Remember that odd and very lengthy delay near Grafton on Monday 6/8? And the fact that @MBTA_CR wouldn't tell us what it was other than "police activity?" Well...here's a snippet of the relevant section of the police log, courtesy of http://www.graftonpolice.com/:
If you recall, two trains (an inbound and an outbound) ended up stopped in the area of Shrewsbury Street, which passes over the rail line on a bridge just west of where the Grafton and Upton Railroad turns off to the south (so maybe a half mile west of the Grafton train station). This happened around 6:30 PM.
Someone tweeted out what appeared to be information from a police scanner that "emergency personnel struggling to find this accident along the train tracks."
They also tweeted that there was a report of a "boom truck clipping MBTA commuter rail at Grafton station near Pine Street." I made the assumption that this was the real incident, and it was related to a bridge strike. @MBTA_CR eventually told me that the delays were NOT due to a bridge strike, but they wouldn't tell me anything else.
Around 7:15 PM, trains starting moving again, with no explanation provided.
So, since this is my blog, I get to make wild speculations about what happened. I have no idea if my theories are correct, but I'll throw them out there anyway. But just to be perfectly clear: the stories below are COMPLETELY MY SPECULATION BASED ON VERY SCANTY INFORMATION. Also, I'm disregarding the whole boom truck tweet because it just doesn't fit either of my stories.
What if:
Around 6:30 PM: Police get a call of trespassers doing something near what they think is Shrewsbury Street. Since that's the main line, the police call the MBTA and stop our trains. They dispatch three police cars and an ambulance to investigate. (MS41 is a MedStar contracted ambulance. The Grafton Fire Department ambulance was responding to a car accident on the Mass Pike at the time). This would explain the police log from 1829.
The police have trouble locating anything suspicious. This would explain the tweet about not finding the incident.
Eventually somehow the police get redirected to Sampson Street, which is at least 3 miles away from Shrewsbury Street, and is adjacent to the Providence and Worcester railroad line (which has nothing to do with our MBTA commuter rail). The police find Mr. Virella and his 16 year old friend engaged in nefarious activity and subsequently arrest them. Then, having found the 'incident,' they call the MBTA and release our trains to resume service.
This story works because:
- the times match up to what we saw in terms of delays.
- the same police cars responded to both incidents, except for G11 - see alternate theory below.
- it explains the 'trouble finding' tweet.
- the incident at 1911 involved trains, so the confusion aspect is plausible.
This story doesn't work because:
- it's somewhat complicated
- it ignores the ambulance - why did it go to Shrewsbury Street only, if the two incidents were presumed to be the same incident and it was just confusion about location?
Alternate theory:
What if:
Around 6:30 PM the police get a report of someone with ill intent (such as suicidal) near the Shrewsbury Street bridge. They call the MBTA and stop the trains while the incident is investigated. Perhaps nobody is found, perhaps the ambulance evaluates and transports someone. Those might not get recorded in the police log. Eventually the incident is over and the trains get released.
This story works because:
- it is simple, and the times could match up to what we experienced (see Occam's Razor).
- it explains the ambulance getting dispatched to Shrewsbury Street.
- it explains police car G11 staying at Shrewsbury Street while the other 2 cops go grab the bad guys at Sampson Street, which is a totally unrelated and just coincidental incident.
- it explains the two incidents being called different things (trespassing vs. vandalism).
This story doesn't work because:
- it is really coincidental to have the Shrewsbury and Sampson Street incidents matching up to our observed delay times so perfectly and also both involving trains (see Occam's Razor).
- Doesn't match the use of the word "accident" in terms of the emergency personnel looking for it. But that could be misinterpretation or sloppy choice of a word by the tweet author.
Neither of my stories consider the 7:26 PM incident to be related to the train delay. I'm coming to that conclusion / assumption because it is too long after the trains started moving, and it is a different ambulance. But it is Shrewsbury Street, so maybe it is related. I included it in the snippet of the police log so that you can come to your own conclusion.
We definitely know it wasn't a fatality or other injury involving one of our trains. Those get reported by mainstream media pretty quickly, and the delays in case of a fatality are always measured in HOURS.
So who knows. it certainly doesn't matter. But it was bugging me.