We had the typical nonsensical delays at JFK, then rolled into Andrew and had to hang out there for a few minutes. I could vaguely hear the conductor informing us of something but the speakers in the train are of such crap quality that I couldn't understand what she was saying.
Finally we get to Broadway and miraculously the speakers in the train were fixed and on max volume. We were first informed that there was an issue at Downtown, and that we were waiting for the ok from "Central Control" to keep moving. 5 minutes pass with numerous, way-too-loud announcements about how we were standing by and there was no estimate for how long we'd be stuck there. Most of my fellow passengers were cool as cucumbers since we are all pretty used to never having an incident-free commute, but I did chuckle when I heard some lady start going nuts and huffing, "Jesus Christ!"
Maybe 10 minutes passed, and we were told that OUR train was coming out of service. "No passengers, no passengers," we heard, and everyone of us on that now packed train de-boarded. Once we were off the train we were told within a few minutes that service had been suspended. No more trains!! What the hell? This was a first for me, but I was a little happy to be able to walk out of the dirty pit that is Broadway Station and up to the fresh air. The masses of thousands of disgruntled red line riders went upstairs to, of course, no direction as to what we should do. Some people walked, others took taxis, and many more of us just stood there waiting for a bus. I managed to get on the 3rd bus. Here is a picture of me on my second ever Boston bus (along with 200 other people). Pardon the expression on my face but I was squished by a man who had the strongest, most offensive curry odor I'd smelled in a long time.
So it turned out that there was a fire on the tracks at downtown crossing, and I arrived at work 40 minutes late thanks to the red line and the nasty people who litter on the tracks and start fires. I can't remember the last time that there were no issues on my red line commute for more than 2 consecutive days. It is ALWAYS HORRIBLE!!!!
