MBTA failures of the day, 1.18.06

1. Torrential rains were cause for legitimate use of umbrella at Kenmore Station...underground.
   
2. One Davis Square Station elevator deconstructed and abandoned with no KONE INC. (contractor) personnel in sight.
   
3. Today's bus home, on route 88, was a mid-80s GMC RTC suffering from a deafeningly obvious transmission problem. In fact, the bus wouldn't shift above second gear and never rolled faster than 15 mph on the whole route. It was passed by two other buses on the same route inside less than a mile, as a townie mom with toddler barked on cellphone, "DA BUS IS FAHKIN SLOW AS MALASSES! IT SOUNDS LIKE SHIT!"

   Even worse, the back door (and therefore wheelchair lift) did not work, rendering the bus a slow-rollin' death trap much like the FOUR newer buses of the same type that spontaneously combusted last Fall.

   It should be noted that the RTS bus, a single model designed by GMC in the late 70s and subsequently built by three different manufacturers up until a few years ago, is perhaps the most popular transit bus in North America. But only the T ones catch fire.