That employee, whom the T declined to name, will be reprimanded when he returns to work today, MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said. The punishment will be determined in part by the employee’s past record and could be a written warning, suspension, or termination, he said.
The Yuletide message had Twitter abuzz yesterday, after a Harvard University graduate student who captured a brief video of it with her cellphone posted it alongside the caption, “I think someone hacked the MBTA Red Line.’’
By the afternoon, it had been re-tweeted dozens of times, the 10-second clip viewed by 1,600 people; by last night 4,000 had seen it. Some seemed to think it was an official message, and they tweeted thanks to the T for embracing the holiday spirit.
Maryam Monalisa Gharavi, a comparative literature student who posted the video, said she hoped the T would be lenient on the dispatcher.
“It made the machine, which is so unself-aware, seem thoughtful and even kind,’’ she said. “The effect on everybody there was laughter.’’
Gharavi, a member of Occupy Harvard, was returning from delivering Christmas dinner and attending a general assembly of Occupy Boston when she noticed the flashing lyrics while waiting for the subway home at about 7:15 p.m.
One by one, the scattered riders on the platform all noticed it. “One man was there with his wife, and he couldn’t stop grinning, and he looked at me said, ‘It got hacked!’ ’’ she said.
The screen size, limited character display, and lack of capital letters gave the lyrics an air of poetic mystery.
“deck the halls with boughs of holly. fa la,’’ the screens glowed, before showing another two lines.
“la la la la la la la. tis the season to be,’’ the next read.
For Red Line riders, who contend with decades-old cars, periodic delays, and weekend construction shut-downs, the digitized carol brought brief, unexpected joy, as if Santa’s elves had hacked the T’s computers.
“As far as PR goes, it’s probably one of the best things they’ve ever done,’’ Gharavi said. “I can’t remember the last time the T made somebody smile.’’
