We heard from several Bostonists and saw reports about the transportation mess that ensued after the fire that broke out, causing an evacuation at Park Street and Downtown Crossing. Charlie clearly didn't have his stuff together. Here's what LyetteAnn had to say: My husband left for the bus at Kendall Station a half an hour ago and is still standing there. He got on a bus, and they told them to get off because the......

You're going to have a long trip home tonight. Trains are stuck at stations because of an electrical fire that caused evacuations at Downtown Crossing and Park Street around 5:20 tonight. The fire has been extinguished, but there is smoke in the stations. The MBTA website said that they are experiencing 10 to 15 minute delays, but they are running buses between Harvard and Broadway Stations. Regarding the 10 to 15 minute delays, that seems......

Update: The DA's Office just sent out confirmation. They say both stabbings happened on the outbound platform and that the stabbing victims are expected to survive. Roxbury Crossing was shut down at about 6:00 pm tonight due to a double stabbing. From the Globe: One victim was stabbed on the train platform; the other was stabbed in the station's parking lot. The incident happened at around 5:45, said MBTA spokeswoman Lydia Rivera. One victim......

Sometimes you want something nicer than a counter-service type of place but you don't want to spend a ton of money. Pub food is always a good choice in that situation. Many bars, though, have only standard (i.e. greasy) food to go with the drinks. Silvertone Bar & Grill, located on Bromfield Street near the Park Street T stop, serves up just what you need. On first entry, the subterranean room feels like a noisy......

No better icebreaker exists than taking off your pants in a crowd. People who normally would never speak to each other on an MBTA train had plenty to talk about once they "depantsed" on Saturday afternoon for Boston's first annual No Pants 2K8. At first, when aspiring pants-free T riders gathered at Alewife station, the event was at risk of being a bust. The area between the gates and the stairs was packed with people,......

Bus schedule improvements? Mattapan high-speed? New Blue Line trains? Oooh, Santa Charlie isn't finished with us yet! The MBTA just announced that T riders are now able to use their cell phones and other wireless gadgets at Park Street, Downtown Crossing, Government Center, and State Street. They can also use wireless in the tunnels connecting the stations. Where to start? The news has its positives and negatives. The positives are obvious--less boredom while waiting......

For the past few months, Bostonist has engaged in a scientific experiment. We've been sniffing around T stops to find out which ones are the most pleasant and which ones are an offense to the olfactory nerves. Each day this week, we'll evaluate the odors you will find at various T stops. And here it is--the complete list of T stops with the most distinct odors: Aquarium: High tide, dolphin pee Airport: Pleather luggage,......

For the past few months, Bostonist has engaged in a scientific experiment. We've been sniffing around T stops to find out which ones are the most pleasant and which ones are an offense to the olfactory nerves. Each day this week, we'll evaluate the odors you will find at various T stops. The Red Line offers so much variety that you just might get dizzy--or drunk: Central Square: 40s, vodka, burnt rubber, more 40s,......

Some Bostonists found out about this the hard way--by actually being on the green line and having our drivers announce "last stop Government Center"--but the Green Line is closed between Park Street and Kenmore Square this morning after two trolleys collided at Boylston. One trolley rear-ended a stopped trolley, and one car derailed, according to the Globe. Not only were legions (including some Bostonists) made late for work, but the Globe reports nine people complained......

For the past few months, Bostonist has engaged in a scientific experiment. We've been sniffing around T stops to find out which ones are the most pleasant and which ones are an offense to the olfactory nerves. Each day this week, we'll evaluate the odors you will find at various T stops. Today, we'll breathe in the Green Line--slowly: BU Stops (all of them): Natty Light, vodka, wet UGGS, Acqua di Gio cologne, raging......

Photographer and blogger Lolita Parker Jr. was on the scene when fed-up and overheated MBTA passengers broke out of a Red Line train stuck on the Longfellow Bridge during Friday's Park Street Station fire. The following image says a lot of good about Bostonians helping each other. It doesn't say as much about the T, which has some 'splainin' to do. Image courtesy of Lolita Parker Jr. More pictures of the incident are available on......

--The BPD has announced that an "errant shot" hit Steven Odom, 13, in the head in front of his own home. Odom was killed in Dorchester on Thursday night. Commish Davis says that police already have leads. But that's not going to help the family. Gangs and gunfights in this city are a huge problem, and it's incidents like these, where an innocent kid dies, that makes it seem as if the police and the......

And good for them! Last night's trash fire at the Park Street MBTA station caused the usual delays and annoyance, but some passengers became so dangerously overheated when their train got stuck on the Longfellow Bridge that they broke out, using the emergency handles. The Globe noted that the passengers' actions were "unauthorized," but what were they going to do, bake in there like Toll House cookies in an oven? Lolita at Boston Faces, Boston......

Update: We spoke to a patient MBTA customer-service rep who said that she didn't know how long Park Street Station would be closed. She said that the decision to reopen it was entirely up to the fire department. Update to the Update: A tipper going from downtown to Cambridge let us know that a red line train actually made it through, and the doors opened at Park Street, so the T appears to be functional......

--After his picture was splashed all over the TV and Internets, the guy who allegedly stabbed two people at Park Street Station after the Red Sox Rally Monday night has been arraigned on two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury. Christopher Casey, 22, of Dorchester, was rounded up by T police last night. Bail was set at $25,000. --How about this for a reversal? You'd think law enforcement......

--Police are searching for a man who stabbed two people at Park Street Station after the Red Sox Rally at 11:45 on Monday night. According to MBTA police, the stabber just lost his temper after bumping into the victims and "exchanging words." Surveillance video depicts another man and a woman who were somehow involved in the fight but took off. All three escaped, and the stabber jumped on the tracks and ran out using an......

It's Miller Time, but you might not be getting to the bar as quickly as you'd like. We heard from a tipper at 4:45 pm that trains were dumping all their passengers off at Park Street and that it was mighty hot and mighty crowded. In a Boston Community Live Journal post that appeared at noon, littlestarletta noted that a communications center at High Street lost the ability to communicate with all trains and buses.......

It may be one of those instances where giving ink to an item might have the opposite effect than intended. Waiting in the Kendall Station for the next train to take us across the Charles we've heard the echoes of the Kendall Band installation on occasion. It certainly isn't the rule. We'd actually be surprised if a majority of the regular riders know where the hand cranks are that operate the musical art installation. Truth......

According to Massachusetts is so blue that you can't tell if it's blue or black. We're not really sure what exactly that means. The Daily Show recapped the Republican debate and provided no fewer than three segments to dig into Mitt Romney. Perhaps it's a sign that the statesman from Massachusetts (and Utah, and Michigan, and…) is a front runner worthy of ridicule. But perhaps it's what we've known for a while: it's the little......

Bostonist was walking past the hustle and bustle of Fenway Park on Friday afternoon when we finally identified that nagging feeling that had been with us ever since the Park Street station. We had seen more Baltimore Orioles jerseys, hats and T-shirts in an hour than we saw all day when we traveled to Camden Yards last season! What was going on? Everyone knows that the orange-accented Baltimore ballpark is known fondly in Red Sox......

This from WBZ: A two-alarm fire that started at about 8:20 pm shut down the Longfellow Bridge. Trains were stopped, traffic was diverted, and heavy smoke forced the Charles-MGH station to shut down. The MBTA has posted the alert on its website and offered a few terse details: "A homeless man started a fire underneath the Longfellow Bridge. As a result the Boston Fire Department has stopped all traffic. Subway Red Line service is being......

In 1982 WCVB Channel 5 was all fun and games at the park. That was at ten years. In 1992 it was an evening gala with the feeling of a 70s variety show That was the twenty year retrospective. In 1997 the weather team seemed to be all mustached They turned 25 that year. Dick Alpert had been with them for 19 of those years at the time, this year it'll be 29. Tonight marks......

UPDATE: In their streaming newscast, WBZ has been showing the image of the "mooninite" from Aqua Teen Hunger Force. And, boy, is it funny to hear a straightlaced, gravitas-filled newscaster utter the words "Aqua Teen Hunger Force." But we don't envy who is behind this promotion. Governor Deval Patrick is pissed. Don't worry - everything is fine. But it seemed as if these circuit boards were popping up all over town. WCVB lists all the......

It's summer. You're on vacation. Just reading Bostonist isn't enough fun for you. You want to participate. Well, here's your chance to engage in a Web 2.0 experiment of sorts. This week we launched Bostonist Labs with some new features to engage you in what's going on in our corner of the blogosphere. We've finally finished off our spring cleaning and released two new sections to explore: Bostonist Labs: Contribute Share Links: Using del.icio.us,......

A music video set on the T. Sure it's not as glamorous as Puff Daddy (when he was still Puff Daddy) rolling on the moving walkways of Chicago's O'Hare. It is, however, our very own transit system, set to music in a amateur style video for the Minor Thirds. Their album Saskatchewan features the dream of one Bostonian who wants to escape the city and go to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. This video for the first track......

There are all sorts of short video clips out there on the internets. We've been scouring the interweb to find some of the most entertaining for your enjoyment. Sometimes they're relevant to local news or politics, sometimes they bring up memories of PBS pledge drives past and spin them in a whole new way, and sometimes they're not really worth watching. Today we've found the perfect start to your Friday. Dice, Blaze, and Fury......

It takes someone who’s lived in Massachusetts for more than a year or two to understand why a song titled “I'm From Lynn, What Can I Say?” is funny. That’s exactly why Bostonist has high hopes for an onslaught of clever tunes and townie jokes at Songstreet’s “14th Annual Festival of Funny Songwriters” this Saturday at the Somerville Theater. We’re counting on the featured veteran and local favorite Don White (who also gives workshops at......

No longer is Bostonist's passion for cartography, especially on the interweb, a closely held secret. We could go ahead and link to all those times we've talked about Google Maps in past posts, but that would be a long list and we'd rather point you towards our new search tool, Rollyo, at the bottom of the page. Mapquest used to be the standard for online mapping, yahoo encroached, but Microsoft was slow to the......

The Globe reports that state environmental officials are giving the nod to the Green Line extension (to Union Square in Somerville and West Medford); more stops on the Fairmount commuter line in Mattapan, Dorchester, and Hyde Park; and more parking spots all around the area. Mass transit advocates are, understandably, dissatisfied, as JP is getting the short end of the stick, the Silver Line continues to be the stupidest "train" ever, and the Blue and......

Bostonist is among the badTransit faithful. Flashing FAILURE icons often let us know when we can expect unusually long delays. While killing some time by planning our trip out to Concord this weekend on the commuter rail (which seems to often have a face full of egg when badTransit is watching), we noticed something besides the medical emergency holding up the commuter rail’s outbound Needham line. Under the Green Line, emergency bussing due to an......