Yesterday I left work on my regular route home, which happens to include a ride on the Red Line T from Downtown Crossing. As soon as the doors opened to let people on, they kept announcing “The doors are closing. Stand back. The doors are closing.” So as quick as I could, I got on the train, grabbed a seat, and stuck my head in a book to pass the time.
From Downtown Crossing, the train stopped at Broadway and a new pack of people hopped on including a mother and her children. Except not all her children made it. Completely.
The doors shut on one of her children, catching him in the door between the train and the platform. AND THE TRAIN TOOK OFF ANYWAY.
Everyone who noticed started screaming, causing anyone who hadn’t noticed to look up and panic.
A group of about five launched at the Emergency Button and Emergency Brake located at the end of each car. After about five pushes of the button it was clear that it was either a) broken or b) being ignored.
The train never stopped.
Luckily, and within about 30 seconds, they safely got the child out of the doors – but the poor kid was understandably very upset.
Shortly after we pulled into Andrew station and nothing happened. Not a single member of the MBTA staff came to see what had happened in our car. Nothing.
More people got on the train and we pulled out headed for JFK UMass station. And just as we hit the curve coming out of the tunnel and towards JFK, the doors between cars? OPENED. And a woman who was standing next to the door with her bike was jolted forward. Luckily she had her bike which blocked the doorway and kept her from tumbling out of the train.
Emergency buttons were again pushed. And, you guessed it, nothing.
At the JFK platform someone finally answered the energency calls through the car intercom with a non-caring “What?” When the woman explained that the door between the cars was open and she had nearly fallen out, the only response was “Fine.”
Thirty seconds later an MBTA staff member appeared looking very enthusiastic (sarcasm). One man on the train just kept repeating “Shit’s broken. You got us on a broken train. Shit’s broken. A boy got caught. A woman almost fell out. Shit’s broken.”
The MBTA employee was neither impressed nor concerned. He fiddled with the door and a set of keys for a whole sixty seconds and then told us just not to stand near it.
!!!
After he left the car, the train started moving – the door flapping away. Everyone kind of started laughing because if you’re going to die on a faulty train car, you might as well die laughing right?
I’m so glad that my monthly T fare is going to go up nearly $20 after the first of the year. If the “random bag searches” and newly redesign, hi-tech T stations with flat screen plasma TVs have taught me anything, it’s that the MBTA is putting all their money to good use.
* Update: Bringing awareness to the T riding citizens of Boston: This entry has been posted over at Universal Hub (thanks adamg!).
{ 29 comments… read them below or add one }
WTF!?!?!?!?!!?!
This is CRAZY!! I just gasped TWICE reading this!! I am horrified… you need to copy this and send it to someone in charge at the T… it’s SO NOT RIGHT!!
AAAAHH!!!!
OMG, Jenny. That’s nuts. I hope Adam at Universal Hub picks this up, if he hasn’t already.
holy crap! i’m really glad i drive to work.
The MBTA seems as though they could give a crap about safety. My wife (8 months pregnant) walks to the Haymarket T station to get to work at night. The busses coming out of there routinely run the red light and almost hit pedestrians on a regular basis.
If you call to complain about it, you get an answering machine.
My god! That is a scary story!
Seriously I agree with you
The T is a flatulent ball of gas!
I think its insane they want to raise the price on that Insane ride of hell.
You should totally write a letter to the T and a copy of that letter to the state house or attorney general or HELP ME HANK
hee hee
Did you send an email to someone at the T over this?
The best part is i wanted to send one, but their brand new webpage isn’t loading!
How appropriate.
Dude, I would have been all “Bwahahaha, I’ve got myself a seat, suckers! I’m not flying out an open door to my death! That’s what you get for sneezing on the handrail, cranking your headphones too loud, and yakking on your cell phone in the middle of a train full of people.”
Probably. That’s if you ever caught me riding the red line. Which I wouldn’t be caught dead doing. But you might.
-t
I continue to hear stories just like yours, Jenny. And seriously, it’s totally ridiculous. Like it’s not bad enough you have to take your life in your hands dodging overstuffed backpacks, a-holes who won’t give the elderly or pregnant women seats and intercom systems that make announcements that sound like “Please note: GHSHSHHHHHHSSS”.
Jenny:
I know someone on the T Rider Oversight Committee. I’ll print this out for her and see if she has any suggestions for the best action to take – who to contact or whatever – for best results.
Suldog – thanks. That would be great. I can give you more specific info about the train (time and line) if that would help (I just don’t want to publish that). I actually wrote it all down just in case….
It was definitely scarier on my end – I was at the opposite end of the train from the child, but next to the biker who almost fell out. The screaming and commotion when the T took off from the platform was some of the scariest stuff ever – trying to see/trying to help and not being able to really do either. And it’s a worse feeling when you hit an emergency button and realize it doesn’t work or no one cares.
I hate to admit that I’m not surprised by the lack of feeling from the MBTA employees. Thankfully no one was physically injured however they are mentally injured..
I ride the Blue Line and I tend to stand in the door vestibules and I am rethinking my standing location from now on.
Wow. Thats scary. I’ve heard bad things about the T lately, but this one takes the cake.
I’m glad you were there to get the word out via the blog, though, because if nobody did anything about it, the problems would just continue.
Seriously though, that just makes my stomach sick.
Whoa. What if it’s intentional?
Maybe the T is sick of riders (like Lewis) standing in the doors and is getting proactive!
That’s awesome.
I can easily imagine an embittered rogue MBTA employee thinking
“We say ‘move away from the doors, please do not block the doors’ and they don’t move. Well, I’ll show them. I’ll show them all! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.”
Right?
Are we sure the whole thing wasn’t staged?
The mbta website is back up, by the way. You should definitely write to the T and to the Boston Globe as well.
Jenny,
Do you mind if I forward the text of your post to the MBTA? I was able to get the following contacts, should anyone else want to voice concerns:
Dan Grabauskus: GM@mbta.com, redline@mbta.com (617-222-5704), chiefofpolice@mbta.com (617-222-1100)
Unfreakingbelievable!
But really, it IS the T, so I should’ve expected to hear about something like this sooner or later.
So glad everyone is ok!
Thanks Tblade, but I got it covered!
Jenny,
I work for channel 7 news in Boston. I was horrified to hear your story and the station would love to get in contact with you about it.
Please feel free to email me, as I’m not educated on this particular site just yet.
My email is lcrook@whdh.com
Test
I vote: HELP ME HANK!
…and this is why I’ve started carrying a digital camera with me almost everywhere I go. Sometimes even a small video camera. It would have been awesome to see footage on the news.
Hello Jenny:
I am contacting you from WHDH-TV Channel 7 in Boston. Someone emailed us the text of your blog regarding the incident on the T. We would like to look into this further. Would you be able to speak oncam about what you saw? Do you also know the IDs of any of the victims involved? Thank you so much. Please email me, or call me at 617-725-0775.
Thank you,
Mary Zanor
Assignment Editor
WHDHT-TV
Over the years I’ve snail mailed, emailed, and called the MBTA many times. And I have never gotten a response.
The T is NOT going to do anything or acknowledge any failure or shortcoming.
I suggest copying this to the Badtransit website and any other paper than the Globe.
Why not the Globe? First, since its transit related they will hold it until the Starts and Stops column is scheduled (two weeks), and then MacDaniel is nothing but a apologist for the MBTA.
OMG! THIS is unbelievable.
Your account is one of the most astounding we’ve ever heard – and in almost 7 years of T-watching. We’ve posted your full text at badtransit with a link back to this web site.
For a moment I thought that “shit’s broken” came from one of the MBTA types, which would have certainly been a classic touch.
“Watch the doors”? More like “Grip a pole and just hold on”.
Regarding notifying the T with an email, you write:
>>The best part is i wanted to send
>>one, but their brand new webpage
>>isn’t loading
That’s $400,000 + for a new web site, and $0 for a door and an emergency call button.
Hi Jenny,
This is Tony from TonyandPals.com. We heard about your incident on the T and were hoping you could speak to us in person about it. A bundt cake would be prepared for compensation. Have your people get in touch with my people. Thanks,
Mr. Salamone
I’ve emailed the T with complaints a few times, and gotten a form letter back.
The last time, both my husband and I emailed after our bus driver nearly killed a passenger who was trying to exit the bus via the back door. The driver, without looking in his mirror, opened and closed the back door so fast that, as the passenger tried to step out, the doors snapped shut on her and trapped her. The driver hit the gas, and everyone started screaming for him to stop — once he’d stopped and opened the doors again, he never even looked or asked if the passenger was hurt. He just acted like nothing had happened at all.
Jenny:
Did you ever get any resolution on this?