what's a little ice to the mbta?
a big problem, of course.
I worked, umm, kind of late, and took a 12:30a Red Line train home. All was normal until it started moving up the Longfellow Bridge out of Charles/MGH, at which point it stopped moving, at least quickly.
There was plenty of blue flashing coming off the third rail pickup shoes, which suggests that there was enough ice on the third rail to keep them from actually picking up much power. The car bucked and stalled as it got dribs and drabs here and there, and I think the operator was cutting the throttle in and out to try and get through too. The train got slower and slower, down to about 1-2mph, and I seriously started to wonder how long we might be sitting up there in a cold, powerless train that wasn't going anywhere. But this also happened to be just as the train reached the top of the bridge, and eventually our friend Gravity reached out with a hand and pulled the train down into Cambridge. The operator just coasted all the way down into the tunnel. This all took 5 minutes plus to get across 1000 feet of bridge.
Looking over at the other track on the bridge, I didn't see any snow/ice guards over the third rail. WTF? The MTA and Long Island Railroad have these everywhere. Granted, these might be less practical in a city that gets somewhat more snow, but this is a city right by the shore that constantly gets freezing drizzle off the water. Count me unimpressed.
I worked, umm, kind of late, and took a 12:30a Red Line train home. All was normal until it started moving up the Longfellow Bridge out of Charles/MGH, at which point it stopped moving, at least quickly.
There was plenty of blue flashing coming off the third rail pickup shoes, which suggests that there was enough ice on the third rail to keep them from actually picking up much power. The car bucked and stalled as it got dribs and drabs here and there, and I think the operator was cutting the throttle in and out to try and get through too. The train got slower and slower, down to about 1-2mph, and I seriously started to wonder how long we might be sitting up there in a cold, powerless train that wasn't going anywhere. But this also happened to be just as the train reached the top of the bridge, and eventually our friend Gravity reached out with a hand and pulled the train down into Cambridge. The operator just coasted all the way down into the tunnel. This all took 5 minutes plus to get across 1000 feet of bridge.
Looking over at the other track on the bridge, I didn't see any snow/ice guards over the third rail. WTF? The MTA and Long Island Railroad have these everywhere. Granted, these might be less practical in a city that gets somewhat more snow, but this is a city right by the shore that constantly gets freezing drizzle off the water. Count me unimpressed.