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Community Corner

It's Got to Be a Different Mindset Today

The trains were running in the Blizzard of '78 and they should be today.

I can't help but compare the governmental response to today's storm to how it was 35 years ago, when, during the (real) Blizzard of '78, the trains continued to function and operate throughout that storm and afterward.

I remember that well because my wife Ann Mary and I took a very early train on the Saturday after the '78 storm, and took a cab to Logan Airport on the first day it opened after the storm that lasted from Monday to Wednesday. On top of that, the trains ran a Monday-Friday schedule that Saturday. One crewmember told us they had been working for 36 hours straight because there was nobody available to replace them. But the trains ran!   

Today, Gov. Coupe de Ville shuts down the MBTA, including its commuter trains, saying they probably won't operate until Monday. This move is just plain stupid. Even a three-foot snowfall will NOT stop a train!    

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But, it's not just him. Amtrak has suspended all service in this area as of Friday afternoon. I don't get it. How much sense does that make? Have all the decision-makers turned into 21st-century Chicken Littles? Have we turned into namby-pambies?    

The mentality has definitely changed, and not for the better. 

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