Fire Prompts Evacuation at Downtown Crossing, Park Street Stops

In short, this was not handled well from an information delivery perspective. If the MBTA, and more broadly the city, cannot handle a small electrical fire, think of how ill equipped they are to handle any other more serious emergency.

At 5:32 P.M. the T sent a red line alert text message saying that the red line "is experiencing 10-15 minute delays in service due to Boston Fire Department activities at DownTown Crossing." This sounded very optemistic, and I took it with a grain of salt. This would be like an airline saying your flight is on time when Logan is forecast to have 1/4 mile visibility and 3 inches of snow an hour, and can barely keep one runway open.

However, at about 5:45 P.M. I entered South Station. There were many people around the south outbound platform, and a train standing still on the inbound platform. You could barely hear the inbound train operater saying that shuttle buses were being used. Then around 6:00 P.M. an official from the T finally came down to the platform and told us that the red line was shut down and that buses would be used, and that we should "evacuate the station." When we "evacuated the station," there was no indication of where these buses would be, and it was very disorganized.

Also finally at 6:00 P.M. the T sent a text message indicating service was shut down between Harvard & Broadway. Of course due to the slow adoption of cell network infrastructure, I did not get this text message in the South Station red line area. It it taking the T and carriers a very long time to wire stations, and there is no WIFI. I understand the wiring job is just as slow in some of the vehicle tunnels in Boston.

In conclusion I don't fault the T for shutting down the service for hours. However, they should have sent a text message as soon as possible saying service was stopped, or that the situation was fluid and rapidly developing. There is no excuse for sending a rather generic 10-15 minute delay message at 17:32. At 17:32 the operations control center should have been well aware that service was not moving. Heck if I had my police scanner with me, I'd probably get more real time information than was provided by the T. I have to imagine that there are some bureucrratic road blocks inside the T that prevented text messages being sent out in a more timely manner at the beginning of the event. It would be interesting to know what time Boston Fire dispatched out the first units to the scene.

I ended up having a few beers at Clark's in south station, and then took a cab home. All who visited the pub indicated that the situation was handled in a chaotic and disorganized way with little real time information from T officials. I don't see why the T can't make PA announcements from a centralized operations control center. People reported waiting for up to 1 hour, and not getting good information. It was also interesting that not that many people in the bar were aware of the T Alert email and text message service :). The service eventually did deliver some updates, I'll be it very late in the game. For instance, at some point, a text message was sent saying that the green and orange line were again operational. People in the pub related many difficulties finding cabs, etc.

My sister from Prague, Czech Republic visited us in Boston in December 2007 when we had some good size snow storms. She remarked at how poorly the city handled these events, and how the city was nearly at gridlock. She implied that European cities are better able to handle these logistics. Its not like it never snows in Boston either.

Another interesting thing was my cab driver had not heard of the event. Talk about the citizenry not staying informed. In such an avent, it would be important for cab drivers to know and get involved. I wonder if the T even has contingency plans and lines of communication open with cab drivers and companies?

I think since 9/10/2001 perhaps we've taken a couple of baby steps forward, if we want to be generous with ourselves, in terms of ability to handle crisis and emergencies. However, I think for sure complacency has set in long before 05/28/2008.

Again if the flow of information is so disorganized, chaotic, and disjointed for a small electrical fire, or routine New England December blizard, , how would it be any better for a major emergency? We really need to get our act together and fully invest our dollars and time in to infrastructure, contingency plans, communication systems, and related procedures. The T and the city surely nees to do their part, but also the public needs to know about and use the services offered like the text messages. Its crazy to me that perhaps a daily commuter on the T doesn't realize they offer this sort of service :). Communication systems are critical in any kind of event, and the public needs to buy in to such tools in order to stay informed and react in real time.

It took me almost 3 hours to get home. I left my office in downtown Boston at a little after 5 and went to wait for the subway at Park Street. After about 10 or 15 minutes -- the smoke was getting thicker and stronger-smelling -- they told us to evacuate.

Perhaps 8 ambulances and 4 hook and ladders showed up but the MBTA personnel didn't seem to know what was going on or where to direct people. It was pandemonium with people calling home to see if they could get someone to watch the news or go on the internet to find out what was happening.

I waited for about 10 or 12 minutes and no shuttle buses showed up. Finally one MBTA staff person suggested we walk from Park to Charles/MGH. A number of us did that. On the way it began to rain. Hard.

There, we found out that no one was allowed down into the subway and there were rumors flying that perhaps at Kendall the trains were running. A few people took off to try their luck there.

I waited about an hour and 20 minutes while one shuttle bus after another either sped by because they were filled already or opened their doors to let 3 or 4 people on. A woman with a guide dog was left to fend for herself as well as elderly people and others. One one MBTA staff was trying to organize the boarding of buses and it began raining once again. I spoke to a man who was trying to get home to Southbridge.

The shuttle buses took us to Harvard where we got off and walked a couple of blocks to the subway station. There was a huge crowd there waiting for the train. It came after a short wait and we made it to Alewife a little before 8 pm.

The worst part was that there was no information from the MBTA -- we all had to guess what to do. The best part is that the Red Sox were not playing at Fenway tonight.

Update: He ended up walking from Kendall to Copley and just got home.

JFK/UMass to South Station in over 60 minutes:

6:15pm: I arrive at JFK/UMass. Both inbound trains are sitting at the station, and I get on the Braintree side. The transit cop isn't sure when the trains are leaving.

The other passengers say they've been sitting for about 30 minutes. I inform them what's happening -- from the Bostonist report and MBTA site info.

6:35pm: The train starts moving. There's another delay at Andrew Sq.

7pm: Arrive at Broadway.

7:03pm: Leave on bus shuttle.

7:07pm: Arrive at South Station; taking a shortcut through the USPS facility. So many people are waiting, I decide to walk to North End.

7:15pm: Am walking by Fire Engine Station #1, so I ask if they responded to the T fire. They say there was a cable that caught on fire between Park St and Downtown Crossing. Hard to say how bad it really was, because they give the impression that they handled it pretty easily but it was pretty serious.

7:25pm: Home. (Cigarette-and-gin-&-tonic relax-time.

~r

My husband left for the bus at Kendall Station a half an hour ago and is still standing there. He got on a bus, and they told them to get off because the trains were running again. He got down to the station, the train arrived from Harvard and made everyone get off, telling them they had to take a bus. He hasn't seen another bus since, and there are no MBTA employees around to ask how the hell he's supposed to get home.

Epic fail for the T, once again.