Boston to Montreal via JFK
Today was a travelling day. We travelled to the station, travelled to the airport, flew to New York, then flew on to Montreal.
To get out of Boston, we had to brave "the T" again, Boston's bonkers transport system. Having already been baffled by a system that is free in one direction, and expensive in the other, has the ticket prices on the platform *after* the barrier, makes you pay in cash to the driver in loose change (and six dollars is a lot of loose change) we thought we'd understood it and it'd all be normal from now on. Well, the silver line is quite different to the red and green lines. It looks normal enough going through the station, but as you approach the platform you notice the trains don't look quite right. It's because they're buses. They still run through tunnels, still stop at stations but there's no tracks and a driver with a steering wheel. Very odd. As we came out of the tunnel into the sunshine, the driver stopped the bus, got out without saying a word, and disappeared for a few minutes. There were a few nervous looks amongst the other passengers, but he did come back, again in silence, and off we trundled. Not for long though. A policeman waved the bus into another tunnel where a number of police cars were blocking the road. There was one car ahead with his lights flashing, which set off slowly and gave us an escort in an otherwise deserted tunnel. Surreal. He then peeled off and we were at the airport in what then became a normal bus journey.
We think the reason for all this attention was not the American security paranoia associated with terrorism, but because the tunnel we travelled through has been collapsing of late. Boston is undergoing a huge development program called the Big Dig, which is replacing old raised highways with a series of underground tunnels. This project is way overdue (and over budget) and has lead to traffic chaos in the city, and its latest problem was a couple of weeks ago when a large section of concrete fell from the ceiling of the tunnel, crushing the car and driver below. After the fatality, the tunnel was shut. Or so we thought. Quite how the police escort of the subway-bus would protect it is a question I'll probably never have answered, but we survived to tell the tale.
We didn't actually see anything of New York, even as we flew into JFK. The heatwave crossing northeast US seemed to make the air so hazy we were lucky to see from one side of the airport to the other. That heat also looked likely to be bringing some big thunderstorms. Well, we're heading to Canada, where the air is clear and crisp. But it wasn't to be. The pilot announced the temperature in Montreal was a toasty 31C (well this being the States he said it in Farenheit, but I translate for the benefit of our non-American readers). And judging by the dark stormclouds the size of mushroom clouds we could see from the plane, we'd be getting an impressive lightshow as night fell.
To get out of Boston, we had to brave "the T" again, Boston's bonkers transport system. Having already been baffled by a system that is free in one direction, and expensive in the other, has the ticket prices on the platform *after* the barrier, makes you pay in cash to the driver in loose change (and six dollars is a lot of loose change) we thought we'd understood it and it'd all be normal from now on. Well, the silver line is quite different to the red and green lines. It looks normal enough going through the station, but as you approach the platform you notice the trains don't look quite right. It's because they're buses. They still run through tunnels, still stop at stations but there's no tracks and a driver with a steering wheel. Very odd. As we came out of the tunnel into the sunshine, the driver stopped the bus, got out without saying a word, and disappeared for a few minutes. There were a few nervous looks amongst the other passengers, but he did come back, again in silence, and off we trundled. Not for long though. A policeman waved the bus into another tunnel where a number of police cars were blocking the road. There was one car ahead with his lights flashing, which set off slowly and gave us an escort in an otherwise deserted tunnel. Surreal. He then peeled off and we were at the airport in what then became a normal bus journey.
We think the reason for all this attention was not the American security paranoia associated with terrorism, but because the tunnel we travelled through has been collapsing of late. Boston is undergoing a huge development program called the Big Dig, which is replacing old raised highways with a series of underground tunnels. This project is way overdue (and over budget) and has lead to traffic chaos in the city, and its latest problem was a couple of weeks ago when a large section of concrete fell from the ceiling of the tunnel, crushing the car and driver below. After the fatality, the tunnel was shut. Or so we thought. Quite how the police escort of the subway-bus would protect it is a question I'll probably never have answered, but we survived to tell the tale.
We didn't actually see anything of New York, even as we flew into JFK. The heatwave crossing northeast US seemed to make the air so hazy we were lucky to see from one side of the airport to the other. That heat also looked likely to be bringing some big thunderstorms. Well, we're heading to Canada, where the air is clear and crisp. But it wasn't to be. The pilot announced the temperature in Montreal was a toasty 31C (well this being the States he said it in Farenheit, but I translate for the benefit of our non-American readers). And judging by the dark stormclouds the size of mushroom clouds we could see from the plane, we'd be getting an impressive lightshow as night fell.
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