Anxiety, heightened security on the T
Waiting at Park Street station for an outbound Green Line train, 23-year-old Shelby Zawaduk couldn’t help but feel anxious. She works at P.F. Chang’s, just a few blocks from the Boston Marathon, and she couldn’t shake the feeling that a train full of commuters could be a target.
“I felt uneasy about the whole thing. Obviously, you don’t really want to take public transportation right now,’’ Zawaduk said. “But seeing the guards definitely makes me feel better.’’
For many of the day’s commuters, the sight of Boston police officers, SWAT teams, National Guardsmen, and police dogs at MBTA stations around the city — and especially downtown and the Back Bay — brought a small measure of relief to a region trying to go about the business of downtown life the day after a tragedy.
At stations around the city, law enforcement officers paced up and down train platforms, rifles in hand. At Arlington Station, National Guardsmen asked commuters heading into the station to open their duffels and purses for a security check. “No guns, no bombs?’’ asked one as he pulled back the zipper of a backpack.
Joe Pesaturo, spokesman for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, said federal, state, and local law enforcement personnel were conducting random baggage checks throughout the subway system.
“Customers have been very cooperative, and we greatly appreciate their patience and understanding,’’ Pesaturo said this morning.
Train operators on the Green Line informed commuters that Copley Station would be closed all day.
Increased police presence on the MBTA system was also a comfort to some out-of-towners unfamiliar with Boston’s subway system. Dan Murray, of Spokane, Wash., had run the Marathon yesterday, and he and his wife planned to spend the day walking around the city.
“I feel very comforted that they’re here,’’ said Murray, of the dozen or so law enforcement officers and military personnel at Arlington Station. “It’s probably safer now than it’s ever been.’’
The train ride, he said, reminded him of the days after Sept. 11, 2001 — police everywhere, everyone on their guard for anything unusual.
But to some, the scene on trains and in stations amplified concerns about safety.
Elizabeth Corkum and her husband, visitors from Canada in town for the Marathon, said they were unnerved to see the magnitude of the police presence.
“It makes me more nervous. We’re from Nova Scotia — we’re not used to any of this stuff,’’ Corkum said. A seven-time Boston Marathon runner, she had finished the race just a few minutes before the explosions went off.
Seated near the back of a Green line train headed outbound, she and her husband, Andrew, said they planned to walk around and take in the city, so much quieter and more listless than they’d ever seen it before.
“We’re trying to enjoy the city,’’ Corkum said. “But the mood — it’s so hard to be happy.’’
At times, it felt like any other Tuesday morning riding the T.
Green Line passengers chatted casually aboard trains. Dozens tapped away on their phones. Some wore headphones and stared off at nothing. Some read books or newspapers. Others dozed off.
But it was anything but normal.
The heightened law-enforcement presence was hard to miss. On board the trains, there were quiet conversations about the tragedy that befell Boston one day earlier. Cellphone screens lit up with on-line reports of the bombings. The newspapers told of how at least three people, including an 8-year-old, had died and more than scores injured on what had begun as a fun, sunny Patriots Day.
As the B line train dipped underground and rolled toward Kenmore Station, the driver announced over the intercom system: “Due to yesterday’s tragic events, there is no service at Copley. The whole area is a crime scene.’’
“Don’t leave anything behind,’’ he added after a brief pause. “Your belongings, your bookbags. If you see someone leaving something remind them to take it with them.’’
As the train came to a stop inside Kenmore, guardsmen stood on the subway platforms.
As the train headed into Copley Station, an automated announcement played: “Entering Copley, doors will open on the right.’’
The doors never opened. The train didn’t stop. It rolled slowly past the deserted, unlit platforms. The T has said the station will remain closed “until further notice.’’
Pesaturo said ridership levels have been “moderate’’ so far today, noting that it’s school vacation week and the closure of some colleges and businesses might impact ridership.
Robert “R.W.’’ Abel, 29, said he visited Boston over the past few days and rode the T this morning on his way to Logan Airport to catch a flight back to his home in Austin, Texas.
“I’m not nervous,’’ he said. “I think some people are really uncomfortable. But it is what it is. You’re never really safe where you are at any given time.’’
But he said he did notice and appreciated the added presence of police and soldiers around the city.
North Carolina residents Josh Baker, 32, and Dwight Winters, 37, rode the subway today morning on their way to fly back home.
The two friends and running training partners wore medals they received for finishing Monday’s race, the third marathon each of them has run and their first in Boston.
Baker was back in his hotel when the bombs went off. Winters was about a block away in an area where runners gather to meet with family.
“Everyone was just running,’’ Winters said. “I didn’t know what it was.’’
He said he watched first responders run into the mayhem to tend to victims and clear others to safety.
“It was amazing. They did a fantastic job,’’ Winters said.
Inside Hynes Station before boarding an inbound train, he said he felt safe around Boston especially because of the efforts he witnessed by first responders Monday and because of the added signs of security today.
Pointing toward two Army National Guardsmen standing a few feet away on the subway platform, Winters said “look at these guys here making sure we’re safe.’’
At the Mass. Ave station on the Orange Line, a state trooper stood at the entrance while another paced the platform, pausing to look in a trash can.
At the Harvard Square T stop in Cambridge, guardsmen stood at every turnstile.
Mike Gruet, 23, of Acton said guardsmen searched every bag at the Alewife T stop on the Red Line where he got on, which made him feel safer.
“It was nice to see,’’ said Gruet as he waited for a train at Downtown Crossing.
Gruet said he was still in a state of disbelief about the attacks.
“You walk down those streets everyday and you never expect it to happen… I don’t think it has truly hit me.’’ He said.
At the stations automated announcements asking people to “See something, say something’’ were repeated more often than in recent memory.
Wearing the iconic blue and yellow jacket of Marathon runners, Patrick Schulte, 44, of Minneapolis, waited with his family for an Orange Line train to Oak Grove.
Leaning on a trash can, Schulte said he crossed the finish line about 25 minutes before the explosions. He and is family were already blocks away when they heard the sirens.
He said the additional security on the MBTA was “very good.’’
“I feel safer, I guess. We haven’t given it that much thought, but it is great to see,’’ he said.
The bombings will not deter Schulte from returning to Boston or the Marathon.
“This isn’t going to stop me from coming here, that’s for sure,’’ he said, praising the city’s work and the support of its residents.
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