Sunday, February 04, 2007

Charlie's Mailbag - Feb 4th - stupid is as stupid does

Another edition of the mailbag which can be reached at charlieonthembta@gmail.com

Gwen from Waltham noticed something odd about the Silver Line-Waterfront bus maps. They don't show the Silver Line.


Hey Charlie love your blog.
I work down in the Seaport District and usually catch the Silver Line at what they call "Silver Line Way". Yesterday I saw a couple of tourists looking at the bus map there and I offered to help.

They were looking for the Black Falcon Terminal and which bus to take and by mistake they had taken the bus to the Airport and were now trying to figure out which other Silver Line bus to take.

Charlie the map in the bus shelter doesn't have the Silver Line on it. It has all the other bus routes but nothing for SL1, SL2 or SL3. I read last week that the trip planner lost the Orange Line and now it looks like they lost a bus line as well!!


I got this letter about a week ago and I decided to check this out myself as I couldn't believe the T could lose a bus line.

I was wrong.

I went to the Silver Line Way station this morning and there is absolutly no mention of the SL Waterfront Lines on the map in the bus shelter. What makes this stranger is the bus shelter never existed until the Silver Line opened so it should not be a case of a map they never updated. Throw in the fact that the line has been running now for over two years one would think this oversight would have been corrected by now.

Now who exactly is at fault here I can't be sure. The shelters are maintained by WALL USA which was selected by the City of Boston to install 'street furniture' which includes automatic public toilets, newsstands, bus shelters, and information kiosks. They are probably the people responsible for the maps in the shelters but does the T print the maps or does WALL do so.

In any event the maps are out of date and it is pretty useless to have a bus map that doesn't show the bus you are waiting for.

Jeff from Abington had a run in with MBTA Police on Sunday morning

I enjoy your blog and badtransit.com very much as it shows me I am not alone at thinking the T could be a lot better. This morning I had occasion to be confronted by MBTA Police Officers because I was reading a newspaper.

I had missed my train from Abington this morning so I drove to Braintree to catch the Red Line to Boston. Outside Braintree station I picked up a newspaper in a box right outside the ststion entrance for something to read going in town.

As we left North Quincy 2 MBTA officers approached me and told me I was reading pornography on the train and that is not allowed. What I was reading is a newspaper called Barstool Sports which can be a little racy but nothing that is outlandish in todays society. They even demanded to see my ID.

I have never even gotten as much as a parking ticket in my life and I am being harrassed for reading a newspaper I picked up at a T station?

-Jeff-
Abington, MA


Jeff this report leaves me speechless. I know the paper you were reading and yes they are known for covers with beautiful women wearing as little as possible but it certainly in no way comes close to being pornography.

This has to be brought to the attention of the Transit Police because from what you report this really makes one wonder about the judgement abilty of these officers.

Here is the person to contact

Joseph C. Carter
Chief of MBTA Transit Police
617-222-1100
MBTA Transit Police Department
240 Southampton Street Boston, MA 02118

You can also check out their website at http://transitpolice.us/

which informs us that


Please let us know what happens with this

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