Politics & Government

Rail Transportation to Parade a Bust to Some, Success to Others

A crowd of people who had planned to catch a train into Boston for the Bruins parade Saturday either fell back to alternative plans or stayed home.

An MBCR spokesman said he hadn’t heard that people waiting at the Swampscott Train Station for rides to the Bruins parade in Boston on Saturday were left stranded.

Ultimately, Spokesman Scott Farmelant said the MBCR carried out a plan that was devised over 48 hours, a plan to maximize the number of seats available to transport huge numbers of fans to the parade.

“It was executed flawlessly,” Farmelant said.

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He also said the MBCR apologizes to anyone who didn’t get to attend the parade.

Several people including Steve Deveau, who lives a half mile from the Swampscott Station, attested to large numbers of people waiting for trains that did not arrive to pick them up.

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One father texted Patch at mid-morning saying people were left stranded at the station. He said he was giving up waiting and would drive with his young son to a Blue Line stop.

Deveau, who is a rail fan, was at the station to watch the trains.

He said the crowd tired of waiting and watching trains zip through the station without stopping. Eventually the crowd gave up, he said.

“The gist of it is that MBTA/MBCR stranded everybody,” he said. “As a railfan, I have some understanding of how this could have happened, but what confounds me is that despite all the modern communication tools at their disposal, they didn't bother to tell anybody that they needed to find another way into town.  

The message finally arrived by way of three Swampscott PD officers walking the platform and telling people.”

Farmelant said that people would have had the information they needed if they had been receiving T-Alerts.

Deveau, however, said communication was sorely lacking.

“On the T alerts site, the word was ‘All Northside Lines/Routes experiencing delays due to Boston Bruins Victory Rolling Rally today. Please allow extra time for your commute,‘ Deveau wrote in a post to an online railfan group.   

“Nothing about no service from Swampscott (and Lynn, Chelsea, and Salem which were probably similarly affected).  There were no email alerts.  The brand new T-on-time smartphone app for commuter rail can't handle off schedule situations.  The LED sign in the station displayed its normal message directing people to 530AM, a technology not supported on modern personal electronics.”

Farmelant said the system was at capacity. It was an unprecedented event with extra trains and crews moving an unprecedented number of people. 

On a typical day, the rail system moves between 65,000 and 67,000 people over four hours.

On Saturday, the system moved 120,000 people over three hours, he said.

“We see this as an unprecedented success,” he said.

Deveau thinks others may think of the experience in a different light.

“This was a young crowd,” he posted tot he rail-fan site, and I suspect for some it was their introduction to commuter rail.  Nice way to build future ridership.”


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