A Quiet Commute the Day After Boston Blasts

A day after the blast that shook Boston, New England and the country, travel on the MBTA was unusually quiet for a reverse commuter.

Swampscott Town Planner Pete Kane commutes daily to Swampscott from the heart of Boston. He lives downtown, on the edge of the Boston Common, a few blocks from the Boston Marathon finish line.

As he does each work day he boarded his train Tuesday morning at the Boylston T-stop bound for North Station.

Most mornings at 7, North Station is a busy place, but not Tuesday, the planner said. 

"It was quiet," he said.

He noticed a police presence at the entrance. That presence, and the presence of more law enforcement throughout the city was not in response to any particular threat, but intended to put people at ease, law enforcement officials said later in the day.

The planner's ride to Swampscott is typically a road less traveled compared to the route in the opposite direction.

Even so, the reverse commute had fewer riders than usual, he said.

Otherwise, the commute was not out of the ordinary.

Monday, a holiday, the planner was home at his apartment. He did not hear the explosions but saw waves of runners being directed to the Boston Common, an indication that something had happened.

The planner spends a lot of time in the Copley Square area on weekends. For many the locale will be forever changed.

Few people will look at it in the same way after Monday's explosions that killed three people and maimed or injured many others.