Testy driver orders rider off the bus

It was late at night last week and Bill of South Boston had just landed at Logan International Airport after a working vacation out West. He was loaded down with luggage and tired when he boarded an MBTA Silver Line bus for the quick trip to his home near Silver Line Way.

The driver was in a hurry to get through the Ted Williams Tunnel, driving, Bill estimates, at least 60 miles per hour. And when he exited the tunnel in South Boston, he took a left instead of a right, headed away from the Silver Line's tunnel entrance and Bill's stop.

"By the time we were on Melcher , I figured out he was going straight to South Station," Bill wrote. "I called out, 'Hey, aren't you going to Silver Line Way?' "

That's when the driver got testy , Bill said . He slammed the brakes and opened the doors.

"He immediately pulled over and screamed ' Get the [expletive] out ' repeatedly," Bill wrote. "I protested , and he started to swear about passengers, the T -- and told me to get out again."

Bill said the driver had stopped the bus in the middle of Summer Street. The only other passenger put his head down and stayed mum, Bill said.

So Bill gathered his two pieces of luggage and his carry-on and walked a mile back to Silver Line Way at 1 a.m. in 30-degree temperatures.

"He actually had the nerve to then say that if I stayed and rode to South Station there were plenty of cabs," Bill wrote. "I wanted nothing to do with him and left."

Bill called MBTA customer service the next morning, requesting a letter of apology and his fare refunded. "The lady took notes and was very nice but said it would be several days before anyone would get back to me."

Bill then wrote to Starts & Stops, and our jaw dropped.

MBTA officials would not identify the 50-year-old bus driver. But they said he had been hired as a part-time bus operator in July 2003 and promoted to full-time in May 2005.

After an interview with his supervisor, he was disciplined for unprofessional conduct with what is called "5 and Final" -- a five-day suspension without pay and a warning that the next level of discipline, for any rules violation, will be termination. He was also required to undergo anger management counseling, MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said.

Bill followed up on Friday.

"My expectations of the T were already so low before this incident that I really don't expect anything more than a grudging willingness to answer pointed questions in a brusque manner," he wrote. "I am also in a service business. If we were this slow to respond to an egregious customer complaint, we could expect to lose the customer. Unfortunately, there's only one T."

The Blue, Orange, Red, and Green lines will operate on their weekday service, with extra service before and after the race.

The commuter rail will run on a weekday schedule.

All buses and trackless trolleys will operate on a Saturday schedule.

Today, as preparations are under way for the marathon, bus routes 9 and 55, which serve Copley Square, will be temporarily relocated to Dartmouth Street at Back Bay station.

Inbound Route 39, which also serves Copley Square, will relocate to Stuart and Dartmouth streets . Outbound Route 39 service will be unchanged.

Tomorrow, Copley station will be closed. You can get to the Green Line at Arlington station or Hynes station, which will be accessible from the normally closed entrance at Berkeley Street.

The T customer service van will be parked at the Boylston Street entrance at Hynes station to sell CharlieCards.

No bicycles will be allowed on the subway on Marathon Monday because of the expected crowds.

Bus Route 55, Queensbury Street to Copley, will terminate service until the end of the marathon.

Commuter boat and Inner Harbor ferry service will run on a regular weekday schedule. The RIDE will operate on a modified weekday schedule.

Finally, Woodland station along Route 16 in Newton will close from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. It will remain open for pedestrian use.

The board of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority is considering the creation of a toll violations unit that will use State Police and Turnpike Authority personnel to aggressively pursue habitual Fast Lane offenders.

The options being considered to penalize scofflaws include $250 citations, civil lawsuits, and turning off transponders, something the program has never done, said the authority's chairman, John Cogliano.

In the first two months of this year, private vehicles blowing through the tolls cost the authority $68,340, while commercial vehicle scofflaws cost $53,715 .

In 2006, Fast Lane evaders cost the authority $957,000. "We want to go after habitual offenders and manage this more aggressively than it has been managed in the past," Cogliano said, adding that the past focus was on out-of-state offenders.

The board will also consider adding credit card machines to the Fast Lane customer service center. Customers who call the center to pay fines or tolls cannot currently pay with credit cards.

The Haymarket onramp to I-93 south and the Callahan Tunnel will close 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. Thursday to Saturday morning.

The ramps from the Tobin Bridge south and Rutherford Avenue/City Square to I-93 south and Storrow Drive will close 11:30 p.m. Wednesday to 5 a.m. Thursday.

Exit 23 (Purchase Street) off I-93 south will close 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. Thursday to Saturday morning.

Exit 20A (South Station) off I-93 south will close 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. Tuesday to Thursday morning.

Exit 20B (Pike west/Albany Street) off I-93 south will close 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. Tuesday to Saturday morning.

The Essex Street offramp to I-93 south will close 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. Thursday to Saturday morning.

Two to three lanes of I-93 north through downtown and Charlestown will close 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. Tuesday to Saturday morning.

Exit 26 (Storrow Drive) off I-93 north will close 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. Thursday to Saturday morning.

Exit 26 (Tobin Bridge/Route 1 north) off I-93 north will close 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. Tuesday to Thursday morning.

The Essex Street onramp to I-93 north will close 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. Tuesday to Saturday morning.

Exit 24 (I-93/South Station) off the Pike east will close 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. Wednesday to Saturday morning.

The Frontage Road northbound ramp to the Pike west will close 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. Tuesday to Friday morning.

Exit 20 (Pike west) off I-93 north will close 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. Tuesday to Friday morning.

The onramp from Congress Street to I-93 in South Boston, and Exit 24 (I-93) off the Pike west will close 11 p.m. Thursday to 5 a.m. Friday.

The onramp at Harborside Drive to the Pike west and Ted Williams Tunnel will close 11:59 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Saturday.

The tunnel under Leverett Circle leading from Exit 26 off I-93 and the Sumner Tunnel to Storrow Drive will close 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. starting Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday nights. Access from Exit 26 off I-93 to Nashua Street/Leverett Circle will remain open.

The Sumner Tunnel onramp to Government Center and the Haymarket area will close 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. Tuesday to Thursday morning.

The Sumner Tunnel onramp to Storrow Drive will close 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. Thursday to Saturday morning. Sumner Tunnel access to Haymarket will be open.

The Pike will have double lane closures at night from the Boston University bridge to the western entrance of the Prudential Tunnel 8:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. from tonight through Saturday.

Route 1A north near Logan Airport will close 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday to Friday.

The Congress Street onramp to I-93 south and the Pike west will close 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. Tuesday to Thursday morning.

Herald Street between Harrison Avenue and Albany Street will close 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. Tuesday to Saturday morning.

Complain to us at starts@globe.com. Don't forget to send us your hometown. Outside the paper, the column can be found at boston.com/starts with daily updates on the Starts & Stops Blog at boston.com/starts/blog. Our mailing address is Starts & Stops, P.O. Box 55819, Boston, MA 02205-5819.