T carries a sea of the faithful to festivities
It didn't matter if it was the Red Line, Blue Line, or the Orange Line. Subways, buses, and commuter trains were all green yesterday, as Celtics fans crammed to get spots on the parade route.
Celebrating fans heeded warnings to stay off the roads and packed the trains in green button-down shirts, green hair-ties, green shorts, and green sunglasses. Most made it to the parade without incident.
The crowds got so large at Copley Station that the T shut it down for two hours, beginning at 11:15 a.m., and ran Green Line trolleys through without stopping. Passengers trying to get in or out used Arlington Station, a few blocks away.
"We wanted to avoid an unsafe situation," said Joe Pesaturo, spokesman for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.
Commuter trains into North Station, near the parade, were especially busy. Some fans at suburban stations waited on the platform as fully loaded trains passed by without stopping.
Pesaturo said 15 commuter trains into North and South stations were too crowded to make all the stops, so they became expresses. The T ran an extra train on the Lowell line and sent buses to Reading, Salem, and Waltham to grab some fans who were left behind.
Fans on one train along the Newburyport/Rockport line weren't so lucky. They were late to the parade, delayed by 80 minutes, after a motor malfunction left a swing bridge in Beverly in the open position.
Vivian Tran, 22, of Haverhill boarded the Haverhill Line in Bradford at 7:20 a.m. wearing a green shirt. It's usually a quiet time, easy to get a seat among business commuters.
"I was hoping to beat the rush," she said.
No such luck yesterday. By 8:13 a.m., leaving Wakefield, the train got so crowded the conductor opted to skip the Greenwood, Melrose Highlands, Melrose/Cedar Park, and Wyoming Hill stations.
Many large parking lots and garages near stations were also at capacity, selling out hours earlier than usual. Woodland and Riverside lots, seldom full, had no room by the end of the morning, Pesaturo said.
Pesaturo said he could not yet estimate the number of passengers using transit. But during the October Red Sox celebration, he estimated that 1 million riders took the T, compared with 650,000 on a typical weekday.
Roadway traffic was busier than usual, but the delays were nothing spectacular, according to several traffic officials.
Gary Witherspoon and Andrew Ryan of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
