Joel N. Weber II
Engineer
I probably arrived at Alewife Station around 6:20 or 6:25 PM. I heard the bell ringing for the Red Line train to start its trip somewhere around the time I was at the top of the escalator, and while it didn't immediately depart, I didn't have a chance to get to the bottom of the escalator and onto the train before it started moving. After it left, there was a brief period of time when no train was in the station.
Another train pulled into the station, and I boarded it, I believe I ended up in the third car. (And I discovered that the second car would have given me a closer transfer to the southbound Green Line trains at Park Street when I got to Park Street; I don't ride the Green Line often enough to have made a point of remembering that.)
Someone whose office was immediately next to the office I was working in ten years ago ended up sitting roughly across from me on the Red Line train. It's a small world, even in a big city.
At some point during the trip, the Red Line train got crowded enough that I decided I felt like standing rather than having someone sitting in the seat immediately next to me.
At Park Street, there was a musician who was playing on the center Red Line platform who I hadn't seen in several months who I would like to have spent some time listening to, but I was running late to get somewhere. (Of course, if I'd known how long it would take for a D train to show up, I could have spent some time on the Red Line platform, but you really can't get any information about Green Line train arrivals on the Red Line platforms.)
An E train came, then a C train, then another C train.
The upper underground level at Park Street has four tracks. Back when surface running of streetcars was commonplace throughout Boston, the outer two tracks were used for a tunnel portal that is no longer used, and the inner tracks were used for Copley Square trains, near as I can tell from looking at the track schematic. There are still four tracks between Park Street and Boylston; southbound, the two tracks are used just to encourage people waiting for the trains to spread out; northbound, the outer track seems to be the only one that connects through to Government Center.
So I was surprised to see a train with a sign reading Government Center (Government shortened somehow with an apostrophe) on the inner northbound track, because I'd thought from reading the MBTA Blue Book that a train on that track cannot get to Government Center in any vaguely straightforward fashion.
After that train dropped off its passengers and pulled forward, its sign changed to D Riverside while it was rolling, and then it ended up on the inner southbound track, and pulled up to where the signs say the E branch trains stop, and I boarded it. (The D branch's nominal location is on the outer southbound track.)
The Breda cars are articulated, and the center section is large enough to have windows. I rode with my feet on the very front of the center section for much of the trip. The nearest bar I could grab with my hand was in the front section. Having my hand attached to a different section of the car than my feet were standing on seemed a little strange, but it worked out surprisingly well.
Another train pulled into the station, and I boarded it, I believe I ended up in the third car. (And I discovered that the second car would have given me a closer transfer to the southbound Green Line trains at Park Street when I got to Park Street; I don't ride the Green Line often enough to have made a point of remembering that.)
Someone whose office was immediately next to the office I was working in ten years ago ended up sitting roughly across from me on the Red Line train. It's a small world, even in a big city.
At some point during the trip, the Red Line train got crowded enough that I decided I felt like standing rather than having someone sitting in the seat immediately next to me.
At Park Street, there was a musician who was playing on the center Red Line platform who I hadn't seen in several months who I would like to have spent some time listening to, but I was running late to get somewhere. (Of course, if I'd known how long it would take for a D train to show up, I could have spent some time on the Red Line platform, but you really can't get any information about Green Line train arrivals on the Red Line platforms.)
An E train came, then a C train, then another C train.
The upper underground level at Park Street has four tracks. Back when surface running of streetcars was commonplace throughout Boston, the outer two tracks were used for a tunnel portal that is no longer used, and the inner tracks were used for Copley Square trains, near as I can tell from looking at the track schematic. There are still four tracks between Park Street and Boylston; southbound, the two tracks are used just to encourage people waiting for the trains to spread out; northbound, the outer track seems to be the only one that connects through to Government Center.
So I was surprised to see a train with a sign reading Government Center (Government shortened somehow with an apostrophe) on the inner northbound track, because I'd thought from reading the MBTA Blue Book that a train on that track cannot get to Government Center in any vaguely straightforward fashion.
After that train dropped off its passengers and pulled forward, its sign changed to D Riverside while it was rolling, and then it ended up on the inner southbound track, and pulled up to where the signs say the E branch trains stop, and I boarded it. (The D branch's nominal location is on the outer southbound track.)
The Breda cars are articulated, and the center section is large enough to have windows. I rode with my feet on the very front of the center section for much of the trip. The nearest bar I could grab with my hand was in the front section. Having my hand attached to a different section of the car than my feet were standing on seemed a little strange, but it worked out surprisingly well.
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