Riders Frustrated With Delays as MBTA Investigates False Service Alerts

The recently problem-plagued Red Line was rumbling through MBTA stations Wednesday, but commuters continue to be frustrated by delays and fewer trains, which can lead to packed cars.

T riders vented their frustrations all over social media during the morning commute.

"It’s been hell," said Nadia Tomascewski who rides the Red Line into Boston from Quincy, adding that it's "very packed, I felt like I was claustrophobic, couldn’t wait to get off and there were just delays, it’s just been annoying."

"It’s no fun to be squeezed in there with 100 other people," Steve Kerns, another Red Line user, said.

There were similar gripes with delayed commuter rail service making people late for work or school.

"It’s been totally inconsistent and a lot of times the trains have been cancelled at the last minute, even after they’ve been posted," Evan Shapiro, a commuter rail passenger from Ashland, Massachusetts, said.

But perhaps the most perplexing thing for people who depend on the commuter rail was this service alert text sent out at about 5:30 a.m. saying service was "delayed until further notice every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday." By about 7 a.m., the MBTA sent a tweet telling commuters to disregard the alert, originally saying they might have been hacked, but then chalking it up to "a technical glitch in the T Alerts System."

"It’s hard to imagine but whatever science or logic there is behind the alerts I haven’t been able to figure it out," Jabari Asim, a commuter rail customer from Newton, said.

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