Ah, sure, 6:30 could have been congestion. The 3ish thing had lengthy but incomprehensible announcements preceding the eventual arrival of trains, which is why I'm pretty sure something disruptive had happenned.

Today's train experience was much saner - the usual scheduling hell ("The commuter rail is for commuters, any other use is entirely accidental" - an hour from concord to north station, an hour layover there, an hour transit out to Newburyport. And then an hour on foot, because the newburyport station is in this industrial/swampland area, and not particularly near the town :-) but it all performed "to spec". The big disappointment was just how scratched up the windows were - if I hadn't brought a book, I'd have been in pain from trying to squint at the scenery...