😫🚃 The T might make your ears bleed

It’s Monday, Boston.

🎡 Wanna win tickets to Boston Calling? Um … Is the sky blue?! This creator on IG is giving away TWO three-day festival passes, and there’s still time to enter (the contest closes March 27). May the odds be ever in your favor. 

👀 What’s on tap today:

• Now entering: Second winter

• Restaurant girl dinner

• The Shirley Temple King

Up first …

TRANSPORTATION

The squeaky wheel gets the grease

Everyone knows that the T can be loud. But have you ever wondered how loud?

Well, a team of Globe reporters did. So they brought a noise level meter to some of the T’s most infamously screechy stops to see just how ear-popping they can get. 

Here’s what they found:

🚃 Surprise! Boylston clocked one of the screechiest readings. 115 dBA, to be exact — on par with a rock concert or a sand blaster. But when it came to the results averaged over multiple visits on separate days, Boylston only took the No. 3 spot:

• Inside Boylston Station, as trains headed west: 85 dBA

• On a Red Line train traveling from Porter to Harvard: 92 dBA

• Inside Boylston, as Green Line trains headed east: 104 dBA

• Inside Gov. Center, as trains entered the station: 105 dBA

• Inside Park Street, as Green Line trains entered the station: 111 dBA

🤫 Don’t forget: Noise levels can vary within the stations. Ex: The noise inside a train traveling from Porter to Harvard peaked at 110 dBA one day, which is actually a huge jump. Just a 10 decibel increase is perceived twice as loud by human ears.

😫 And yes, this is considered way too loud. Although everyone tolerates sound differently, Brown University sound researcher Dr. Erica Walker told the Globe she can “safely assume that 115 decibels for a train pulling into the station is outrageous” and that could be viewed “as a major community irritant.”

🎧 But are these noise levels damaging? TL;DR: Probably not. And that’s because timing is everything. The reality is, riders are only exposed to T screeches for brief moments. Your headphones blasting your Spotify Daylist on your commute may actually do more harm.

💦 One screech solution? Train lube. The MBTA records decibel levels during routine inspections and has tried to make it better with more than 70 “rail lubricators” to reduce screeching. An unfortunate trade-off to slow zones being nixed is that faster trains = noisier trains. However, newer T cars have “greasers” to reduce friction, so hopefully that noise will decrease as those trains come on board.

👂 That said, getting rid of T screeches won’t fix our noise problems. And that’s because there are tons of other sounds we’d also need to quiet. Think: Buskers, jack-hammers, even barking dogs. One expert said a city’s best bet is prioritizing other noise sources, like updating building codes to suppress sound that travels through walls and floors. That way, even if your commute is ear-popping, your bedroom can still be a quiet-ish sanctuary.

TOGETHER WITH SECOND SUMMER CYCLE

Make your Peloton instructor proud

🚴‍♂️ All those Saturday morning spin classes? This is what they’ve been training you for. Second Summer Cycle is back for its third year, bringing a scenic, safe, and high-energy charity ride along the Cape to benefit local nonprofits. Pick your distance, clip in for a cause you care about, and soak up the best coastal views on two wheels. Then, cross the finish line like a champ and refuel with food trucks, cold brews, and the kind of bragging rights that actually matter. Sign up now for the ride of the summer.

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

❄️ Now entering: Second winter. We hope you enjoyed “fool’s spring” while it lasted, because Monday’s weather is shaping up to be a textbook raw day. Following Saturday’s glorious highs in the 60s, Sunday’s cold air is setting the stage for a dreary day of cold rain. Commuters should be in an OK spot as the wet weather will arrive between 8 and 10 a.m. However, with temps hanging in the 30s in some areas, we might even see a few wet snowflakes if the rain comes down hard enough. Thankfully, no accumulation is expected. A win is a win!

🚂 Good news: South Coast commuter rail service kicks off today! For the first time in 65 (!) years, the choo choo is finally coming to Fall River, New Bedford, and other southeastern Mass. communities. This project extends service on the Middleborough/Lakeville line, but will be aptly renamed the Fall River/New Bedford line once service starts. You can check out the full schedule here. Even better: Service will be FREE through the end of March, free on weekends ‘til April 27, and parking will be free at new stations through April 30. 

😅 Bad news: The MBTA had the most derailments in the nation in 2024. Balance, right? A Globe analysis of federal and T data found the MBTA experienced over 100 derailments in the past five years — more than any metro public transit system during that period. For context: San Francisco’s rapid transit system clocked in at just 53 derailments compared with the T’s 100+. ~Three-quarters of those crashes involved maintenance vehicles, which the T attributes to the sheer amount of track work they took on last year (2024 saw 44 derailments alone). Yikes!

🍜 We found some unsolicited noods. And by noods, we mean noodles. Boston magazine just dropped an epic list of where to eat Boston’s most delicious noodles, showcasing a slurp-worthy guide to the city’s top Asian noodles, Italian pasta, and everything hand-pulled and house-made in between. Expect unique twists like a ramen birria bowl and “fat spaghetti.” They even included a few noodle-making classes in town (you can get a 10% discount at one with your B-Side membership). Spots No. 1 and 2 are considered some of B-Side’s faves. <3

QUICK QUESTION!

❄️ What’s worse?

THINGS TO DO

Weekend plans

🌹 Cheer on the “The Bachelor” hometown hero. Will Newton native Juliana Pasquarosa get the final rose?! See for yourself at Lamplighter’s “Bachelor” finale watch party tonight at 8 p.m.

😋 Do girl dinner at … a restaurant? Buttermilk & Bourbon has a new Monday-only “girl dinner” menu with items like this massive mozzarella stick and bottomless truffle fries. 

🎯 Play darts with new pals. Here’s a fun deal: You can get free gameplay at Flight Club every Monday from 6 to 8 p.m. by joining others to form groups up to 12.

🍿 Make Tuesday a bougie movie night. Friendly reminder: Alamo Drafthouse in the Seaport — the most lux theatre in town — has a sweet $7 movie deal on Tuesdays. Here’s a look at what’s playing. 

🏓 Hit the pong. This just in: You can play a round of ping at SPIN Boston on Tuesdays for just $9 after 9 p.m. For context: It’s typically $49 an hour for groups of two to 10. 

🧙 Hold space for this 2024 blockbuster. Trident Booksellers is giving us exactly what we want with this free screening of “Wicked” on March 27.

🖼️ Stay up late at the museum. The MFA’s Late Nite series is back on March 28 with a celebration of R&B music. Advance tickets are sold out, but you can still grab them at the door for $25 a pop!

💃 Watch T-Swizzle on the big screen. In case The Eras Tour movie weren’t enough, you can see “The Taylor Swift Experience (Taylor’s Version)” in IMAX at the Museum of Science. Tickets are already booking out into April, so get on it!

ONE LAST THING

The Shirley Temple King

Boston’s foodie influencers have some serious competition.

Meet Leo Kelly, an 11-year-old New Englander who’s an aspiring actor by day and an Instagram-famous Shirley Temple reviewer by night (or at least, before his bedtime). 

The tween and Seth MacFarlane döppleganger boasts nearly 250,000 IG followers, with stars like Noah Kahan following along for the ride. He’s been reviewing the iconic drink since he was six-years-old, going viral almost instantly. See: This clip of him on “Ellen” a month after his first post.

His recipe for a solid ST? Ginger ale over lemon-lime soda, an appropriate ratio of not-too-sweet grenadine, three cherries, and very cold. But his recipe for virality can be attributed to how well-spoken and thoughtful his reviews are.

And while Leo doesn’t love giving bad takes, he did give Alden & Harlow’s ST in Harvard Square a 2.8 (too syrupy and the soda was flat). But Strega in the North End clocked in with a 9.7, thanks to its perfect grenadine-to-soda ratio.

— Written by Emily Schario

🍹 Thanks for reading! Should we bring Leo on our next B-Side Certified review to get his Shirley Temple take?

💜 Special shoutout to today's sponsors, Second Summer Cycle, for supporting local journalism and offering a chance to pedal toward a brighter future. 

🚃 The results are in: What’s the T’s screechiest station? If we’re basing it on the Globe’s average, Park Street is technically home to the loudest station. But if we’re going off loudest readings, Boylston takes it home. So if you guessed either — which 75% of you did — we’ll give it to ya. One reader wrote: “I've considered donating a case of WD-40 to the MBTA.” Same.

💃 Keep up with us @BostonBSide on IG, TikTok, and Twitter. Send comments and suggestions to [email protected] or [email protected].