Bounding onto the Commuter Rail at Porter Square at 8:43 a.m. yesterday, Ryan Douglass sat on the coach directly behind the locomotive and flipped open his cell phone.
“Hey Andrew, you know about those ties from Milan?” he said in an obnoxious faux New York accent. “There’s some guys in Hartford who want 50 shipments.”
The 22-year-old actor hired by Metro to find out what would happen if he talked loudly on one of the MBTA’s new “Quiet Cars,” immediately drew several dirty looks.
“You gonna watch the Jets-Patriots game?” Douglass continued. “I think the Jets could take it this time. … Hey, you ever been to Boston, there’s no buildings here. It’s like a suburb.”
Several riders stood up to stare down Douglass, including Eric Collins who rides the Quiet Car regularly.
“I’m going to speak to him when he gets off,” Collins said before being informed of Metro’s experiment. “The conductor came through earlier and said ‘You can talk but you have to be quiet.’
“Normal, reasonable people seem to abide.”
The conductor finally approached Douglass as the train pulled into North Station.
“Hey boss,” he said. “No cell phones.”
Testing it out
The T began its three-month “Quiet Car” experiment on Jan. 3. During peak hours, the first coach on the Fitchburg-Boston and Franklin-Boston lines is designated for riders who want peace and quiet. If the cars go quietly, the MBTA will institute them system-wide this spring.
