Boston has free WiFi called "Wicked Free WiFi" that can usually be found near some city buildings. Not the best but functional.

Well, yes, but not for the same reasons as a few centuries back. Although I wonder how often blood letting accidentally treated the condition (compared to how often it worsened and killed people).

So this didn’t really happen and the guy didn’t die?

It's kind of a "yeah both" situation. Safety barriers would be better. But absent them, it's very much you have to be trying to touch the third rail.

Not directly relevant but I remember one time the red line broke down between central and Kendall, and we had to walk back to central. They had these alarm things set up on the third rail all over the place that presumably would light up if they detected current. None of us went anywhere near it regardless.

With taxes I promise you this is not the cheapest method.

So an actual answer. There are two rails that the train rides on, these are a few feet apart and you can see them if you look down at the tracks. These are just metal and would be safe to touch (if there isn't a train coming). On heavy rail subway lines (not the green line) the train gets power from an energized third rail that is slightly to the outside of these two riding rails. It's also slightly elevated off the ground so that it doesn't short circuit to the ground. That is how you can tell which one is the third rail.

I didn't even know you could cover those, seems like it would be a no-brainer for safety?

The MBTA is probably the poorest run govt agency I've encountered so far.

3rd rail incidents on MBTA are pretty rare however. If someone illegally enters right of way and falls on one, that's on them.

They typically de-energize whenever contractors need to work on ROW.

If you look at the track, there are the two rails that form the track, that the wheels rest on. And then there is a third rail, separate, that provides power to the trains.

We see them in Quincy in the summer! Not a huge number but we see them in the backyard.

Do you come from somewhere other than earth....?

So is this the 3rd or 4th Massachusetts transit related death in as many weeks? 2 Worcester commuter rail pedestrian strikes. This guy. Another possible green line death from a train surfer that I saw here but can't verify.

www.xfinity.com

TBF if you're from somewhere that doesn't have trains then you might not have any idea that a reachable stationary piece of metal in the train station can kill you easily.

That’ll thin the heard

Saw some near the Braintree fireworks just before the pandemic. The tree line near the sports fields had a bunch.

What a Boston answer. 😅

Platform screen doors are pretty much standard on new metro lines in Europe and Asia nowadays, and many cities have retrofitted old lines to add platform screen doors. North America is unique in not moving in this direction--the only project with them on the continent I'm aware of is the new Honolulu automated metro.

That all sounds like 1 rail where I come from

Nah bro thought the mice biking were powering it!

Ding ding ding best answer!!

Lmao this is why I am single

I mean.. there are two tracks... those are rails.

Oh is this the third rail challenge I’ve seen on tik tok?

I don't know the exact details of why MBTA doesn't have them, but in the other systems I've worked for, the little paddle on the rail car that contacts the third rail does it on the underside, so a cover doesn't interfere with that