Today while waiting for an outbound MBTA commuter rail train at Boston’s South Station, I experienced the worst possible congestion ever.
With the 5:12PM Middleboro/Lakeville train mysteriously running late, throngs of people gathered at their usual waiting spots between tracks 10 and 13. When a train arrived on track 12, people started moving in that general direction (this is a common occurrence).
Unfortunately this was not our train, but rather a train from Greenbush.
Never mind that the conductors and MBCR staff are none too friendly and you can easily pull together a picture of just how frustrating this situation can be after a long day at work, a walk or subway ride to the train station and (lately) oppressive heat and humidity.
Add to this a boarding announcement for the 5:20 Greenbush train (it was on time), and you instantly get this collision of bodies grazing one another as people try to get past you to your train yet you have nowhere to move because others around you are standing around like extras in a George Romero Dawn of the Dead movie.
Where is the common sense for people to move out of the way and at least clear a space for their fellow commuters? C’mon people get your heads out of your asses and think about how standing like a hillbilly in the middle of a concrete passageway might just happen to inconvenience a bunch of people. But you know, people in an of themselves aren’t entirely to blame. The MBTA needs a well-defined and actionable plan for managing the daily flow of its commuters. Currently it does not appear to have one. People disembarking arriving inbound trains are often met by a crowd of tired angry hot people who would sooner run you down that wait a few extra seconds to enter an air-conditioned train. At times, I have had to count myself as part of that crowd, sadly.
If there were dedicated paths for those boarding and those disembarking perhaps that would work – maybe not. The commuter trains are supposedly going to be fitted with CharlieCard devices sometime in the future and I just can’t help but wonder how they’ll manage to accomplish that since on all other applications, using a CharlieCard requires tapping your card on a device attached to a turnstile; I don’t see how that will work on the commuter trains.
Tags: MBTA, MBCR, Crowd Control, CharlieCard, Middleboro, Lakeville, Greenbush
