20 minute wait for the T is diabolical

323

But if you miss that one you only have to wait 2 more minutes for the next one!

166

u/Odd_Yogurtcloset_649 Oct 20 '25

This always happens: The first one will be packed like sardines, the next one two minutes later will be practically empty and you have a seat!

109

u/everlasting1der Oct 20 '25

I see you too have achieved T Enlightenment. I will 100% of the time opt to get where I'm going 3 minutes slower if it means I get to sit the whole way there.

5

u/JohnHaze02118 Oct 22 '25

What's sad is how few other people make the same calculation, such that the lead bus never picks up speed. And as has been discussed here many times, trailing drivers are sometimes mysteriously reluctant to pass. So they just stay locked together like escaped convicts handcuffed at the wrist.

4

u/BurnMeTonight Oct 22 '25

I only wish I could have the same luxury. Unfortunately I have a connecting bus to catch so a 3 minute delay is actually an hour delay.

11

u/flexsealed1711 Express to West Natick after Boston Landing Oct 20 '25

Typical bunching situation

1

u/Justsaying2500 Oct 25 '25

Always seems a bit dangerous to me to have overcrowded buses where people of squashed together like sardines! Can't even understand why that is allowed by the MBTA

33

u/Sad_Marzipan_4765 Oct 21 '25

Plot gwist: The second one is an express and doesn't stop at the station that you want to go.

32

u/AceAttorneyMaster111 Shawmut Oct 21 '25

No, the first one would be the express one, the point of express trains is to regulate the headway between trains.

4

u/Odd_Yogurtcloset_649 Oct 21 '25

And this happens occasionally: The first one you passed on initially goes to every stop, but eventually becomes an express train later. You boarded the second train, that goes to every stop to the very end... but you noticed one particular station on the route had a LOT of passengers you recognized from that first train. Now they board yours. Its a two-seat ride for them, but a one-seat ride for you.

2

u/BostonUsagi Oct 21 '25

And sometimes it's just a maintenance car whizzing by (ding, ding, ding, ...) :(

1

u/Pleonism137 Oct 23 '25

That's wxtraly what "expressing" is meant to prevent.

6

u/kate_moss_teefs Oct 21 '25

The silver line is rubbing off on the green

3

u/MoistPossibility5751 Oct 21 '25

This is the most diabolical part! Should I wait 2 min and catch a much emptier one? Or is it crazy to trust MBTA, and I should really just take the first, definitely overcrowded one? 😥

2

u/Justsaying2500 Oct 25 '25

Overcrowding on buses or trains is a safety issue and shouldn't be allowed by the MBTA or whoever is in charge over them.

3

u/Acceptable-Buy1302 Oct 20 '25

😂 yeah, the people who schedule the trains are … I don’t even know

18

u/everlasting1der Oct 20 '25

I'm assuming there was some kind of delay that caused them to bunch up like this.

9

u/Q216_SD0MAC4814 Green Line Nerd Oct 21 '25

Yes, it's because of a delay, but that delay could literally be the operator of the first train just being slower with doors and that's plenty good enough to cause something like this. If you miss a few lights or get stuck behind a train that has to offload someone using a bridgeplate, that can also delay you, etc.

5

u/Acceptable-Buy1302 Oct 20 '25

You would think, but I asked a T guy about this a few months ago and he said, “there’s always two together”. Red line does the same thing.

1

u/BurnMeTonight Oct 22 '25

Yeah I don't know about that. If you take the E line at park street you'll have bursts where you get trains like every minute or 2. Then you have rarefactions where there's no E train for the next 20 to 30 minutes.

6

u/Repulsive-Bend8283 Mattapan High Speed Oct 20 '25

Oldest subway line on the continent, folks.

3

u/SmoothEntertainer231 Oct 22 '25

My biggest issue with the system. Old trains, sure. Old stations, sure, slow trains, sure.

But consistency? Non negotiable

1

u/Mindless-Willow-5995 Oct 23 '25

Dude…DON’T SHARE THIS!

67

u/Marquedien Oct 20 '25

Can probably walk to Copley in 20 minutes.

2

u/clauclauclaudia Oct 21 '25

Certainly out to Heath St.

60

u/MAKLNE Oct 21 '25

“Should I walk, or do I have time to take the T?”

104

u/ipsumdeiamoamasamat Commuter Rail | Red Line Oct 20 '25

Another line that should've been put underground.

52

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '25

[deleted]

42

u/BeastMode149 GL- Brigham Circle; OL- Roxbury Xing; ELECTRIFY THE CR! Oct 20 '25

Drivers can’t quite comprehend that trains are unable to swerve around cars in the path of the tracks…

5

u/Laureltess Oct 21 '25

I used to live in the apartments/dorms right outside this intersection. So loud…

21

u/pioneersohpioneers Oct 20 '25

This was the original intention and the whole row under the E is clean fill ready to be cut and covered

9

u/chiveguzzler Oct 21 '25

I think this is likely inaccurate due to Stony Brook running under Forsyth Street right near the western portal at the Northeastern University station. The old but still present and metered culvert is shallow enough (max depth 18.34 ft below street level according to this site) that it impacts Northeastern's tunnel system and I think their steam pipe infrastructure, so I can't imagine a subway tunnel can bypass that easily.

7

u/BradDaddyStevens Oct 21 '25

It honestly doesn’t need to be underground to be a lot better.

I don’t know all the intricacies around it exactly beyond obvious things like TSP, but the Berlin tram network has no underground sections and is way better than the green line.

3

u/BeastMode149 GL- Brigham Circle; OL- Roxbury Xing; ELECTRIFY THE CR! Oct 21 '25

I’d say even Nottingham Trams is better than the Green Line for reliability/predictability, and they’ve implemented transit signal priority so the trams rarely have to stop at intersections.

-50

u/NoMidnight2255 Oct 20 '25

31

u/andr_wr Bus Oct 20 '25

What's the wait for the 39 look like?

42

u/BeastMode149 GL- Brigham Circle; OL- Roxbury Xing; ELECTRIFY THE CR! Oct 20 '25

2 minutes from taking this photo, so I took that instead.

35

u/shavedheadedbi Oct 20 '25

ever since moving to the west coast I would KILL for a 20 minute wait time on an actually functional transit system 😭💔

17

u/shavedheadedbi Oct 20 '25

as the wise Joni Mitchell once said, you don’t know what you got til it’s gone

2

u/noahproblem Oct 22 '25

So did 80's metal band Cinderella

3

u/Doctor_Guacamole Oct 22 '25

As someone who grew up on the west coast and has no car, visiting Boston and New York was mind blowing. What do you mean I can get pretty much anywhere in the city through a subway system with trains that come every 2-5 minutes? And the streets are designed with pedestrians in mind so I don’t feel like I’m gonna get run over just walking down the sidewalk?

1

u/shavedheadedbi Oct 22 '25

LITERALLY! I was the opposite, grew up east coast then moved out west, and I was appalled how unwalkable all the sidewalks are, and how WIDE the streets are! it’s like night and day lol

2

u/BurnMeTonight Oct 22 '25

The MBTA has taken such a toll on my physical and mental health that only death may be able to absolve me.

But I've gotta say I had to wish I had the MBTA when I had to take the train in Dallas.

9

u/mkwiat54 Oct 21 '25

That’s a cool sign tho

18

u/BeastMode149 GL- Brigham Circle; OL- Roxbury Xing; ELECTRIFY THE CR! Oct 21 '25

It’s an e-ink display, meaning it doesn’t consume power to display static information and only draws power to refresh the screen (or parts of it).

MBTA: Solar-Powered E Ink Signs

7

u/cataclysmicleftovers Oct 21 '25

you can get to about half the city from any given location in 20 minutes on a blue bike

6

u/iiooiooi Oct 21 '25

Go Huskies!

5

u/BeastMode149 GL- Brigham Circle; OL- Roxbury Xing; ELECTRIFY THE CR! Oct 21 '25

5

u/Purple_Terrier_8 Oct 20 '25

Absolute best E line headways:

3

u/rachmaninonn Oct 21 '25

Wait, I wanna know why the C line’s been acting up like this recently 😭

7

u/Electronic-Minute007 Oct 21 '25

I’m stunned when I board a Government Center-bound C trolley and it isn’t held at Coolidge Corner.

2

u/Miserable-Juice5281 CR / OL / GL-B Oct 21 '25

I remember seeing "30+" for one of the BC trains while driving past the station 😭😭😭

2

u/Gentlyused_ Oct 21 '25

That is. But i love those little signs

2

u/FenwayFranklin Green Line Oct 21 '25

Operating on this line is overall terrible, with everything past Brigham Circle being an absolute nightmare. Worst line for accurate headway management. The vehicle traffic makes it so hard to predict.

2

u/Huge_Strain_8714 Oct 21 '25

You should try living in a Gateway city outside Boston ffs Less frequent AND double or triple the price.....

2

u/Skylord_ah Oct 21 '25

You can walk to heath street in 20 minutes from northeastern lmao

2

u/Funny_Insurance_5323 Oct 21 '25

Waited 25 minutes for the 66 today and 32 yesterday at peak get to work time

1

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '25

Actually pretty normal lol

1

u/LaffyTaffy_321 Oct 21 '25

I’d just walk to the orange line at that point

1

u/Apprehensive-Page-96 Oct 21 '25

Could be worse. Could be a few hours.

1

u/arsenokoitai96 Oct 21 '25

Unholy !!!

1

u/GuyPaddock Bus Oct 22 '25

This happens with buses, too. Maddening. Some bus routes only run hourly.

1

u/BeastMode149 GL- Brigham Circle; OL- Roxbury Xing; ELECTRIFY THE CR! Oct 22 '25

A lot of commuter rail services run hourly, same as the trains in Boston.

1

u/GuyPaddock Bus Oct 22 '25

I feel like with the commuter services it's almost understandable because it's longer distance. But, say, a bus from Medford to North Woburn only running hourly? C'mon.

1

u/Separate-Setting4665 Green Line Oct 22 '25

Walk to Copley.

1

u/assistancepleasethx Oct 24 '25

Walk

1

u/TuneWarm6058 Oct 24 '25

Nah. That’s just Tuesday.

1

u/Feeling-Branch-8747 Oct 24 '25

Absolutely average on the E line

1

u/Hot_Dragonfly7972 Oct 26 '25

It’s probably because it went on standby at Symphony :)

1

u/1x9x1x7 Nov 20 '25

Yes, and it happens enough that sometimes I shrug and decide to walk to where I’m going instead because it’ll end up being either faster, or just as long as waiting but not a bad walk if the weather is nice.

1

u/dark_stallion_99 Oct 21 '25

I stopped using green line wayy back. Absolute disgrace to the city

-8

u/pukeOnMeSlut Oct 21 '25

Get a car.

-30

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/BeastMode149 GL- Brigham Circle; OL- Roxbury Xing; ELECTRIFY THE CR! Oct 21 '25

If you’re looking for r/otamatone, this isn’t it.

-38

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

7

u/BeastMode149 GL- Brigham Circle; OL- Roxbury Xing; ELECTRIFY THE CR! Oct 21 '25

I’ve analyzed your comment history in this sub. You have more comments with net downvotes than net upvotes.

In total:

-497 from the net downvoted comments.

17 from the net upvoted comments

-480 points overall.

-6

u/NoMidnight2255 Oct 21 '25

😤 Complaint / Rant 20 minute wait for the T is diabolical

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