saying goodbye to the Boeing Green Line cars

(Globe Photo / Jodi Hilton)

From Mac Daniel in Friday's Globe

Now, after years of being cannibalized for spare parts, the Boeings -- which first hit the rails on Dec. 29, 1976 -- are making just one trip a day on the D branch of the Green Line. Only two are used on any given day.

"If we get one good trip out of it, we feel good," said Peter Messina, chief inspector at Riverside. "It's like having an old person around, you know? They can only walk so much. They can only go so far. I came on the job before they were here, and they're going to retire before me."

The last trips were scheduled for today, but snow could cancel them.

Most of the remaining trolleys will be disassembled by backhoe for scrap metal. One car may go to a trolley museum in Maine, and about six could find new life scraping slush off overhead trolley lines.

originally written in January


There are only a few left in service and as Breda finally delivers the last cars in an order than has been a saga in itself for over 9 years, the infamous Boeing cars will soon be retired. The Green Line cars numbered in the 34-3500's were supposed to be the future when they were introduced in late 1976. They were the first new streetcars bought by the T since 1951 and they were a disaster. But in this case the T wasn't at fault.

The Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Transportation decided that the MBTA and the San Francisco Municipal Railway (MUNI) should work together in producing a new generation of streetcar. What wound up happening was that both the T and MUNI were forced to accept things they didn't want in the new cars so it would be able to run on both systems. The contract was put out to bid and was awarded to a helicopter manufacturer Boeing-Vertol and the order would be for 250 cars (150 for Boston). The one major difference in the order was that Boston would have air conditioning something not needed in San Francisco.

In Boston there were problems with derailments, power failures and doors (which had over 1300 parts) closing unexpectedly on passengers. In San Francisco they found that only 2 of the 3 doors could function in the Market Street Subway. The T sued Boeing-Vertol for the repairs and won $34 million dollars in damages.and Boeing in turn was able to convince San Francisco to buy 40 of the cars that the T no longer wanted. The T tested a Canadian made LRV for 3 months in 1980 but in the end decided to build their next cars from scratch. Eventually the new design would become the Type 7 cars manufactured by Kinki-Sharyo of Japan (numbered in the 36-3700's) starting in 1986 and for the most part the T only ran the remaining Boeing cars during rush hour. The Kinki cars proved to be very reliable and the T bought 20 more 10 years later. San Francisco decided to replace their Boeings with cars manufactured by an Italian company named Breda. Boston then decided that instead of ordering the new Type 8 cars 10 years ago from Kinki-Sharyo that they as well would use Breda which has proven to be a disaster equal to the Boeings. The Breda cars were supposed to be fully delivered in 1998 but the T will take final delivery sometime in 2007 on the remaining cars.

Still there is a certain nostalgia concerning the Boeing cars though they will never be as beloved as the old PCC cars they replaced. They were a part of Boston for 30 years but it is time to say goodbye to them. Those interested can read more on the MBTA's problems with streetcars in an article written some 9 years ago by Scott Moore. The last words in the article proved to be incorrect and we the riders continue to suffer.

The new cars are expected to arrive sometime in 1997 or 1998. With the MBTA planning on keeping the LRVs until 1999, it is possible that the system has learned from the mistakes of the past, and will be much more careful when purchasing rail-cars in the future.

Last Boeing LRV run will be on Friday March 16th

Charlie is back in Boston exhausted after almost 4 days on Amtrak (more on that later)..... and can report that Iowa is boring

2 months ago we wrote about the end coming for the Boeing LRV's on the Green Line and that day has arrived.

WEATHER PERMITTING the final Boeing revenue run will leave Riverside at 11 AM on Friday with the return trip scheduled to leave Government Center at 11:40 AM.

A lost trolley?????

I just happened to run into this trolley this morning on Market Street in San Francisco.

The City of San Francisco runs a vintage streetcar line down Market Street that then continues to Fisherman's Wharf and each car is painted with another city's transit colors. Car 1059 is painted to look like a car from the mid 1940's when the Boston system was known as the Boston Elevated Railway.

A dreamer like myself would love to see a vintage streetcar line connecting North and South Stations with stops along Atlantic Avenue but I doubt we will ever see anything like this in Boston.

For more info on the San Francisco vintage streetcar line CLICK HERE

GLOBE: Arlington Station renovations

Mac Daniel in the Sunday Globe writes about history being found at the Arlington subway stop on the Green Line something we wrote about 2 months ago


New find sheds light on an old T stop

Many riders were excited about the mosaics being found but enjoy them while you can.

Arlington station on the Green Line is undergoing its fourth renovation since its tunnel was first dug in 1913. In the current construction chaos, a piece of the past was recently uncovered. A tip of the hat to Jonathan of Back Bay, who pointed this out via e-mail.

"Sections of paneling on the platform were recently removed," he wrote, "revealing mosaic tiles that spell out the station name and seem to frame slots for old ads in a couple of places. It looks like workers are just running pipes and plan to cover the whole thing back up. Do you know if that's the case? It seems a shame to erase a piece of history like that at one of the T's oldest stations."

It's true. Lining the station walls between Berkeley and Arlington streets, the original black and white mosaic tiles have reappeared, harking back to simpler days before CharlieCards and heck, even Charlie on the MTA.

"We had no idea it was back there," project manager Winifred A. Stopps of the architectural firm Leers Weinzapfel Associates , said of the mosaic.

The tunnel at Arlington was built in 1913, but the station stop was not constructed until 1920. When it debuted, the walls were lined with the tiles, with advertising panels spread throughout the station and beautifully lettered station names. No old ads were found in the now-blank spaces, Stopps said.

Still, "They had even more advertising then than they do now," she said.

There's no anti-Warren Harding graffiti, and some of the tiles have been badly damaged by prior renovations.

Despite the find, once the station project is done, the old mosaic tiles will be covered up again, as Jonathan suspected, replaced by some of the enamel-on-porcelain pictures that lined the walls before the project began.

"We're trying to bring up some of the layers of history in Arlington station," Stopps said, adding that one of the old mosaic signs near the Arlington Street entrance might be saved.

MIGHT BE SAVED?????????? This should be a no brainer but.........

I can remember the mosaic tiles at many stations years ago. They included Harvard, Central, Kendall, Park St Under, Downtown Crossing as Washington - Summer - Winter, South Station Under, Broadway, Andrew, Symphony, Mechanics (now Prudential) and I'm sure there were others. A few have been restored and I would *hope* the same happens to Arlington.

Think Park St is crowded now?

Think Park Street Station is crowded at rush hour now? Take a look at the sign on the left that indicates how many trolleys used Park St in 1911. This picture was taken one year before the subway opened to Harvard Square. Can you imagine how long it must have taken to ride a streetcar from Park St to Milton or Waverley in those days?


You can look at other old Boston transit photos online from the The Boston Transit Collection at the Fogg Art Museum of Harvard University.

Comprised of approximately 700 glass plate negatives and prints documenting the construction of the city's subway and elevated railway systems between 1895 and the beginning of World War II, the Boston Transit Collection is a component of the Carpenter Center Photograph Collection on deposit at the Fogg Art Museum since 2002.

there was a time you could get there from here

Have you ever asked yourself why can't I get a bus to someplace in the Boston area? Chances are at one time you could but local bus service in the suburbs has deteriorated or vanished completely since the T took control of things over 40 years ago.

Changes to Transit Service in the MBTA District 1964-Present (PDF) by Jonathan Belcher details everything that has happened with transit in the Boston area since the MBTA took control and historical data from before. Any question you may have about Boston transit routes can be found in its 317 pages and is updated as of the end of 2006. It is important to note that is was not the MBTA that abolished 24 hour service on the system, that had been done in 1960 by the MTA. Until then you could go to Haymarket Station and catch buses all night to all sections of the city and as far away as Arlington and Belmont. The MTA was scrapped for money in those days and the owners of Boston's taxi companies had great influence. New England Telephone alone used to send hundreds of operators and other employees home by cab each night and many other companies did so as well. Not having all night public transportation made it impossible for the companies to abandon the practice and the cab companies made huge profits. Today, because of the current contract with the T's drivers union it would nearly impossible to run all night service at a manageable cost as the ill fated Night Owl experiment that ended in 2005 proved. Drivers were paid double time for trips starting after 2 AM which meant it was costing the T $7.53 on average to transport a Night Owl customer, compared with only $1.37 for a daytime bus rider. Late night service will not happen unless the wording in the contract with the drivers is changed. We can only hope.

When the MBTA was created in 1964 it merged the operations of several transit companies and railroads into one authority that was designed to move people in and out of Boston. It's creation was spawned by the fear that the railroads of the time, the Boston & Maine, New York Central and the New Haven would abolish all commuter rail service in and out of Boston. There was good reason to worry as the New Haven had shut down the Old Colony Lines in 1959 the day after the Southeast Expressway opened and the Boston & Albany division of the New York Central had closed the Highland Branch to Newton in 1958. The MBTA's predecessor the Metropolitan Transit Authority acted quickly and converted the Highland Branch into a streetcar line (D-Riverside) and reopened it one year later. The MTA itself had been formed in 1947 to take over the assets and debts of the Boston Elevated Railway which had been a public-private operation since 1917 when the Massachusetts Legislature passed the "Public Control Act" which guaranteed public transportation to the citizens of Boston. The MTA was limited to serving the citizens fo the original 14 cities and towns in Metropolitan Boston: Arlington, Belmont, Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Malden, Medford, Milton, Newton, Revere, Somerville, and Watertown. Under this system the commuter rail could not be saved unless the authority was expanded to include more cities and towns. The legislature went to work to solve the problem....


It was decided that the Greater Boston urban core mass transportation system be greatly expanded to reach out and to intergrate its mass transit services with those existing throughout the Greater Boston Massachusetts metropolitan area. The new MBTA or "T" would now serve 78 cities and towns in Eastern Massachusetts. The T would quickly enter into compacts with the railroads that would subsidize commuter rail operations and also absorbed 2 major surburban bus companies, the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway and the Middlesex and Boston Street Railway. The MBTA did not aquire the Boston & Worcester Street Railway which was taken over by a Boston sightseeing company Gray Line and today there is limited bus service along Route 9 because of this.

It didn't take long for the T to start slashing bus routes it took over and Mr. Belcher looks at this in great detail. Some cities (Lowell, Lawrence and Brockton) rebelled at the fees demanded to supply service and simply told the T they could do better themselves. One town Maynard demanded to be removed from the MBTA territory and was allowed to do so and the town has had virtually no public transportation since. Maynard had lost its direct bus service to Harvard Square in 1970 when the Town of Lincoln no longer wanted service by bus being content with commuter rail.
The T was able to abolish many bus lines it had taken over claiming low ridership but they had made the schedules on these lines so unreasonable that people stopped using them. One prime example had been the Commonwealth Avenue bus in Newton that connected Norumbega Park in Auburndale with the B Line at Boston College which the T took over in 1972 and abolished 4 years later. The T doomed the line by refusing to extend it to Riverside Station thus not providing an easy connection for Newton riders. There are many other examples of this slash and burn approach the T took 30 years ago towards buses as it strived to keep commuter rail afloat.

The T continues to look at bus service today as a necessary evil and does little to try and improve routing that could enhance service. A prime example of the T's attitude towards bus service can be found in the Town of Woburn. In 2001 the T opened the Anderson Regional Transportation Center just off Interstate-93 as an intermodal bus and commuter rail transfer station. Anderson provides rail service to Boston, Lowell and to New Hampshire and Maine on Amtrak's Downeaster service. From Anderson you can board buses that will take you to both Logan and the Manchester-Boston airports. In fact the Manchester Airport shuttle is FREE for ticketed passengers and also runs to the Sullivan T station in Charlestown and runs 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. (novel concept). So how do I get to Anderson by T bus?

You can't.

A quick glance at the T system map shows 3 routes that could have been extended to Anderson, the 134,136 and 137. It also may have been possible to adjust the 350 route from Alewife to connect with LRTA at Anderson instead of the Burlington/Billerica line. By routing buses to terminate at Anderson it would allow riders from Woburn, Reading, Stoneham, Winchester and other towns easy access to other transportation services. But no that makes too much sense. If you live in Woburn where the station is the only way you can get there is by cab or walk.

The problem is the T simply isn't flexible when it comes to adjusting bus routes some of which haven't changed from the streetcar lines they were 100 years ago. A prime example of this is the 99 route which runs from Wellington Station to the Boston Regional Medical Center in Stoneham. The hospital closed in 1999 yet the T continues to run buses 7 days a week to the front door where the line ends. While there are plans to develop the property it has been tied up for years but meanwhile the shuttered building gets bus service 7 days a week from 6AM to Midnight. Has it ever dawned on the T to perhaps terminate the line elsewhere in Stoneham or Melrose?

One more example on how the T just won't change to reflect changing patterns in commuter movement.15 years ago the Cambrigeside Galleria opened and ridership to Lechmere increased dramaticly but the T only routed one Green Line route to Lechmere, terminating another at North Station and 2 at Government Center. In 1997 the North Station turnaround was closed because of construction of the new Green Line station underground and the T then routed 2 lines to Lechmere. However when the new underground station opened the T went back to the way things were before the mall opened after riders were used to more frequent service. I suspect the reason they did so was to justify the expensive underground turnaround that they built under Causeway Street which was designed before the mall opened. Trains running to Lechmere now are usually overcrowded nights and especially weekends when the Science Museum gets heavy traffic. Routing 2 lines there is a no brainer but the T does as it pleases.

People change, the city changes but the T just doesn't adapt. We will never see bus service like it was in 1964 but we certainly can improve on what is offered now. The bus should come to the people, not the other way around. The taxpayers of Massachusetts have paid a huge price in restoring Commuter Rail to the South Shore (Greenbush alone is close to $500 million) for a service the T estimates will have 4200 passengers per weekday in 2010. I fully agree that Commuter Rail is needed but we need to see more funding for the unsexy bus too. The T has never understood that to take the train you have to get to the station. Parking lots fill up quickly and that forces many commuters to drive instead defeating the entire purpose. We need more feeder bus routes to the rail stations something that is done well by New Jersey Transit and Connecticut Transit.

Would love your comments on this.

T trains retire too early, start too late

The following appeared in the Sunday Boston Globe. (1/14) It was written by Norwell resident John Stilgoe who is the Orchard Professor in the History of Landscape at Harvard University.

Late-night MBTA commuter trains offer long-term benefits to municipalities far south of Boston. While a handful of trackside abutters always decry the momentary noise of any passing train, night trains benefit the entire regional population. Modern times demand a return to older schedules, and even older transport-system thinking.

Boston goes to bed early. Proper Bostonians expect the MBTA bus and subway operation to shut down around 12:30 a.m. Visitors from New York and European cities chuckle at the small-town, roll-up-the-sidewalks mentality. As large corporations move away from Boston, the city begins to lose its big-city reputation, and the T's early shutdown doesn't help the Hub's image problem to visitors.

Long before the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's forerunner whose fare increase produced the song about Charlie who never returned) acquired the properties of the privately owned Boston Elevated Railway Co., so-called Night Owl streetcars and buses prowled Boston streets. Late-night service ran regularly, although not frequently, and enabled factory employees and other night-shift workers to get to work and repairmen to move from one job to another without hiring cabs. It brought night club revelers home safely, keeping them from driving automobiles. Perhaps most importantly, Night Owl service let people get to South Station for very-early-morning trains and get home from trains arriving late at night. While trains tended to arrive on time, even in bad weather, Night Owl service meant much to passengers debarking New England Steamship Co. coastal vessels delayed by fog.

In the past few years, the MBTA experimented with Night Owl buses rolling along sleeping subway routes, but the infrequent service stopped at 2:30 a.m. and proved so expensive to operate that the T ended it in 2005. Boston ranks last in national transit-authority hours-of-service surveys, and many tourists jeer at a part-time transit authority determined to raise fares.

for the rest of the article please click here.

The T (MTA) in Charlie's day (1951)

Back in 1951 Stephen M. Salisbury a transit buff from California came to Boston to compare Boston's streetcar system with the extensive one in Los Angeles. He wrote that trains were slower in what is now the Green Line because during rush hour trains would arrive at stations EVERY 30 SECONDS.

In the article he talks about Boston's use of Type 5 cars and PCC's. Today you can see restored versions of each at Boylston Station. The T still uses PCC's cars on the Mattapan-Ashmont line which is currently closed for renovations at Ashmont. The T would soon convert most of these lines to either bus or trackless trolley and most of the remaining PCC cars were transferred to the Riverside line that opened in 1959. Los Angeles in a decision the city came to regret decided to abolish the rapid transit lines there and use the right of ways to build the area Freeway system in the mid 1950's.

He also looked at other Eastern transit systems

TIMEPOINTS VOL 3 NO 02 August 1951
THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA TRACTION REVIEW

THE MTA of 1951
A BOSTON SOJOURN By your Editor

It is encouraging to find a municipally operated system, which is not pro-bus. Such is MTA, Boston’s Metropolitan Transit Authority. In addition to its three genuine rapid transit routes, one of which is now being extended on surface right-of-way to Orient Heights, MTA at presents operates 26 electric railway routes with trolley cars. A third of these use the trolley subway in downtown Boston and are assured a permanent lease on life. Another third will probably stay rail for some time also, some using PCC cars even at present. A find third including all the Maverick-Revere Beach lines and some Southside lines will go trolley coach in the fairly near future.

Boston at present uses three major car types on its trolley lines. There are a large number of PCCs, including the 50 picture window PCCs received this spring. Oldest PCC group was purchased in 1941. The PCCs, as on LATL, are numbered up from 3000.

More numerous than the PCCs are the omnipresent “Type 5's,” numbered in the 5000 class. These are of two types, the “high speeds”, all of which are on a single line, the 100 to Elm St., and the far more numerous “low speed” Fives. These cars are all products of the mid-1920s, and are unevenly maintained: some are in poor condition while others are excellent. The few “high-speeds” are the equal of the PE 600s in acceleration and speed, but far inferior in appearance and comfort (all Type Fives have wooden seats).

The third type of equipment yet running in Boston has all but been retired: the MU center-entrance trains, which the PCCs have almost replaced in the subway. At the time of our Boston sojourn, the last week in July, no trains were running on regular runs, but would fill in occasionally when too many PCCs were being shopped. The only center-entrance train actually seen in service was on the Subway-Arborway line 39, although this type of equipment was in evidence in several car yards about the city. They are numbered in the 6000s and of course were the backbone of Boston EL for many, many years before the PCCs.

A fourth type, the so-called Type Four cars, which are deck roof, older city cars numbered in the low 5000s, were seen in one or two yards, but are not (so far as we were able to discern) any longer in service at all, and will soon be scrapped.

South Boston has not much equipment variety left: only the PCCs and type Fives run commonly over the system. Old cars still run in the trolley subway, although they are in the vast minority.
The most unusual feature of Boston’s trolley system, of course, is the extensive use made of the trolley subway. This permits all surface cars to run in the downtown district free from interference of surface traffic. Actual speeds made in the Trolley subway compare rather unfavorably with those in Los Angeles’, but the subway is undeniably far faster than surface routes could ever be. Speed underground is hampered by the close headways that are maintained: three-car PCC trains less than thirty seconds apart in rush hours. Fortunately, the block signal system is far more adequate than is the case in Los Angeles’ subway, but even so, during base and rush hours there is not much opportunity for the PCCs to show any speed.

From a single tunnel running north and south on Tremont St., which is four-tracked in places, cars fan out to six portals south of the downtown area, and then commence street ( or in some cases, private right of way) operation, usually for considerable distances further. Rail in the subway is not too smooth, and the PCCs are as bouncy as they are on most systems where they run on private right of way. The new PCCs are if anything more bouncy than previous models.
Aside from the subway, the most notable Boston characteristic is the great number of prepayment stations, which are combination subway or elevated stations and surface car and bus line terminals. At these stations, which are entirely within turnstiles, a great deal of transferring and reverse-direction riding can be accomplished on a single fare. Certain of the stations are large-scale streetcar terminals in their own right, such as Arborway-Forest Hills, at the south end of an elevated line, from which seven surface car lines depart (one of which uses the trolley subway). Another large rail terminal is Maverick, entirely underground, from which several car lines depart on the same level as the adjacent tracks of the subway trains with which they connect. Present fare over the entire MTA system is 10 cents for local surface rides of any length without transfer, 15 cents for surface rides with transfer, and 15 cents for all rapid transit-surface rides, with or without transfer. The 15 cents rapid transit fare applies also in the trolley subways, but so far as we could tell, the operator of an inbound trolley on the street before entering a subway portal has no way of checking who has paid 10 cents for a local ride and who has paid 15 cents.

In the outlaying areas, there is more than a mere smattering of private right of way on the various lines. Most of this is center or side-of-the-street, there being little trackage completely away from streets.

The following is a resume of the MTA rail system’s routes. Numbers are given on the route map, but no cars or buses display them, and no company employee discusses lines other than by name.

1-ASHMONT-HARVARD TUNNEL: This is a true rapid transit route, nearly all subway, with cars similar to the IRT cars in New York City. It runs from Harvard Square in Cambridge, to the west of Boston, into the downtown area, then south partly thru open cut and surface private right of way, partly still in subway, to Ashmont on the southern side of the city.

2-FOREST HILLS-EVERETT ELEVATED: This is entirely elevated except for a section of subway in the heart of downtown Boston. It is probably the nicest of the true rapid transit routes. Stations are much farther apart than on New York EL’s, allowing greater speed, especially on the downhill outbound run to Forest Hills in the southern side of the city.

3-BOWDOIN-MAVERICK TUNNEL: This line is entirely subway at present, and runs from Bowdoin in downtown Boston beneath the Charles River to Maverick, where at present it ends. It is to be extended via a surface private right of way using catenary rather than third-rail. All rail and wire for this extension are in place to the new terminal at Orient Heights, and the cars for it are sitting at the latter point.

7-SOUTH STATION-CITY POINT: A surface trolley line entirely on city streets. South Station, which is on the edge of downtown Boston, is the closest point to the center of the city to which trolleys operate on streets. This line runs near the waterfront for a good distance, over many bridges. It is entirely Type Five, as there is a stub end in the middle of the street at South Station.

9-SUBWAY-CITY POINT: This is a PCC line which runs underground to a portal south of the downtown area, then turns east along rather uninteresting streets and joins lines 7 and 10 to the end of the rather dilapidated City Point section of the city.

10-DUDLEY-CITY POINT: This is a PCC line beginning under the Forest Hills EL and running north, then east to join the 9 and continue to City Point. Its most unusual feature is the Arlington Station where it loops twice around the same trackage each trip to enter the station.

28-ASHMONT-MATTAPAN “HIGH SPEED” LINE: Without doubt this is the finest MTA route. It is all on private right of way, entirely away from streets, and plunges thru beautiful wooded areas, running for some distance beside the banks of a river.
Type Five equipment used.

29-MATTAPAN-EGLESTON: A surprisingly nice line because of a side of the road private right of way along the edge of a park in a hilly section, which is very beautiful. Much bracket arm over pavement operation also. Evidently quite safe for the future as the rails are being renewed. Type Five.

30-ARBORWAY-MATTAPAN: A rather dull PCC line entirely on city streets.

32-ARBORWAY-CLEARY SQUARE: Another not too interesting street-running line to the extreme south of the city. Uses Type Five.

33-ARBORWAY-ROSLINDALE: An odd-shaped line taking two-sides of a very narrow-angled triangle of trackage, with little independent running. Unimportant. Uses Type Five.

34-ARBORWAY-DEDHAM: This rather long south side line uses Type Fives and enjoys a stretch of center-of-the-highway private right of way on its outer end; eastern Massachusetts cars used to run further out from it.

36-ARBORWAY-CHARLES RIVER: A nice, winding line, but entirely on streets. Trolley coach overhead is 100% in place, and the line will go TC in about two months. At present it is served by the Type Fives during daylight hours, and by PCCs evenings.

39-SUBWAY-ARBORWAY: A long, rather dull route with MU PCCs and still an occasional center-entrance train; totally on built-up, congested streets after it leaves the subway. Has Type Fives also.

40-EGLESTON-ARBORWAY: A short line on tracks entirely underneath the Forest Hills EL. An unimportantline stripped of all Sunday service in a recent economy move. After all, the EL is overhead.

43-SUBWAY-EGLESTON: PCCs and a few Type Fives on this line, which winds along congested city streets much like the Subway-Arborway line, only shorter.

47-MASSACHUSETTS STATION-DUDLY: This is obviously a remnant of a whole group of other lines that were abandoned. It runs rail Monday through Friday from 5.20 to 9.40am, and 3.13 to 6.37pm. Other hours and on weekends it is bus. It has under-the el running and very tedious route thru city streets to a high-roofed terminal at Mass Station on the trolley subway. Probably the most boring rail line on MTA.

61-SUBWAY-CLEVELAND CIRCLE: This is one of the heaviest lines on the system, and uses both new and older PCCs in 2 and 3 car trains. Not an inch of this line is on streets (except, of course, for grade crossings), as it enjoys a tree-shaded center-of the-street private right of way along its entire course after it leaves the subway. Rush hour headway is terrific.

62-SUBWAY-BOSTON COLLEGE: Twin of the Cleveland Circle route, with same equipment and also much private right of way beside and within streets. A very important and scenic line not quite as nice as the 61.

69-SUBWAY-WATERTOWN: A long line, on streets after leaving the subway, from which it heads due west to the city of Watertown, Mass. There is a turn back loop at Braves Field. An all PCC operation.

71-HARVARD-WATERTOWN: Entirely in the outlying areas of Cambridge and Watertown. Mostly PCC, with a few Type Fives. Track is very smooth, making the PCC ride unusually pleasant.

73-HARVARD-WAVERLEY: Runs with 71 for a ways west of Harvard, then runs west on broad, hilly streets to Waverley, Mass. Type Fives, as it is stub-end in Waveley. A pleasant but unspectacular route.

79-HARVARD-ARLINGTON HEIGHTS: A long line running to the northwest of Harvard. A mixture of PCCs and older cars. It is actually thru-routed with 71, as cars run all the way thru from Watertown to Arlington Heights, but passengers must get off at Harvard, pay another fare, and walk thru a gate to re-board. Turn backs run to two points, one of which is stub-end and will not take PCCs.

100-SULLIVAN SQUARE-ELM STREET: This is entirely removed from all other MTA rail lines, but has its own car house and connects with other MTA lines via trackage not in regular use. It is the second-nicest line on the MTA, being almost all of center-of-the-street private right of way, and using the fast “High speed” Fives, which are capable of 40 mph and have excellent acceleration. “Too fast for the track on this line,” one operator commented. Yet rail has been improved, and prospects for the rail service on this highly scenic line seem good. It was even more scenic until 1946, when it ran thru the woods to Spot Pond and via Eastern Mass St. Ry. (whose buses still carry the railway name, incidentally) to Stoneham. It should not have been cut back to Elm St., but the remaining portion is still heavily patronized and a must for photography.

114-MAVERICK-MERIDIAN ST.: All these lines that use Maverick are to go trolley coach probably within a year. Much TC overhead is in place already. The Meridian St. line is a remnant of an alternate route to Chelsea which was abandoned when a bridge was closed. Now it ends on a crossover laid at the beginning of the bridge. It is entirely on slow, uninviting streets.

116-MAVERICK - REVERE BEACH VIA REVERE: This line goes to Chelsea, with many turn back cars to “Chelsea via Central” only. It is the farthest north of any New England trolley passenger route, and is entirely on streets.

117-MAVERICK - REVERE BEACH VIA BEACH: An alternate route to Revere, which separates from the Rev-via Rev line, beyond Chelsea and cuts across to reach Rev much more quickly (about the same as the PSL, POK situation between LA and Pasadena). All on streets, but very nice.

118-MAVERICK-REVERE BEACH VIA ORIENT HEIGHTS:
A third and entirely different route between these two terminals, and the shortest of them all, (continuing the analogy, it would resemble the Pasadena via Garvanza route). It parallels the rapid transit extension, and enjoys a stretch of complete private right of way in a very country-ish setting, with a trestle across a creek or pond in its middle. It reminded Steve and I , as we walked it, of the Balboa Park Line in San Diego, more strongly than anything else either of us has seen, yet it is also very, very different, as there are no cliffs or drop-offs. Turn backs run to Gladstone loop (called line 115). There is also a private right of way branch to a racetrack a short distance, which runs Sundays only.

121-MAVERICK - LEXINGTON ST.: The only single-track line on MTA, running with Meridian St. until a few blocks before the end of that route, and then turning onto a run-down street, changing to the single pair of rails, and continuing up and down hill for perhaps a mile, ending in a car house. Very unimportant, requiring only one car for base service.
All Maverick lines, of course, use the Types Fives exclusively. Some of these cars still say “Boston Elevated Railway” on their sides. The Maverick lines were part of Eastern Massachusetts Street Ry. until 1936.

And there you have it--a fine system, with some track amputations still in store for it, but with an excellent future for the rail lines that will still remain.

Why T cars are not interchangeable between lines

The Boston subway has it's quirks and a big one is that each line has it's own dedicated fleet of cars.

Tom Long in the Northwest Globe edition of Starts and Stops gets the T to explain why

The MBTA was created by the consolidations of private carriers, resulting in three rail lines with different dimensions. The unique tunnel and platform dimensions are the most significant characteristics that prevent a standardized vehicle design.

The length and width of the rail cars are also problematic. The cars range in width from 9 feet 2 inches on the Blue Line to 10 feet on the Red Line. The Red Line vehicles are 69 feet 6 inches long, the Orange Line 65 feet 4 inches, and the Blue Line 48 feet 6 inches.

The reason the Blue Line cars are shorter is because the Bowdoin loop requires a vehicle that can negotiate a 66-foot curve. The shorter cars enable a tighter turning radius for the vehicle. The Orange or Red Line would not be able to negotiate this turning radius in a tunnel.

Pesaturo said the T investigated the possibility of refitting Orange Line cars for use on the Blue Line while waiting for new cars, but the cost was prohibitive.

This website offers a quick overview of the history of the subway in Boston
Of note is what occured on the Easter/Patriot's Day weekend of 1924. The entire East Boston tunnel was converted from trolley to heavy rail subway IN THREE DAYS!!!!

Conversion of East Boston Line to Multiple Unit Trains. The East Boston Line had been built in 1904 for trolleys with no premonition of a conversion to multiple unit operation. Over an April double-holiday weekend, the East Boston Line underwent major change. Patrons went home aboard familiar trolley cars. They returned on Monday on brand-new steel multiple unit trains which they could board and leave at platform level. The grade in the tunnel was 5%, severe for trolleys, but even more so for multiple unit. subway trains. There were sharp curves and close clearances. Nearly four miles of third rail had to be hoisted onto pre-set insulators, electrically connected, and tested.

The MTA of 50 years ago

Thanks to http://www.universalhub.com for the tip

Mike posts a pre-1955 map of Boston's rapid-transit system.

I've seen this map before at the Trolley Museum in Maine and it shows the then MTA as it was after the Blue Line was extended to Revere in the early 1950's.

The map shows in detail the old elevated Orange Line which is far different than the modern version. This was the MTA the Kingston Trio sang about back in 1959.