State troopers and customs agents arrested Carlos J. Lanns, 24, of Hamilton, N.J., was arrested at Logan Airport on Monday with two kilograms of cocaine stashed in his shoes' insoles. He hid the drugs in checked bags in a JetBlue flight from the Dominican Republic to Boston. The drugs reportedly have a street value of $200,000. Lanns was charged with trafficking a Class B substance in East Boston District Court on Tuesday and is held on $300,000 with a hearing set for October 5. [WCVB]
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There have been no reports of Cyber Monday trampling incidents. [New York Times]
Scientists at Worcester Polytechnic Institute are working on technology to track firefighters in a burning building. [Boston Globe]
You can submit questions for Tuesday's debate for Democratic Senate candidates. [Boston Channel]
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The state official who was caught on video while stealing from copying machines has resigned to "spend more time with his family." [Cambridge Chronicle]
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Results tagged “commuterrail”
In addition to various crashes and assorted pervs, the MBTA has been making news for trying to improve the experience of riders.
It already helps make us the (alleged) second greenest city in the U.S. Now it's going to do even more! (But can it julienne?)
WBZ, Boston.com and Universal Hub report a commuter rail train crash in South Station. The train involved was a Worcester Line commuter rail train, and at least 12 have been injured.
We can get wireless on commuter rail cars; it doesn't really help those of us who take the regular T, but we suppose it's a nice convenience for the long-distance commuters. New York City agrees; the MTA is trying to get the wireless hookup for its own travelers. Rep. Chuck Schumer theorizes that NYC might even be able to get federal funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to take its trains online. Why didn't we think of that?
Apparently it only takes two mishandled, near-death situations to spring the MBTA into action. Nearly seven years after James Allen died from a heart attack on a commuter train (thanks to MBTA drivers who kept the train chugging despite attempts to warn them of the medical emergency), the T has added defibrillators to commuter rail trains. Good news for long-distance commuters, but the rest of us local train folks will have to settle for being mistaken for drunkards by our own drivers while we are having heart attacks. [MBTA]
In a revolutionary development for the MBTA, the organization has decided that it might be nice to tell commuters when trains are arriving. As we all know, some stations already have announcements like "The next Red Line train to Alewife is now approaching," but those announcements usually occur at about the time you can either see or feel the train on its way. It would be nice to know whether your wait will be 5 minutes or 25, and some other cities, like DC and Paris, already have countdown-type systems that work pretty well. There's a "Next Train" countdown feature being planned for commuter rail, and the MBTA will tackle bus alerts after that. Installing individual countdown or update signs at every bus station would be extremely expensive, so the focus is on finding ways to provide phone or PDA alerts. Riders will be able to text their bus route number to the MBTA and get a response indicating scheduled arrival times. We think it'd be nice if we could just, y'know, call an MBTA hotline and get a list of when trains are coming, but maybe that's too high tech.
Cliff Francoeur, who lived near the scene of yesterday's commuter rail accident in Canton, took pictures on the scene and added them to the Bostonist photo stream. They show the emergency response and the passengers trying to grasp what happened.
A commuter rail train hit a boxcar in Canton at about 5:25 this afternoon. All commuter havoc aside, this railroad accident is frightening. The Herald reports that 50 people were injured, "at least two of them seriously." WCVB states that 10 people were taken to hospitals.
Radio Boston had MBTA General Manager Dan Grabauskas on the air on Friday, and he took questions from callers about the T. He likely realized that he was about to put his feet to the fire, as Radio Boston began the show with a few quotations, such as "I hate the people on the T, I hate the service, I hate everything about the T."
Noah Bierman at the Globe engages in a fun little exercise, comparing commuter-rail schedules from the early 1900s to the ones of today. And he discovers that the trains were faster back then. Here's some of his fine lines about the good old commuter-rail days:
--Keith Ryan, the son of Globe sportswriter Bob Ryan, was found dead in Pakistan. He was an attache for the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. Reports indicate he had shot himself. An investigation will follow. [Boston Globe]
--Yet another explanation for why you should have a sinking feeling in your tummy any time you go over a bridge in Massachusetts. [Boston Herald]
If Amtrak workers follow through on threats to strike nationwide on January 30, Boston commuters of all stripes will find themselves deeply embedded in a giant snowball of crappiness.
What would Massachusetts be without some sort of infrastructure improvement? Today, the MBTA announced that it will overhaul the Columbia Road, Quincy Street, and Massachusetts Avenue commuter rail bridges.
A barge busted up a bridge so there is no MBTA Commuter Rail service between Salem and Beverly. Newburyport/Rockport line that is.
The MBTA has renewed its contract with the MBCR. Statistics confirmed what everyone knew—that commuter rail in Massachusetts needs a major overhaul, yet the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Rail Company will get three more years to do whatever it is that they do. So, when you're stuck on the train or waiting for the train, you know who to thank. For some background, Bostonist Noah Bierman's Globe piece on the history between the MBTA and MBCR....
Complaints about the MBTA are typical, but the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Company [MBCR] is about to feel the heat of the spotlight. Noah Bierman at the Globe released some depressing news for regular rail riders--compared to other similar commuter rail services, the MBCR is the least reliable. It gets worse: "And since January, the system has posted its worst on-time performance yet: 84.5 percent of the commuter trains have been on time, compared...
If the amount of T alerts entering our inbox is any indication, the new T Alert system appears to be working just fine. In fact, it proves what we already knew--that the green line is a sluggish nightmare thanks to disabled trains. An alert appears when a 15-20 delay happens. But one commenter, boston_sean, left us a note that the T Alert system needs a little work when it comes to the commuter rail: I...
It's official. You can now put Charlie in your cell phone or on your computer. The T has a big, fat announcement on its home page, featuring an image of a gleeful woman. She's happy now, but she hasn't seen the charges that will result from all her text messages. Anyway, Bostonist has signed up. You can choose the "mode of service" you prefer: commuter rail, subway, bus, silver line, and boat. (Thank goodness...
-- MBTA and MBCR in a war of the quips over why the commuter rail sucks. Massachussetts Liberal says "Grabauskas must go!" (via Universal Hub) -- Senator Steve Baddour wants to milk some sacred cows. It sounds dirty, but he just wants to get rid of the police details. -- ACLU reminds Boston residents targeted by the BPD Safe Homes project about a crazy little thing called rights. -- Get ready to learn about Downtown...
Do you have any spare toiletries? Books? Magazines? Anything to relieve the irritation and boredom that the troops in Iraq feel when they're not getting shot at? Bring 'em down to South Station today, then. A coalition of people, including the Commuter Rail Union, the Firefighters Union, the Teamsters, MBCR, and the MBTA are at the station. They have large bins decorated with American flags both inside and outside the station. The items must be...
Machetes, hatchets, hedge clippers. People from Massachusetts are nothing if not creative when it comes to assault charges.
The Celtics earned a little Valentine's Day present by finally snapping their 18-game losing streak against the Bucks last night. It didn't look pretty at first. The Bucks, who were also laboring under a rotten record, were pounding on the Celtics and closed the first quarter 32-19. And then Paul Pierce and Gerald Green, who is gearing up for the All-Star Slam-Dunk competition Saturday night, caught fire. We remembered why we love Paul Pierce so...