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43-609: When the northern section of the Tremont Street subway opened in 1898, surface cars entering the subway from East Cambridge had to cross Craigie's Bridge and proceed on surface streets to the Canal Street incline . The trip from Lechmere Point over the bridge was slow and prone to delays. On June 20, 1907, construction began on one mile of elevated track connecting the Canal Street incline to East Cambridge. The project's centerpiece

86-523: A National Historic Landmark in recognition for its pioneering role in the development of the subway as a public transit system in the United States. The landmark designation encompasses the still-extant portions of the early tunnel, roughly from Court Street to Charles Street, and includes the original Classical Revival head houses of the Park and Boylston stations which are still in use. The original owner of

129-475: A bus rapid transit line. The heavy rail Red Line has two southern branches, while the light rail Green Line has four services (B, C, D, and E) that use four western and two northern branches. The Silver Line has five bus rapid transit routes; two run on Washington Street with different downtown terminals, while three run underground in the Seaport with surface branches. All four subway lines cross downtown, forming

172-545: A quadrilateral configuration, and the Orange and Green Lines (which run approximately parallel in that district) also connect directly at two stations just north of downtown. The Red Line and Blue Line are the only pair of subway lines which do not have a direct transfer connection to each other. Because the various subway lines do not consistently run in any given compass direction , it is customary to refer to line directions as "inbound" or "outbound". Inbound trains travel towards

215-677: A new parallel subway. On August 20, 1955, the MTA opened Science Park station as an infill station on the steel approach span of the viaduct over Leverett Circle , just south of the southernmost arch span. It serves the Boston Museum of Science and the West End. On June 25, 2004, service over the viaduct was suspended as the Causeway Street Elevated was removed, and the surface and elevated platforms at North Station were consolidated into

258-511: A new underground "superstation". This left the Lechmere Viaduct and Lechmere Elevated as the sole remaining elevated lines in Boston. A new portal was built off Martha Road, with a new concrete bridge connecting to the viaduct just south of Science Park station. Service to Lechmere resumed on November 12, 2005. The incline from the 2005-built tunnel to the Lechmere Viaduct is the steepest grade on

301-486: A possibility of future re-use (see above). The subway uses trolleys powered by electricity from overhead lines , which had been made possible by the invention of the trolley pole in 1880 by Frank J. Sprague , from his design for the Richmond Union Passenger Railway . The line has been pantograph -only since the trolley wires were modified in the 1990s. The Tremont Street subway was designated

344-557: A transfer point between the Cambridge streetcars and the subway cars. This prevented traffic delays affecting the surface cars from propagating into the subway, and allowed the underground service to use three-car trains, which were too long for safe street-running . In 1935, a citizen's group proposed to widen the viaduct into a four-lane expressway to accommodate an extension of the Mohawk Trail ; transit service would have been rerouted into

387-447: A variety of vehicles, some dating back to 1986, with the latest batch delivered in 2019. All four transit lines use standard-gauge railway tracks ( 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in  / 1,435 mm ), but are otherwise incompatible, with varying loading gauges , car lengths, platform heights, and power collection systems as detailed in the chart below: There are no direct track connections between lines, except between

430-648: Is splits into two forks. One fork connects to the Boylston Street subway , which turns westward under Boylston Street. The other fork continues south under Tremont Street to the Pleasant Street incline . This portal was used by streetcars that went southwest to Egleston via the South End, along Tremont Street ( route 43 ), or southeast to City Point in South Boston via Broadway ( route 9 ). Streetcar service through

473-605: The Boston metropolitan area , collectively referred to as the rapid transit , subway , the T system, or simply the T . The color-branded lines consist of three heavy rail lines ( Red , Orange , and Blue ), one branched light rail system ( Green ), and a short light rail line (the Ashmont–Mattapan High-Speed Line , colored as part of the Red Line). All except the Ashmont–Mattapan line operate in tunnels in

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516-751: The City and South London Railway in 1890, and the Budapest Metro's Line 1 in 1896), opening on September 1, 1897. It was originally built, under the supervision of Howard A. Carson as chief engineer, to get streetcar lines off the traffic-clogged streets, instead of as a true rapid transit line. It now forms the central part of the Green Line , connecting Boylston Street to Park Street and Government Center stations. The tunnel originally served five closely spaced stations: Boylston , Park Street, Scollay Square , Adams Square , and Haymarket , with branches to

559-495: The D branch was opened in 1959. The northern portal at Canal Street was replaced in 2004 when the subway was extended beneath North Station to a new portal next to Martha Road. The southern portal at Pleasant Street was abandoned in 1962 following the end of streetcar service through the South End . The portal has since been sealed up and covered by Elliot Norton Park, but the dead-ended tunnel to Boylston survives underground, for

602-776: The Emerald Necklace park system. The East Boston Tunnel became the Blue Line because it runs under Boston Harbor , and the Cambridge-Dorchester Tunnel became the Red Line because its northernmost terminus was then at Harvard University , whose school color is crimson . According to Chermayeff, the Main Line El "ended up being orange for no particular reason beyond color balance." The MBTA and transit historians later claimed that orange came from Orange Street, an early name for

645-607: The New York City Subway , but 34 years after the first London Underground lines, and long after the first elevated railway in New York City . Various extensions and branches were added to the subway lines at both ends, bypassing more surface tracks. As grade-separated lines were extended, street-running lines were cut back for faster downtown service. The last elevated heavy rail or "El" inter-station segments in Boston – with

688-703: The Public Garden portal and Pleasant Street incline south of Boylston. Park Street, Scollay Square, and Haymarket stations were altered over the next two decades as transfers were added to the Cambridge–Dorchester subway , East Boston Tunnel , and Main Line Elevated (now part of the Red , Blue , and Orange Lines , respectively). Boylston and Park Street were built with rectangular stone headhouses designed by Edmund M. Wheelwright that did not aesthetically match

731-510: The Common. Scollay Square and Adams Square had similar baroque headhouses with four-sided clock towers. Unlike the interior decor, the headhouses were sharply criticized as "resembling mausoleums" and "pretentiously monumental". Later stations on the East Boston Tunnel and Washington Street Tunnel incorporated this criticism into their more modest headhouses. In 1963, the northern part of

774-472: The Green, Orange, Blue, and Red line tunnels were all in service by 1912. Additions to the rapid transit network occurred in most decades of the 1900s, and continued in the 2000s with the addition of Silver Line bus rapid transit and Green Line Extension . (See MBTA History and MBTA Future plans sections.) Streetcar congestion in downtown Boston led to the creation of underground subways and elevated rail ,

817-546: The Medford Branch and other work. However, the work did not have the intended effect, and a multi-year long slow-zone was put in place that continued to limit speeds to 10 miles per hour (16 km/h). Tremont Street subway The Tremont Street subway in Boston's MBTA subway system is the oldest subway tunnel in North America and the third-oldest still in use worldwide to exclusively use electric traction (after

860-910: The Red Line and Ashmont–Mattapan High Speed Line, but all except the Blue Line have little-used connections to the national rail network , which have been used for deliveries of railcars and supplies. MBTA subway fares are $ 2.40 regardless of fare medium ( CharlieCard , paper ticket, cash, contactless tap to ride), with two transfers on MBTA bus local routes allowed. Daily, weekly, and monthly passes are also available, and MBTA Commuter Rail passes for these time periods are valid for subway fares. Discounted fares are available for groups including adults over 65, people with disabilities, certain schoolchildren, and young adults with low incomes. Children under 11, legally blind people, and certain government workers are allowed to ride free of charge. All Blue, Orange, and Red Line stations are fare controlled with faregates, as are underground Green and Silver Line stations (plus

903-691: The Tremont Street subway was the private West End Street Railway , later the Boston Elevated Railway . Public ownership began in 1947 with the Metropolitan Transit Authority, now the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority . MBTA subway The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) operates rapid transit (heavy rail), light rail , and bus rapid transit services in

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946-652: The demolition of the Washington Street Elevated southern section of the Orange Line. This proposed new streetcar service could go as far south as the Red Line's Mattapan station , with a northern turnaround terminus at Government Center , according to a 2012-dated proposal. The three original tunnel entrances were in the Boston Public Garden , at North Station/Canal Street , and at Pleasant Street. Over time, these portals were replaced and abandoned as

989-520: The downtown area, but no route operates entirely underground, and only 31 out of the system's 153 stations are located underground. The five branches of the Silver Line bus network are also shown as part of the rapid transit system. Three branches operate underground and charge rapid transit fares; two branches operate entirely on the surface and charge lower bus fares. In 2023, the heavy rail lines had 85,397,200 rides, or about 267,700 per weekday in

1032-535: The entire MBTA subway system. The viaduct was again closed from April 30 to November 4, 2011, as Science Park station was rebuilt with accessible platforms and new elevators. As part of the Green Line Extension project, the northern section of the Lechmere Elevated was removed and connected to a new elevated structure east of Route 28. The original Lechmere station was replaced with an elevated station on

1075-812: The exception of the Red Line 's still-active elevated tracks, connecting Charles/MGH station over Charles Circle to the Longfellow Bridge and the Cambridge Tunnel 's northern portal – were at the extremities of the Orange Line: its northern end was relocated in 1975 from Everett to Malden, MA , and its southern end was relocated into the Southwest Corridor in 1987. However, the Green Line's Causeway Street Elevated remained in service until 2004, when it

1118-411: The former in 1897 and the latter in 1901. The Tremont Street subway was the first rapid transit tunnel in the United States and had a 24/7 service. The grade-separated railways added transportation capacity while avoiding delays caused by intersections with cross streets. The first elevated railway and the first rapid transit line in Boston were built three years before the first underground line of

1161-471: The four downtown transfer stations – Park Street , State Street , Government Center and Downtown Crossing –and outbound trains travel away from these hub stations. Originally, transit lines in the region only used geographic names; though numbering was added to public maps in 1936. The three heavy rail lines were assigned numbers 1, 2, and 3; what is now the Green Line was assigned different numbers for each branch. However, riders generally continued to use

1204-450: The four lines. However, yellow proved unsuitable, since some patrons would have difficulty reading yellow text on a white background; orange was substituted, and yellow eventually was used for the MBTA bus service's visibility markings and signage. When sketching design concepts, Peter Chermayeff labeled the subway-surface light rail routes as the Green Line because they run adjacent to parts of

1247-559: The geographic names. Colors were assigned on August 26, 1965, as part of a wider modernization under design standards developed by Cambridge Seven Associates , and have served as the primary identifier for the lines since then. The numbers for the heavy rail lines and the Mattapan Line were retained in public information until 1966. In 1967, the then-current five branches of the Green Line were lettered A through E. Cambridge Seven originally intended to use red, yellow, green, and blue for

1290-531: The new structure. The viaduct was closed (with service cut back to North Station) on May 24, 2020, with reopening then expected in April 2021. Demolition of the northern section of the Lechmere Viaduct began on June 6, 2020. Only the steel section of the viaduct north of the Gilmore Bridge was replaced; the main concrete span was restored to support Green Line Extension service and future Type 10 vehicles . By July 2021,

1333-474: The oldest transit subway in North America still in use (only the short-lived Beach Pneumatic Transit demonstration line in New York City was built before). Opened in September 1897, the four-track-wide segment of the Green Line tunnel between Park Street and Boylston stations was the first subway in the United States, and has been designated a National Historic Landmark . The downtown portions of what are now

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1376-474: The rehabilitation project was 83% complete; track and signal work were complete, power work nearly complete, and concrete repairs under way. Substantial completion was reached on March 16, 2022. Only the E branch service used the viaduct at the time of its 2020 closure; the B , C , and D branches terminated in downtown Boston. With the Green Line Extension complete, the D and E branches run across

1419-572: The south (Boston) side of the river, and a short steel elevated section (the Lechmere Elevated) that sloped down to Lechmere Square on the north (East Cambridge) side. The first streetcars crossed the bridge in revenue service on June 1, 1912, shortening the ten-minute trip from Lechmere Square to the subway to just three minutes. The building of the massive structure was done entirely by the Boston Elevated Railway , without use of subcontractors. The BERy opened Lechmere station on July 10, 1922, as

1462-475: The southern portal ended in 1962; for the last several months, service consisted of a shuttle between the portal and Boylston station. The tunnel still exists, dead-ended at the now-buried portal, which has been converted to a public park. However, there have been proposals for the disused tunnel to become part of a new streetcar line that would partly replace access to rapid transit for southern Metro Boston neighborhoods that lost rapid transit service in 1987 with

1505-778: The street that ran southwards down the Boston Neck to connect the Shawmut Peninsula to the mainland, for what is now part of Washington Street. The MBTA rapid transit system consists of 153 stations, with the 5 most recent stations opening on December 12, 2022 as part of the Medford/Tufts branch of the Green Line Extension project in Somerville . The MBTA is in the process of replacing its entire fleet of Red Line and Orange Line cars, which are over 40 years old, as of 2024 . The Blue Line cars were replaced in 2008. The Green Line has

1548-469: The subway was extended. Vestiges of various closed portals are still visible inside the main Green Line's Boylston Street subway tunnel extending west of Boylston station towards Kenmore Square station. The western Public Garden portal was replaced in 1914 with two portals, one in the middle of Boylston Street adjacent to the old portal, and the other at the west end of the Boylston Street subway , just east of Kenmore Square . The Boylston Street portal

1591-416: The third quarter of 2024, and comprised the fourth-busiest heavy rail system in the United States. In the same period, the light rail lines had 34,581,000 rides, or about 102,500 per weekday, and comprised the third-busiest light rail system in the United States. The section of the Tremont Street subway between Park Street and Boylston Street stations, now on the Green Line, opened in 1897, making it

1634-411: The tunnel was extensively altered during the construction of Government Center and a new Boston City Hall on what had been the neighborhood of Scollay Square. The northbound tunnel to Haymarket station was rerouted to the west (the southbound tunnel is still original). Scollay Square station was rebuilt as Government Center station, and Adams Square station was closed. Much of the old northbound tunnel

1677-504: The viaduct: the E branch to Medford/​Tufts , and the D branch to Union Square . Service over the viaduct resumed with the opening of the Union Square Branch on March 21, 2022. The Union Square Branch was closed from August 22 to September 18, 2022. The closure allowed for wire replacement on the Lechmere Viaduct, increasing speeds from 10 miles per hour (16 km/h) to 25 miles per hour (40 km/h), as well as final integration of

1720-482: Was filled in to support the City Hall foundation; another section was turned into a delivery tunnel. Another section was rediscovered by a City Hall employee in 1983; a 150-foot (46 m) piece was renovated for use as records storage. In 1971, the original Haymarket station was replaced with a new station just to the south. The subway in 1897 consisted of a main line under Tremont Street running to Park Street, where

1763-562: Was relocated into a tunnel with an incline to reconnect to the Lechmere Viaduct . The final section of elevated, between the Lechmere Viaduct and Lechmere station , was closed in 2020 for construction of the Green Line Extension . The extension opened in two phases in 2022 with new branches from Lechmere to Union Square and Medford/​Tufts – the first rail expansion since 1987. [REDACTED] The rapid transit lines consist of 3 heavy rail (Metro) lines, 2 light rail lines, and

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1806-540: Was sealed in 1941 when the Huntington Avenue subway was opened (with a new portal at Northeastern University ). The portal at Kenmore Square was replaced in 1932 when the subway was extended west beyond the Square, to the existing portals on Commonwealth Avenue (the "B" branch ) and Beacon Street (the "C" branch ), although the top arch of the original portal survives as part of a ventilation shaft. The Fenway portal for

1849-541: Was the 12-span, 1,700-foot (520 m)-long viaduct crossing the Charles River. The spans are numbered 1 to 12 from south to north. Ten of the spans are arches; span 3 is a bascule drawbridge over the Charles River channel through the Charles River Dam Bridge, while the span 12 (the northernmost span) is a girder span over the Gilmore Bridge approach. The viaduct connected to the Causeway Street Elevated on

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