCR: All The Wonderful You've Come To Expect

On Tuesdays, I get on the Stoughton line. I catch the train at 5:20PM at Back Bay, and by 5:32 I'm supposed to be stepping off at Hyde Park.

Tonight I got on the train and, by the time we hit Ruggles, the conductor had announced that due to an emergency ahead of us, we would be traveling slowly. Somewhere just shy of Hyde Park, the conductor announced that due to a medical emergency at Canton Junction, ours was the last train outbound for Stoughton that night, and that our train would either disembark all passengers at Hyde Park for transfer to shuttle buses, or return to South Station to meet up with buses. After twenty minutes or so in a tunnel near Hyde Park (so I couldn't call the person meeting me there to let her know what was going on), the conductor announced that the train would be going back to South Station (no stops at Ruggles or Back Bay) as soon as the driver got back to the car at the other end of the train. Several minutes later, the conductor announced we'd be returning to South Station after a brake test. Several minutes after that, we were moving, and the conductor announced that we would, after all, be stopping at Ruggles and Back Bay (much rejoicing as those of us looking for Orange Line connections thought we'd avoided the South Station vortex). As we got closer to Ruggles, the conductor announced that dispatch had changed their minds again, and that we'd be going straight to South Station.

At about this time, folks started to get cell phone service, and we heard that there was an accident in Canton involving an earlier train and a boxcar.

We pulled into South Station at about 6:26. At this point I'd been on the train for over an hour in order to go back one stop from where I started. As we got out, I recognized the conductor with the train on the other side of our platform: he usually is the conductor for my return from Hyde Park on train 922.

As the crowd was making it's disgruntled way down the platform back toward the station we heard the announcement: "6:30 train to Stoughton now boarding on Track 5."  Chaos ensues, since we just got off the train to Stoughton, and we'd been told there were no more Stoughton trains tonight, and we'd been further told that shuttle buses would be run from South Station. After much shouting, rumormongering, and gesturing reminiscent of traders on the stock exchange floor, it turned out that the 6:30 was only going to 128, then shuttle buses would go to Sharon/Stoughton. This information was not shared over the public address system.

Honest to God--we'd just been on a train that had made it halfway to 128 before being sent back to GO and then were told to get on another train back to 128. Not to mention that now the 6:30 has a double load of people on it, having picked up everybody from train 919.

I realize that when things go wrong, you have to expect a certain amount of inconvenience. There was an emergency, and our train had to be re-routed/re-scheduled. However, the indecision about where exactly we were going and how we were getting home from there, is really disturbing. And stupid.

The MBCR: all the wacky wonderfulness you expect from the MBTA!

P.S. Since my music lesson was well and thoroughly missed, I actually got the Red Line to the Orange Line and went home, wishing the rest of the Stoughton passengers good luck.

Comments

[CLJI]

Wow! That is unbelievable.

[CLJI]

Totally unrelated... Did you see that scientologist wacko might be in the new Trek movie?

[AppleFoot]

Everything I've seen indicates that he doesn't have a role, although the entire production is so secretive that you shouldn't bet on anything. He is apparently a friend of JJ Abrams, so he has access to the set, and he is a fan, particularly of Spock. The latest item I saw indicated he'd been on set to meet Nimoy.

There's a joke to be made about Spock and Xenu somewhere in there, if you've got a few idle minutes to come up with one.

[CLJI]

You don't think they would have him be Spock do you? Are the old guard going to be in the movie?

[AppleFoot]

I forget that not everyone in the world get daily rumor updates re: the next Trek film. Nimoy is doing a bit as "old Spock"--he's the only original cast member in the film, despite Shatner's noisemaking. "young Spock" is being played by Zachary Quinto, Heroes' Sylar.