Adventures on the MBTA: CSI

Perhaps it could be a new show - CSI: MBTA.

This morning's commute started like any other - caught my inbound green line train at Coolidge Corner, was able to snag a seat at Hynes Convention Center, and from there continued the slow ride into town.

Until we stopped at Copley. The trolley operator came on the speaker and said, "We will be standing by for a few minutes." About a minute later, the doors closed and we moved forward to Arlington. Things seemed normal. Then we stopped in the tunnel and were told we'd be standing by.

"Great," I thought, "signal problems or a disabled train. So much for being on time to work." A few minutes later, we were told we'd be standing by again. Shortly thereafter, "Signal problems in Boylston." Then we sat. And sat. And sat some more. Eventually, "We will be adversing to Arlington where you can get the bus." I have to assume she meant reversing, but instead we started creeping forward.

Eventually we hit Boylston, and I prepared for the train to be taken out of service and for my walk to South Station from there. But it never happened. We moved on to Park Street, and I disembarked to head for the red line and finish my commute. But what I saw stopped me in my tracks.

It wasn't the dead green line train marked, "No Service," across the way. That's nothing new. It wasn't that there was a green line train destined for Government Center that was three feet behind the out of service train. It's hard to describe the scene in a meaningful way.

To my right was a woman talking on her mobile phone, plugged into an outlet and acting a bit frantic. There were MBTA police, supervisors, and operators everywhere. There was a man trying to explain that he was heading for the orange line, but didn't seem to be allowed to get there. An MBTA supervisor was blocking the way to the left, not that there's much back there, and straight ahead of me was a man with a fancy looking camera and a coat that read, "MBTA Police Crime Scene Unit."

All of that together gave me a bizarre feeling. I've been told that crime scene units are usually only called for very violent crimes that include, say, death. I don't know how true that is, and I don't know what happened, but the whole thing gave me an uneasy feeling.

I decided I'd find out from the internet later what had happened, and made way to the red line to continue my henceforth uneventful commute.