‘Absolutely ridiculous’: Bus mistakenly transports passengers to North Shore, instead of North Station. BOSTON — The MBTA apologized to passengers after the driver of an Orange Line bus took them to Stoneham on the North Shore instead of the North Station, 10 miles away. The incident occurred Thursday morning, the first day of an 11-day suspension of the Orange Line between the Oak Grove and Back Bay stations. The MBTA issued a statement on the matter: “The MBTA apologizes to shuttle bus passengers for this inconvenience. The matter has been addressed with the shuttle bus provider and the driver of this bus is no longer employed by this service,” the agency said. A passenger on the bus said it was packed to the brim. “All of a sudden we were going north on I-93. And he asks us, ‘Am I going the right way?’ No, no, everyone says no,” said Eamon Marchant. “And then all of a sudden we’re pointing at him. He asks us where we’re going and we say North Station. He says, ‘What’s the address?’ I’m like the North Station. That’s all.” Marchant said the driver eventually turned around, but the problem didn’t end there. “It’s not using the HOV lanes; it’s not using the bus lanes,” Marchant said. “We keep having to direct it and we got to a point where it’s absolutely ridiculous. For all of us who had to deal with it, it was a little ridiculous.” Passengers aboard the bus took to Twitter to voice their complaints: “I mean, with the MBTA, nothing surprises me,” said commuter Nick Caruso. “I can totally see that happening.”
