O Longfellow

I've been grateful that I walk to work and have stopped relying on the T for my daily commute. The state of the 100-year-old Longfellow Bridge has drastically affected the Red Line service, causing buses to shuttle between Kendall Square and Park Street Stations on the weekends and trains to run across the river from the normal 40mph to 10mph on weekdays. It is not so bad when you can board the steady stream of buses at Kendall Square, but that means that the trains running between the other stations are delayed. My friend and I got to Park Street Station at the same time as one another even though she left half an hour before I did, but she was coming from Central Square whereas I only had to board at Kendall Square.

We call it the "inchworm." On some days, I can walk almost at the same pace as the train crossing the river.

Just a couple Wednesdays ago, I noticed on my walk to work that they were shuttling between Harvard Square and Park Street. Strange, since this was on a weekday. Apparently, there was some sort of mechanical failure [in typical T fashion, they fail to report the details] and it added about an hour delay to everyone's commute around the city. The field staff normally has 6.30am meetings. One person who took one of the first commuter rail trains in at 5.30am didn't even make it on time.

This has got to stop. Normal scheduled maintenance, especially in light of the risk of Longfellow Bridge [we don't want another bridge collapse on our hands], is acceptable but when the MBTA service severely impacts the day-to-day schedules of people who are attempting to save gas, money and the environment, something must change.