MBTA Service Limited Tuesday: Slow Commute Expected

Power outage affects Cummington Mall, Bay State Road

It may take as long as 30 days before the MBTA is able to return to normal after the unprecedented series of blizzards that has hit the area, says general manager Beverly Scott. The T has enlisted labor unions, volunteers, and prison inmates to help clear snow. Photo by Cydney Scott

February 16, 2015
30
Twitter Facebook

Update: A power outage Tuesday morning is affecting the Cummington Mall area, upper Bay State Road and spot outages along Commonwealth Ave. NStar has been notified and is working to determine the cause. 

The Charles River Campus and the Medical Campus are open and will operate on their customary schedule on Tuesday, despite limited MBTA service.

MBTA Service: The Blue Line will serve all stations between Wonderland and Bowdoin. Trains are expected to depart every seven or eight minutes. On the Green Line, service will operate between Kenmore and Lechmere stations with limited trolley service available in both directions on the D branch. Trolleys between North Station and Kenmore will depart every five to six minutes. On the B branch, Route 57 buses will make stops between Packard’s Corner and Kenmore stations. There will be no bus service available between Packard’s Corner and Boston College. Along the C branch on Beacon Street, there will be limited bus shuttle service between Cleveland Circle and Kenmore. Along the E branch on Huntington Avenue, Route 39 buses will make stops between Northeastern and Heath Street stations. Red Line service will run between Alewife and Andrew stations, with limited substitute bus service on the Ashmont and Braintree branches, linking customers with the Red Line at Andrew station. Trains between Alewife and Andrew stations are scheduled to arrive/depart every six to seven minutes. The Orange Line will operate only from Sullivan to Back Bay stations with limited substitute bus service from Oak Grove to Sullivan stations and from Back Bay to Forest Hills stations. Trains between Sullivan and Back Bay are scheduled to arrive/depart every 12 minutes. Service will be unavailable on the Mattapan trolley line. Limited bus replacement service will be available.

MBTA buses, including the Silver Line, will operate on a weekday schedule, but with delays because of traffic and road conditions. Commuter rail will operate on a modified weekday schedule, but delays are expected because of switch and signal issues and mechanical issues on locomotives and some trips will be canceled. Parking in MBTA garages will be allowed, but availability will be limited. Find more information here.

BU Shuttle (the BUS): The BU Shuttle will provide normally scheduled service. Delays from snow piling, narrowed streets, and excessive traffic should be anticipated. Please dress warmly and use the BU Mobile Application as well as @BUshuttle for estimated stop times and updates. Any delays in service or service cancellations will be posted on the BUS website and tweeted from @BUshuttle.

Parking: All lots and garages will be operational. Some parking spaces will remain off-line in the Back Street and alley spaces of Bay State Road, between Raleigh Street and Granby Street, as emergency snow removal continues. Please do not park in coned-off spaces.

All other services on the Charles River Campus and the Medical Campus will operate on a normal schedule.

  • Share this story
  • 30 Comments Add

Share

MBTA Service Limited Tuesday: Slow Commute Expected

Share

Comments & Discussion

Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.

There are 30 comments on MBTA Service Limited Tuesday: Slow Commute Expected

    2. People are already talking about long-wait times at the Packard’s Corner bus stop (an hour or more) as 5+ buses fly by without even stopping due to overcrowding. And MBTA estimates are saying that this is meant to continue throughout the week.

      Reply
      Link

    3. I never made it to school today. My 10:45 commuter rail was cancelled and 12:00 was also cancelled, this modified commuter rail is awful. I concluded that I have spent approx. 15.4 hours freezing on a train platform, not counting the hour ride that gets slowed down to 1.5 hours. The cancelled trains, the trains that stop but are packed and you can’t get on. the modified schedule, the snow that they don’t remove, the ice. Thats the MBTA and my classes. I have to make up classes, I am losing information to fit more important info in time because of the snow days, I am making up classes & labs at such a non-fluid schedule that I feel like a chicken running around with its head cutoff, i feel like I don’t even have a schedule.
      The entire Massachusetts Transportation System is messed up. And this 30 day modified schedule is if we don’t get anymore major snow storms!

      I am going to try to stay at the New England Veteran Shelter near Gov’t Center. then in the fall I am getting my own on campus single apartment.

      All of you saying that this is not BU’s fault is correct, but the state is in shambles right now, this is making it hard on every single commuter, from bus to car. I had to cross over a 4’ snow banks on the Beacon Street Overpass heading to Yawkey when I slipped rolled down the front into traffic and almost got hit by a car.

      We haven’t seen this much snow and cold in this short of time maybe once or twice since they started to kept records. Saying its not BU’s fault (which is correct) or find your way to class, walk or you should have lived on campus or leave earlier is just not a valid argument, this is monumental catastrophic weather event(s). It took my VA Counselor 4.5 hours to get to work instead of <45 mins. And this is every one of the 250,000 college students in the city and everyone else. BU is trying their hardest but they are so very limited.

      Reply
      Link

  2. If the MBTA service is going to be this limited for another 30 days, BU absolutely needs to arrange for additional BU Bus services for those living past West Campus. Absolutely unreasonable to expect students to walk to and from their homes to Packard’s Corner each morning and late at night to simply wait for buses that will be too crowded to stop more than every 30 minutes. Totally impractical.

    Reply
    Link

    2. No, you chose to live off campus, knowing you’d rely on the MBTA. There’s no obligation for the university to extend an on-campus service off campus, at their cost, because you decided not to pay BU housing.

      Reply
      Link

      2. What is it with you people not understanding that BU doesn’t have enough housing for all of its students? Upperclassmen are *supposed* to move off campus (which is why the StuVi buildings are the most idiotic thing; luxury dorms for upperclassmen? Please). And anyway, that’s beside the point. It’s completely unacceptable for this MAJOR U.S. CITY’s MAIN PUBLIC TRANSIT SYSTEM, upon which tens of thousands of people depend every day, to take 30+ days to get back up to its *normal* level of unreliability. BU knows that many of its students and professors have been quite literally left out in the cold on this one (I waited an hour for a bus this morning before I decided to walk back home and call the day a bust) and they should try to do something about that.

        Reply
        Link

    3. I agree that BU should extend shuttle service. Not only is the 57 not running far enough west, temperatures are cold enough that walking may not be an option for everyone

      Reply
      Link

      1. The phrasing in the article is a bit funny because it’s only talking about the B line service, but the 57 should be continuing all the way west to Oak Square and Watertown as usual; there’s no alert for it on the T’s site.

        Reply
        Link

        1. From the MBTA site:

          “Along the B branch, Route 57 buses will make stops between Packards Corner and Kenmore Stations. There will be no bus service between Packards Corner and Boston College.”

          Reply
          Link

          1. That says nothing about the 57 stopping at Packard’s Corner, and there’s been no alert for the 57 on the T’s site all day. Nextbus currently shows 4 57’s in Brighton west of Packard’s Corner.

            Link

      2. No tuition dollars should go towards shuttling off campus students.

        Where you decide to live is a personal decision that comes with many benefits, risks, etc. With the independence of living off campus comes more personal responsibility.

        Reply
        Link

  3. This is inaccurate. http://Www.mbta.com/winter for further updates and information. These time estimations are not on the website, from what I can find. I live in the Rosi/Hyde Park area and am expecting minimal to zero transportation tomorrow.

    A large portion of students live past packards corner and closer to BC. How are they suppose to get to class? Cabs? Uber? Will they be able to get some sort of tuition or loan reimbursement for this? Can we have class during finals instead of having a finals week like some other local schools? Weekend makeups are impossible and inconsiderate.

    Best,
    Daniel

    Reply
    Link

    1. No, why should you get a reimbursement? The university is holding class, by living off campus, it becomes your responsibility to find a way in.

      The university should not give you money back. You’re still getting the assignments and you’re free to find a way in to class, money back isn’t going to fix a thing, you could always contact your professor for makeup materials.

      Reply
      Link

      1. You’re aware there is not enough housing on BU’s campus for every undergraduate student, and that nearly all graduate students are forced to live off campus, right? No, he shouldn’t get a reimbursement, but BU should absolutely extend the BU Bus route down Comm Ave, at least to Harvard Ave.

        Reply
        Link

  4. Given all these alterations, wouldn’t a delayed start make sense? I could see the administration’s hesitation but many students live past Packard’s and I can only imagine the trouble commuting from Washington st on without any replacement service.

    Reply
    Link

  5. For those who live along the B line, the walk to either the C line or the 57 is under a mile (some places substantially under). It ain’t fun, and both the T and BU should be stepping up more, but for most folks it’s a long ways from impossible.

    Reply
    Link

    1. That’s fair, but the 57 is already overcrowded and the C is only running limited shuttles. If it was 10 degrees warmer I would say quit complaining, but it’s freezing out and having the 57 pass to wait another 10 minutes or more really sucks.
      That said, I usually walk in from Allston because public transportation here sucks during the academic year.

      The BU Shuttle won’t do anyone any good by going farther, it already can’t handle the student body that takes it.

      The fault lies with the MBTA for not offering shuttle service between Packards and BC.

      Reply
      Link

  6. I would also love to hear how students from Brighton are supposed to get to school. I am not going to class today because I would have to leave my apartment at 7am to walk to Packards Corner and wait for a bus that will be impossible to get on. It’s 9 degrees out. This is completely unreasonable.

    Reply
    Link

  7. BU has a large concentration of students in the Brighton area, towards Boston College on the B line and out into Allston, Brighton Center, and Oak Square on the 57 bus. All of us stranded in these parts of town are paying substantial tuition to attend this university, and the university is choosing to run ‘business as usual’ without us. Completely unacceptable.

    I would like to see refunds made for classes missed (to no fault of the student), or a reimbursement for third-party transportation required to make it on campus.

    Reply
    Link

    1. If you are grown up enough to live off campus then you are grown up enough to figure out how to get to school.

      Think about all of the working professionals who live in these areas who typically commute into the downtown area via the B line. Do you think they are asking their employers to stop running ‘business as usual’ until the T returns to full service?

      Reply
      Link

      1. No, but I imagine those employers don’t respond with an argument that amounts to ‘you should’e lived right next door to the office,’ the way so many people here are criticizing those of us who live off-campus.

        Again. The MBTA bus service is unreliable at the BEST of times. For Tuesday & Thursday classes I have at 9:30 am I have to go wait for the bus at 8am simply because so many buses come by that can’t even stop because of overcrowding. And then traffic is so bad that it takes me 45 minutes on the bus to go TWO MILES. Making all of those who live within a reasonable distance of the Packard’s Corner bus stop use buses from that stop only is ridiculous, as the 57 clearly cannot accommodate that many people. With the actual T shut at that location, it’s only worse. It’s often single digit temperatures outside at the time in the morning, so standing around waiting for buses that come every 20 minutes is far from pleasant. The people who live off-campus don’t pay any less tuition than those who live in Warren and can walk to class in 2 minutes. It’s clear, though, that BU doesn’t really care how we get to class or whether we do it safely.

        Reply
        Link

      2. Yes, actually. Last night when today’s MBTA situation was announced, my work email exploded with messages from co-workers letting us all know that they would be more productive working from home, not spending god knows how many hours waiting for the bus or the train; and, for the record, the first of those emails was from the office director herself, advising us that we should stay home if we need to. It’s been like this since Juno–honestly, I think we’ve all spent more time at home than the office over the past few weeks.

        Reply
        Link

  9. This may sound crazy, but how about walking? I know it is cold out there, there is snow everywhere and some people live way too far from BU, but for those living 3 or 4 miles away, walking is right now the only reliable way to get on time to class.

    Reply
    Link

  10. I live near BC and I tried to take BC shuttle to reservoir then go to Kenmore by D, it took me only 25 minutes from reservoir to BU east, while it usually take me 45 minutes from BC to BU east by B line.

    Maybe people live near BC should try D line, it’s much faster than B line.

    Reply
    Link

Post a comment.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest from BU Today