What a Cluster!

Well, today certainly wasn't a great day to be a Worcester-Framingham line commuter rail rider!

When I got to the Grafton station, it seemed more crowded than usual. I checked my Blackberry and there were 3 alerts: 1 for the P502 (delayed) and 2 for the P504 (delayed by 20 minutes, then canceled outright). At 7:22 a.m., I received another update that the P508 was canceled and the next train from Worcester could expect delays of up to 20 minutes. The alerts alluded to a switching problem on the line somewhere.

So far, not so good.

When the P512 came (on time, around 7:50 a.m.), it was the usual train (5 single cars and 1 double decker car). But, due to earlier problems, this train now had to accommodate about 3 trains full of riders. By the time we got to Southborough (two stops from Grafton), there was hardly anywhere else to stand. At Ashland, I saw people left on the tracks, who couldn't even get on our train. We continued to make stops through Framingham, West Natick, Natick and the Wellesley's (this is the normal route for the P512). Our conductors did make announcements that due to a mechanical problem, the P508 had been canceled and that riders who wanted any Newton stops or the Yawkey stop needed to get off in Wellesley for the P514.

What I found interesting about this commute today: the conflicting information between MBTA Alerts, the conductors and the ticker boards at each stop, which basically said "there is a problem due to CSX."

We finally pulled into South Station at around 9:25 a.m. this morning. I got to my desk at 9:45 a.m. Yikes!

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