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106-406: The A branch or Watertown Line was a streetcar line in the Boston, Massachusetts , area, operating as a branch of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Green Line . The line ran from Watertown through Newton Corner , Brighton , and Allston to Kenmore Square , then used the Boylston Street subway and Tremont Street subway to reach Park Street station . Portions of

212-466: A cross-platform transfer to subway trains, similar to the then-recently-opened Ashmont station . The streetcar tracks were placed on a wooden structure in the station and at the surface incline pending the future tunnel extension. Over the years, it became clear that the Commonwealth Avenue line was unlikely to be converted to heavy rail service. In the 1980s, the wooden structure was removed and

318-603: A tram engine in the UK) at the head of a line of one or more carriages, similar to a small train. Systems with such steam trams included Christchurch , New Zealand; Sydney, Australia; other city systems in New South Wales ; Munich , Germany (from August 1883 on), British India (from 1885) and the Dublin & Blessington Steam Tramway (from 1888) in Ireland. Steam tramways also were used on

424-515: A Vermont blacksmith, had invented a battery-powered electric motor which he later patented. The following year he used it to operate a small model electric car on a short section of track four feet in diameter. Attempts to use batteries as a source of electricity were made from the 1880s and 1890s, with unsuccessful trials conducted in among other places Bendigo and Adelaide in Australia, and for about 14 years as The Hague accutram of HTM in

530-465: A counterflow lane as streetcars had. As a way to make the service more attractive, the MBTA originally had the 57 operate as a limited (boarding-only outbound and dropoff-only inbound) between Packards Corner and Kenmore, with the "B" branch providing local service along Commonwealth Avenue. In December 2006 the 57 began making local stops on Commonwealth. Since free transfers had been previously eliminated by

636-535: A dispute with the Boston and Worcester Railroad over the right to cross their tracks , the line opened on November 15, 1858. Service was doubled in April 1878, with cars operating every half hour. In 1880, the company opened a second Brighton–Cambridge line via Market Street and Western Avenue. A planned extension that year from Oak Square to Nonantum Square was not built, though a line from Watertown to Nonantum Square was. In

742-572: A line on North Beacon Street between Union Square and the Watertown border. The Newtonville and Watertown Street Railway soon secured position to build between Watertown Square and Union Square, with the intention to use the West End tracks to reach downtown Boston. After approval by the Watertown Arsenal (which owned a section of North Beacon Street) in 1896 – despite the objection of the West End –

848-409: A route 57 trip. A 2018–19 MBTA review of its bus system found that route 57 suffered from overcrowding at peak hours and poor reliability. No short-term changes were recommended. 2022 MBTA proposals for its systemwide bus network redesign called for the 57 to have increased frequency to provide service every 15 minutes or better at all operating hours. The portion of the route west of Brighton Center

954-427: A short stub track at Packard's Corner , where the "A" branch used to diverge from the "B" branch. The stub, part of the former outbound track, was used for temporarily storing disabled trains until it was shorted to just a few feet long in the mid 2000s; the switch was not disconnected until 2014 and not paved over until 2020. Restoration of the "A" branch was advocated to provide a one-seat ride to downtown Boston from

1060-695: A similar technology, Pirotsky put into service the first public electric tramway in St. Petersburg, which operated only during September 1880. The second demonstration tramway was presented by Siemens & Halske at the 1879 Berlin Industrial Exposition. The first public electric tramway used for permanent service was the Gross-Lichterfelde tramway in Lichterfelde near Berlin in Germany, which opened in 1881. It

1166-911: A well-known tourist attraction . A single cable line also survives in Wellington (rebuilt in 1979 as a funicular but still called the " Wellington Cable Car "). Another system, with two separate cable lines and a shared power station in the middle, operates from the Welsh town of Llandudno up to the top of the Great Orme hill in North Wales , UK. Hastings and some other tramways, for example Stockholms Spårvägar in Sweden and some lines in Karachi , used petrol trams. Galveston Island Trolley in Texas operated diesel trams due to

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1272-576: Is also served by two express routes , which operate to downtown Boston via Copley Square : Express bus service from Brighton and Watertown began even while the "A" branch was still running. The 61 Watertown/Newton Corner-Downtown Boston via Mass. Turnpike route began in July 1967, with Saturday service added in March 1968. In December 1967, the 61 was renumbered as 4, and a new route 61 running from Oak Square to downtown via Brighton Center and Union Square, Boston and

1378-523: Is based at the Cabot Garage for evening, weekend, and holiday service. One early-morning round trip, intended for MBTA employees but open to the public, continues to Haymarket . It was inaugurated along with several other routes by the M.T.A. in September 1960, though they were not listed in public timetables until September 1999. The trip is internally called route 191 , but is shown on public timetables as

1484-725: Is often provided from Kenmore. On January 2, 1923, some off-peak trips of the Lechmere – Pleasant Street shuttle were extended through the Boylston Street Subway to the surface station at Kenmore; all-day service began on October 10. Most trips were extended along the Beacon Street line to Washington Square on December 14, 1929. The Washington Street service was cut back to Kenmore in June 1930 but resumed that September. On February 7, 1931, Commonwealth Avenue and Beacon Street service

1590-622: Is still in operation in modernised form. The earliest tram system in Canada was built by John Joseph Wright , brother of the famous mining entrepreneur Whitaker Wright , in Toronto in 1883, introducing electric trams in 1892. In the US, multiple experimental electric trams were exhibited at the 1884 World Cotton Centennial World's Fair in New Orleans, Louisiana , but they were not deemed good enough to replace

1696-729: Is the sole survivor of the fleet). In Italy, in Trieste , the Trieste–Opicina tramway was opened in 1902, with the steepest section of the route being negotiated with the help of a funicular and its cables. Cable cars suffered from high infrastructure costs, since an expensive system of cables , pulleys , stationary engines and lengthy underground vault structures beneath the rails had to be provided. They also required physical strength and skill to operate, and alert operators to avoid obstructions and other cable cars. The cable had to be disconnected ("dropped") at designated locations to allow

1802-688: The Bleecker Street Line until its closure in 1917. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania , had its Sarah Street line drawn by horses until 1923. The last regular mule-drawn cars in the US ran in Sulphur Rock, Arkansas , until 1926 and were commemorated by a U.S. postage stamp issued in 1983. The last mule tram service in Mexico City ended in 1932, and a mule tram in Celaya, Mexico , survived until 1954. The last horse-drawn tram to be withdrawn from public service in

1908-879: The Lamm fireless engines then propelling the St. Charles Avenue Streetcar in that city. The first commercial installation of an electric streetcar in the United States was built in 1884 in Cleveland, Ohio , and operated for a period of one year by the East Cleveland Street Railway Company. The first city-wide electric streetcar system was implemented in 1886 in Montgomery, Alabama , by the Capital City Street Railway Company, and ran for 50 years. In 1888,

2014-692: The Richmond Union Passenger Railway began to operate trams in Richmond, Virginia , that Frank J. Sprague had built. Sprague later developed multiple unit control, first demonstrated in Chicago in 1897, allowing multiple cars to be coupled together and operated by a single motorman. This gave rise to the modern subway train. Following the improvement of an overhead "trolley" system on streetcars for collecting electricity from overhead wires by Sprague, electric tram systems were rapidly adopted across

2120-785: The West Midlands Metro in Birmingham , England adopted battery-powered trams on sections through the city centre close to Grade I listed Birmingham Town Hall . Paris and Berne (Switzerland) operated trams that were powered by compressed air using the Mekarski system . Trials on street tramways in Britain, including by the North Metropolitan Tramway Company between Kings Cross and Holloway, London (1883), achieved acceptable results but were found not to be economic because of

2226-1202: The 1850s, after which the "animal railway" became an increasingly common feature in the larger towns. The first permanent tram line in continental Europe was opened in Paris in 1855 by Alphonse Loubat who had previously worked on American streetcar lines. The tram was developed in numerous cities of Europe (some of the most extensive systems were found in Berlin, Budapest , Birmingham , Saint Petersburg , Lisbon , London , Manchester , Paris , Kyiv ). The first tram in South America opened in 1858 in Santiago, Chile . The first trams in Australia opened in 1860 in Sydney . Africa's first tram service started in Alexandria on 8 January 1863. The first trams in Asia opened in 1869 in Batavia (Jakarta), Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia) . Limitations of horsecars included

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2332-692: The 1894-built horse tram at Victor Harbor in South Australia . New horse-drawn systems have been established at the Hokkaidō Museum in Japan and also in Disneyland . A horse-tram route in Polish gmina Mrozy , first built in 1902, was reopened in 2012. The first mechanical trams were powered by steam . Generally, there were two types of steam tram. The first and most common had a small steam locomotive (called

2438-420: The 1980s. The history of passenger trams, streetcars and trolley systems, began in the early nineteenth century. It can be divided into several distinct periods defined by the principal means of power used. Precursors to the tramway included the wooden or stone wagonways that were used in central Europe to transport mine carts with unflanged wheels since the 1500s, and the paved limestone trackways designed by

2544-718: The 2020 changes to be made permanent, and for routes 501 and 504 to only operate at weekday peak hours. A November 2022 revision re-added midday service on route 504. Tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in the United States) is a type of urban rail transit consisting of either individual railcars or self-propelled multiple unit trains that run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way . The tramlines or tram networks operated as public transport are called tramways or simply trams/streetcars. Because of their close similarities, trams are commonly included in

2650-475: The Australian state of Queensland between 1909 and 1939. Stockholm , Sweden, had a steam tram line at the island of Södermalm between 1887 and 1901. Tram engines usually had modifications to make them suitable for street running in residential areas. The wheels, and other moving parts of the machinery, were usually enclosed for safety reasons and to make the engines quieter. Measures were often taken to prevent

2756-457: The B-branch tracks, running along Commonwealth Avenue to Packard's Corner , where it branched off onto Brighton Avenue. A $ 314,300 reconstruction of the busway and $ 342,000 in station modernization work began in 1967. The new busway shelter had red brick walls with a fluted concrete-and-plastic canopy; an escalator from mezzanine to busway was added. The busway work was finished in April 1968, with

2862-458: The Back Bay as a break from its rough reputation. The work was originally to be completed in early 2007, but delays mounted. A lawsuit settled by the MBTA in 2006 required changes to how accessibility renovations were designed. Previously undocumented utilities delayed excavation, and keeping the station open during construction presented difficulties. Two sets of stairs had to be kept open during

2968-732: The Brighton Horse Railroad, a horse car street railway , began in 1858. The line began at Central Square , Cambridge , and crossed the Charles River on the River Street bridge into Allston . It continued through Union Square along Cambridge Street and Washington Street to Oak Square in the center of Brighton . The line was operated by the Union Street Railway, a holding company for the Cambridge Railroad system. After

3074-457: The British newspaper Newcastle Daily Chronicle reported that, "A large number of London's discarded horse tramcars have been sent to Lincolnshire where they are used as sleeping rooms for potato pickers ". Horses continued to be used for light shunting well into the 20th century, and many large metropolitan lines lasted into the early 20th century. New York City had a regular horsecar service on

3180-547: The COVID-19 pandemic. Weekday-only routes 502 and 503 were suspended, while routes 501 and 504 operated on reduced schedules. Route 504 began operating via Copley on most trips – operating on surface streets between Copley Square and downtown Boston – to replace route 502. It also resumed looping around Newton Corner on outbound trips. Route 501 was suspended from June 2020 to August 31, 2020; upon its return, it began serving Copley Square as well. The May 2022 network proposals called for

3286-744: The Entertainment Centre, and work is progressing on further extensions. Sydney re-introduced trams (or light rail) on 31 August 1997. A completely new system, known as G:link , was introduced on the Gold Coast, Queensland , on 20 July 2014. The Newcastle Light Rail opened in February 2019, while the Canberra light rail opened on 20 April 2019. This is the first time that there have been trams in Canberra, even though Walter Burley Griffin 's 1914–1920 plans for

Green Line A branch - Misplaced Pages Continue

3392-568: The Irish coach builder John Stephenson , in New York City which began service in the year 1832. The New York and Harlem Railroad's Fourth Avenue Line ran along the Bowery and Fourth Avenue in New York City. It was followed in 1835 by the New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad in New Orleans, Louisiana , which still operates as the St. Charles Streetcar Line . Other American cities did not follow until

3498-553: The M.T.A. in October 1961, Watertown riders had to pay a double fare to continue downtown after the bustitution . This continued until January 1, 2007, when a new fare structure added free transfers when using a CharlieCard . Additional short turn trips between Oak Square and Kenmore at rush hour were cut in June 1971, and restored for mornings only in 1987. Morning-only Brighton Center–Kenmore trips were operated from September 1999 to June 2013. On September 1, 2008, due to overcrowding on

3604-534: The Netherlands. The first trams in Bendigo, Australia, in 1892, were battery-powered, but within as little as three months they were replaced with horse-drawn trams. In New York City some minor lines also used storage batteries. Then, more recently during the 1950s, a longer battery-operated tramway line ran from Milan to Bergamo . In China there is a Nanjing battery Tram line and has been running since 2014. In 2019,

3710-755: The North Sydney line from 1886 to 1900, and the King Street line from 1892 to 1905. In Dresden , Germany, in 1901 an elevated suspended cable car following the Eugen Langen one-railed floating tram system started operating. Cable cars operated on Highgate Hill in North London and Kennington to Brixton Hill in South London. They also worked around "Upper Douglas" in the Isle of Man from 1897 to 1929 (cable car 72/73

3816-720: The Romans for heavy horse and ox-drawn transportation. By the 1700s, paved plateways with cast iron rails were introduced in England for transporting coal, stone or iron ore from the mines to the urban factories and docks. The world's first passenger train or tram was the Swansea and Mumbles Railway , in Wales , UK. The British Parliament passed the Mumbles Railway Act in 1804, and horse-drawn service started in 1807. The service closed in 1827, but

3922-413: The Second Street Cable Railroad, which operated from 1885 to 1889, and the Temple Street Cable Railway, which operated from 1886 to 1898. From 1885 to 1940, the city of Melbourne , Victoria, Australia operated one of the largest cable systems in the world, at its peak running 592 trams on 75 kilometres (47 mi) of track. There were also two isolated cable lines in Sydney , New South Wales, Australia;

4028-547: The Turnpike was initiated. In September 1968, the 61 was changed to originate at Brighton Center, from where it ran through Oak Square and entered the Turnpike at Newton Corner. Route 62 Watertown-Copley was started at the same time. In June 1970, the routes were renumbered from 4, 61, and 62 to 304, 301, and 302 to reflect their express routings. (The 300-series numbers had been used by ex- Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway bus routes in Lawrence, briefly under MBTA control, in 1968). In March 1974, route 301 buses operating opposite

4134-562: The UK at Lytham St Annes , Trafford Park , Manchester (1897–1908) and Neath , Wales (1896–1920). Comparatively little has been published about gas trams. However, research on the subject was carried out for an article in the October 2011 edition of "The Times", the historical journal of the Australian Association of Timetable Collectors, later renamed the Australian Timetable Association. The world's first electric tram line operated in Sestroretsk near Saint Petersburg invented and tested by inventor Fyodor Pirotsky in 1875. Later, using

4240-410: The UK took passengers from Fintona railway station to Fintona Junction one mile away on the main Omagh to Enniskillen railway in Northern Ireland. The tram made its last journey on 30 September 1957 when the Omagh to Enniskillen line closed. The "van" is preserved at the Ulster Transport Museum . Horse-drawn trams still operate on the 1876-built Douglas Bay Horse Tramway on the Isle of Man , and at

4346-407: The Watertown carhouse. The electrified overhead wire was finally removed in March 1994. Additional overhead infrastructure, as well as the tracks themselves, were mainly removed by the end of the summer of 1996 as part of a resurfacing project on North Beacon Street. Remnants of the tracks are still visible today in the Watertown Yard bus terminal (no longer used for railcar maintenance), as well as

Green Line A branch - Misplaced Pages Continue

4452-508: The advantages over earlier forms of transit was the low rolling resistance of metal wheels on steel rails, allowing the trams to haul a greater load for a given effort. Another factor which contributed to the rise of trams was the high total cost of ownership of horses. Electric trams largely replaced animal power in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Improvements in other vehicles such as buses led to decline of trams in early to mid 20th century. However, trams have seen resurgence since

4558-474: The baseball season, which was prolonged when the Red Sox went to the playoffs in 2005, 2006, 2008, and 2009. The metal frame of the shelter was erected in 2006, but the fasteners for the glass had to be redesigned, delaying progress by several months. By November 2007, the project was projected to be completed in late 2008 – almost two years late – with the cost increased to $ 32 million. The station ultimately became accessible in January 2010. The total cost

4664-460: The busiest tram line in Europe, with a tram running once per minute at rush hour. Bucharest and Belgrade ran a regular service from 1894. Ljubljana introduced its tram system in 1901 – it closed in 1958. Oslo had the first tramway in Scandinavia , starting operation on 2 March 1894. The first electric tramway in Australia was a Sprague system demonstrated at the 1888 Melbourne Centennial Exhibition in Melbourne ; afterwards, this

4770-439: The capital then in the planning stage did propose a Canberra tram system. In Japan, the Kyoto Electric railroad was the first tram system, starting operation in 1895. By 1932, the network had grown to 82 railway companies in 65 cities, with a total network length of 1,479 km (919 mi). By the 1960s the tram had generally died out in Japan. Two rare but significant alternatives were conduit current collection , which

4876-458: The car up the hill at a steady pace, unlike a low-powered steam or horse-drawn car. Cable cars do have wheel brakes and track brakes , but the cable also helps restrain the car to going downhill at a constant speed. Performance in steep terrain partially explains the survival of cable cars in San Francisco. The San Francisco cable cars , though significantly reduced in number, continue to provide regular transportation service, in addition to being

4982-402: The cars to coast by inertia, for example when crossing another cable line. The cable then had to be "picked up" to resume progress, the whole operation requiring precise timing to avoid damage to the cable and the grip mechanism. Breaks and frays in the cable, which occurred frequently, required the complete cessation of services over a cable route while the cable was repaired. Due to overall wear,

5088-449: The cavity was filled with dirt and concrete. Bus service to Kenmore began in 1933 as replacement for the Ipswich Street line . Buses originally stopped at the curb, which required them to cut across multiple lanes of traffic to loop from inbound to outbound. In early 1939, the Chamber of Commerce proposed a busway in the center of the square, with direct access to the station mezzanine below. Mayor Maurice J. Tobin initially supported

5194-409: The city's hurricane-prone location, which would have resulted in frequent damage to an electrical supply system. Although Portland, Victoria promotes its tourist tram as being a cable car it actually operates using a diesel motor. The tram, which runs on a circular route around the town of Portland, uses dummies and salons formerly used on the Melbourne cable tramway system and since restored. In

5300-489: The classic tramway built in the early 20th century with the tram system operating in mixed traffic, and the later type which is most often associated with the tram system having its own right of way. Tram systems that have their own right of way are often called light rail but this does not always hold true. Though these two systems differ in their operation, their equipment is much the same. Kenmore station Kenmore station has four tracks serving two island platforms ;

5406-416: The combined coal consumption of the stationary compressor and the onboard steam boiler. The Trieste–Opicina tramway in Trieste operates a hybrid funicular tramway system. Conventional electric trams are operated in street running and on reserved track for most of their route. However, on one steep segment of track, they are assisted by cable tractors, which push the trams uphill and act as brakes for

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5512-441: The company constructed the line in 1898. After further disagreements between its parent company Newton and Boston Street Railway and the BERy about operations, the line opened in 1900. Through service on the line between Watertown and the Tremont Street subway, acting as a branch of the Newton-Brighton line, began on November 18, 1900. The BERy took over the line from the Newton and Boston in 1907. The portion west of Market Street

5618-430: The downhill run. For safety, the cable tractors are always deployed on the downhill side of the tram vehicle. Similar systems were used elsewhere in the past, notably on the Queen Anne Counterbalance in Seattle and the Darling Street wharf line in Sydney. In the mid-20th century many tram systems were disbanded, replaced by buses, trolleybuses , automobiles or rapid transit . The General Motors streetcar conspiracy

5724-446: The engines from emitting visible smoke or steam. Usually the engines used coke rather than coal as fuel to avoid emitting smoke; condensers or superheating were used to avoid emitting visible steam. A major drawback of this style of tram was the limited space for the engine, so that these trams were usually underpowered. Steam trams faded out around the 1890s to 1900s, being replaced by electric trams. Another motive system for trams

5830-429: The entire length of cable (typically several kilometres) had to be replaced on a regular schedule. After the development of reliable electrically powered trams, the costly high-maintenance cable car systems were rapidly replaced in most locations. Cable cars remained especially effective in hilly cities, since their nondriven wheels did not lose traction as they climbed or descended a steep hill. The moving cable pulled

5936-399: The evening peak hour. The Blandford Street portal, on Commonwealth Avenue west of Kenmore , opened October 23, 1932, marking the last change in the route of the service. In 1941, the line became the first line in Boston to have primary service with the new PCC streetcars, which replaced the Types 4 and 5 cars then in service. In June 1894, the West End applied for city permission to construct

6042-500: The existing Galen Street tracks. During the early part of the 20th century, the line was also used for freight service. The Boylston Street subway was opened to an incline in Kenmore Square on October 3, 1914, with Watertown service via Brighton Center immediately routed into the new tunnel. The first use of high-capacity center-entrance streetcars on the BERy system was as trailers on the Watertown Line in mid-1915. On February 23, 1922, Oak Square short turns were extended to Watertown in

6148-429: The existing tracks on Beacon Street. On June 13, the western terminal was also extended to just shy of Newton Corner (Nonantum Square). On November 8, 1897, Newton service via Commonwealth Avenue began running into the Tremont Street subway . A lengthy Nonantum Square– City Point route via Allston, Coolidge Corner, and Park Square opened on August 4, 1900. On December 9, 1912, service was extended north to Watertown on

6254-439: The fact that any given animal could only work so many hours on a given day, had to be housed, groomed, fed and cared for day in and day out, and produced prodigious amounts of manure, which the streetcar company was charged with storing and then disposing. Since a typical horse pulled a streetcar for about a dozen miles a day and worked for four or five hours, many systems needed ten or more horses in stable for each horsecar. In 1905

6360-403: The full route was increased. Route 57 operates as a busy key bus route , with headways between 10 and 12 minutes at all times (and equal headways on the 57A during peaks). As of 2012, the 57 and 57A combined were ninth-busiest route on the MBTA system, with 10,094 boardings on an average weekday. Route 57 is based at the Albany Street Bus Facility during weekday rush hours and midday service, and

6466-402: The inner part of the route, the MBTA began operating the 57A Oak Square–Kenmore station short turn of the 57 during weekday rush hours. Approximately every other trip operated as a 57A during rush hours; during off-peak hours and weekends all buses ran the full-length route. Oak Square short turn service was discontinued in December 2020 except for a small number of school-day trips; frequency on

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6572-514: The late 1880s, the West End Street Railway consolidated the horse railroads, including the Cambridge Railroad, under its control. The West End opened its first electric streetcar line on January 3, 1889. The line ran between the Allston Carhouse (just north of Union Square) and Park Square via Harvard Street, Beacon Street, Massachusetts Avenue, and Boylston Street. Electric service was extended to Oak Square on January 13. Electric service between Watertown and Mount Auburn began on December 12, 1893;

6678-570: The late 1970s and 1980s. Midday and Saturday service on the 302 began in January 1983; in December 1989, the midday and Saturday buses added a Copley Square stop as route 304 Watertown-Downtown via Copley. In September 1996, the routes were renumbered as the 501, 502, and 504. In January 2005, the 503 Brighton Center–Copley Square route was inaugurated. Inbound route 503 afternoon trips began operating via Cambridge Street in March 2014; route 501 followed suit in March 2019. The 2018–19 system review found that routes 501 and 503 had too-close stop spacing on

6784-444: The late 19th and early 20th centuries a number of systems in various parts of the world employed trams powered by gas, naphtha gas or coal gas in particular. Gas trams are known to have operated between Alphington and Clifton Hill in the northern suburbs of Melbourne , Australia (1886–1888); in Berlin and Dresden , Germany; in Estonia (1921–1951); between Jelenia Góra , Cieplice , and Sobieszów in Poland (from 1897); and in

6890-402: The late 19th and early 20th centuries. There was one particular hazard associated with trams powered from a trolley pole off an overhead line on the early electrified systems. Since the tram relies on contact with the rails for the current return path, a problem arises if the tram is derailed or (more usually) if it halts on a section of track that has been heavily sanded by a previous tram, and

6996-519: The letter "A" because it was the northernmost branch. Turnback loops existed at Union Square (via Cambridge Street and Harvard Avenue) and Oak Square, as well as the Watertown terminal. Additionally, from 1915 to January 15, 1962, a loop existed at Braves Field , for special events along the part of the line concurrent with the Commonwealth Avenue line . The opening of the Riverside Line in 1959 caused streetcar lines in Cambridge running out of Harvard Square to be converted to trackless trolley , and

7102-498: The line was double-tracked later in the decade. On August 18, 1896, the Western Avenue line was double-tracked and electrified. It was the last line that ran over the West Boston Bridge to be electrified; until then, its cars were hauled by horses to Central Square, then attached to electric cars from Allston for the remainder of the trip into Boston. On May 18, 1896, tracks opened from Union Square east along North Beacon Street and Commonwealth Avenue to Kenmore Square , merging with

7208-494: The modernization completed in 1970. The work included the addition of abstract murals depicting neighborhood scenes on the station signs. The station was closed for two months in 1996, after the Muddy River overflowed its banks, completely submerging the platform and some of the mezzanine. During the closure, substitute service was provided by commuter rail trains between Riverside and South Station. A similar flood previously occurred on October 6, 1962, requiring closure of

7314-475: The necessity of overhead wire and a trolley pole for street cars and railways. While at the University of Denver he conducted experiments which established that multiple unit powered cars were a better way to operate trains and trolleys. Electric tramways spread to many European cities in the 1890s, such as: Sarajevo built a citywide system of electric trams in 1895. Budapest established its tramway system in 1887, and its ring line has grown to be

7420-554: The newly freed PCC streetcars were reassigned to the Riverside branch. However, the 1940s-era PCC fleet was aging, and maintaining five different types of PCCs complicated mechanical work. By the late 1960s, wear and tear and a lack of replacements caused a shortage of Green Line streetcars, and the MBTA announced the closure of the A branch on a "trial" basis. The A branch was chosen for closure because much of its route consisted of street running sections from Watertown to Packards Corner, and in 1964 there had been objections to keeping

7526-422: The northern corridor (rather than requiring a transfer at Kenmore), but was ruled too costly and less safe compared to the replacement bus service. The 57 Watertown Yard–Kenmore station bus was initiated in 1969 as replacement service for the A branch. The 57 follows the same routing from Watertown Yard to Kenmore except for the Newton Corner rotary, where inbound buses follow traffic rather than operating in

7632-449: The northern platform serves outbound passengers on all lines, while the southern platform serves all inbound trains. The B branch uses the inner tracks, while the C and D branches use the outer tracks. West of the station, the B branch crosses the C/D branches at a flying junction . The C and D branches split at a flat junction (Beacon Junction) further to the southwest. The Kenmore Loop connects

7738-523: The oldest operating electric tramway in the world. Also in 1883, Mödling and Hinterbrühl Tram was opened near Vienna in Austria. It was the first tram in the world in regular service that was run with electricity served by an overhead line with pantograph current collectors . The Blackpool Tramway was opened in Blackpool, UK on 29 September 1885 using conduit collection along Blackpool Promenade. This system

7844-572: The outer section of the route, inconsistent afternoon peak schedules, and poor reliability. No major issues were found with routes 502 and 504. The MBTA recommended that outbound route 502 and 504 buses operate directly to Galen Street, rather than looping the Newton Corner rotary to serve those stops. This was implemented on September 1, 2019; outbound route 501 and 503 buses began serving the Newton Corner stops at that time. Most MBTA service began operating on Saturday schedules on March 17, 2020, due to

7950-399: The outer tracks, allowing inbound C and D trains to reverse direction without entering the main subway. The fare mezzanine is located over the middle of the platforms, with stairs and escalators from the platforms. Passageways lead to the exits on the north and south sides of Kenmore Square. An escalator and stairs lead to the busway, which is in the middle of the square. One elevator connects

8056-472: The peak direction began using the pre-1968 routing on Cambridge Street. Inbound morning buses reverted to the Newton Corner routing in June 1974, but outbound afternoon buses continued to travel via Union Square. Some afternoon buses switched back to the Cambridge Street route in September 1976 and September 1978. All three routes had a number of minor changes to their downtown and Copley Square routings in

8162-489: The plan, but soon refused to allow the city to pay for it. The proposal was raised again in 1943, and Tobin awarded a $ 24,063 contract on June 28. The busway, which had a concrete platform and a wooden shelter, opened along with a direct stairway to the mezzanine on November 4, 1943. Service on the Highland branch (now the D branch ) began on July 4, 1959. Until its shutdown in 1969, the A branch to Watertown Yard shared

8268-617: The poor paving of the streets in American cities which made them unsuitable for horsebuses , which were then common on the well-paved streets of European cities. Running the horsecars on rails allowed for a much smoother ride. There are records of a street railway running in Baltimore as early as 1828, however the first authenticated streetcar in America, was the New York and Harlem Railroad developed by

8374-524: The route were built as horsecar lines between 1858 and 1880. The segment between Union Square and Oak Square was electrified in 1889 as part of the Beacon Street line . By 1896, electric routes ran from Newton Corner (Nonantum Square) to downtown Boston via Brighton and via Watertown. Brighton service was extended to Watertown in 1912. The line was operated until 1969, when it was replaced by MBTA bus route 57, though it remained in service for non-revenue moves to Watertown Yard until 1994. Construction of

8480-525: The service past Newton Corner. Streetcars last ran on June 20, 1969, with the route 57 bus beginning the next day. The legacy tracks remained after 1969, being used for several decades to allow Green Line streetcars to reach the Watertown Carhouse for maintenance. The last use of the line was in 1993, when the fleet of PCC streetcars used for the Ashmont–Mattapan high-speed line was refurbished at

8586-713: The south entrance to the station was moved inside the Boston University -funded Hotel Commonwealth during its 2002-03 construction. A $ 22.7 million construction contract was ultimately issued on November 10, 2004, with construction starting in January 2005. Temporary bus stops on Beacon Street were used during construction. Work included construction of the busway shelter, raising the platforms, and addition of three elevators and three escalators. The project also involved streetscape improvements with trees and brick sidewalks, intended to make Kenmore Square resemble Beacon Hill and

8692-440: The south sidewalk to the fare mezzanine level, another connects the fare lobby to the outbound platform, and a third connects the busway to the inbound platform via the fare lobby. As the last station in the subway before it splits into surface lines, Kenmore is the terminal for MBTA bus routes 8 , 19 , 57 , 60 ,   and   65 . During track work and service disruptions on the three branch lines, substitute bus service

8798-551: The station for five days. In 2019, the MBTA installed steel doors at the Fenway portal to prevent future flooding. The MBTA began its Light Rail Accessibility Program in 1996. Design for renovations to make Kenmore accessible began in May 1996, with construction then expected to last from 2002 to 2004. Preliminary designs for a conical glass-covered busway shelter to replace the old rectangular shelter were released in 2001. Separately,

8904-568: The station from its opening day. The Kenmore cutback was replaced with a pocket track at Blandford Street . The Commonwealth Avenue line was planned to be eventually converted to use high-platform metro stock (like the other subway lines), and was to move into a tunnel under Commonwealth Avenue, while the Beacon Street line was to use the short turn loop rather than continuing into the Boylston Street subway. Streetcar passengers would make

9010-575: The streetcar line. The two bus routes were combined in February 1933 to eliminate the transfer; the route is now the route 64 bus . Prior to 1967, when the current letters were assigned to the Green Line 's branches, the Watertown Line was route 69. (Route 57, the line's current number, was originally assigned to Heath Street short-turn trips on the Huntington Avenue line .) The line was assigned

9116-529: The suburban tramway lines around Milan and Padua ; the last Gamba de Legn ("Peg-Leg") tramway ran on the Milan- Magenta -Castano Primo route in late 1957. The other style of steam tram had the steam engine in the body of the tram, referred to as a tram engine (UK) or steam dummy (US). The most notable system to adopt such trams was in Paris. French-designed steam trams also operated in Rockhampton , in

9222-545: The tracks. Siemens later designed his own version of overhead current collection, called the bow collector . One of the first systems to use it was in Thorold, Ontario , opened in 1887, and it was considered quite successful. While this line proved quite versatile as one of the earliest fully functional electric streetcar installations, it required horse-drawn support while climbing the Niagara Escarpment and for two months of

9328-416: The tram and completing the earth return circuit with their body could receive a serious electric shock. If "grounded", the driver was required to jump off the tram (avoiding simultaneous contact with the tram and the ground) and pull down the trolley pole, before allowing passengers off the tram. Unless derailed, the tram could usually be recovered by running water down the running rails from a point higher than

9434-460: The tram loses electrical contact with the rails. In this event, the underframe of the tram, by virtue of a circuit path through ancillary loads (such as interior lighting), is live at the full supply voltage, typically 600 volts DC. In British terminology, such a tram was said to be 'grounded'—not to be confused with the US English use of the term, which means the exact opposite. Any person stepping off

9540-427: The tram, the water providing a conducting bridge between the tram and the rails. With improved technology, this ceased to be an problem. In the 2000s, several companies introduced catenary-free designs: Alstom's Citadis line uses a third rail, Bombardier's PRIMOVE LRV is charged by contactless induction plates embedded in the trackway and CAF URBOS tram uses ultracaps technology As early as 1834, Thomas Davenport ,

9646-804: The wider term light rail , which also includes systems separated from other traffic. Tram vehicles are usually lighter and shorter than main line and rapid transit trains. Most trams use electrical power, usually fed by a pantograph sliding on an overhead line ; older systems may use a trolley pole or a bow collector . In some cases, a contact shoe on a third rail is used. If necessary, they may have dual power systems—electricity in city streets and diesel in more rural environments. Occasionally, trams also carry freight . Some trams, known as tram-trains , may have segments that run on mainline railway tracks, similar to interurban systems. The differences between these modes of rail transport are often indistinct, and systems may combine multiple features. One of

9752-409: The winter when hydroelectricity was not available. It continued in service in its original form into the 1950s. Sidney Howe Short designed and produced the first electric motor that operated a streetcar without gears. The motor had its armature direct-connected to the streetcar 's axle for the driving force. Short pioneered "use of a conduit system of concealed feed" thereby eliminating

9858-524: The world's first hydrogen fuel cell vehicle tramcar at an assembly facility in Qingdao . The chief engineer of the CSR subsidiary CSR Sifang Co Ltd. , Liang Jianying, said that the company is studying how to reduce the running costs of the tram. Trams have been used for two main purposes: for carrying passengers and for carrying cargo. There are several types of passenger tram: There are two main types of tramways,

9964-401: The world. Earlier electric trains proved difficult or unreliable and experienced limited success until the second half of the 1880s, when new types of current collectors were developed. Siemens' line, for example, provided power through a live rail and a return rail, like a model train , limiting the voltage that could be used, and delivering electric shocks to people and animals crossing

10070-665: Was a case study of the decline of trams in the United States. In the 21st century, trams have been re-introduced in cities where they had been closed down for decades (such as Tramlink in London), or kept in heritage use (such as Spårväg City in Stockholm). Most trams made since the 1990s (such as the Bombardier Flexity series and Alstom Citadis ) are articulated low-floor trams with features such as regenerative braking . In March 2015, China South Rail Corporation (CSR) demonstrated

10176-519: Was also cut to an Oak Square–Central Square route, and later to a Union Square–Central Square route. Watertown–Park Street service via North Beacon Street remained. Upon the opening of the Boylston Street subway in October 1914, North Beacon Street service was cut to a Watertown–Union Square shuttle. It was further cut to a North Beacon Street bridge (the Brighton/Watertown line) – Union Square shuttle on June 2, 1917. The North Beacon Street shuttle

10282-529: Was among the only BERy lines never to be double-tracked. The Newton Street Railway (later the Middlesex and Boston Street Railway ) began Waltham –Park Street service via the North Beacon Street line on February 23, 1903. This service was rerouted to Central Square on April 27, 1912, running on Arsenal Street and Western Avenue rather than North Beacon Street. Oak Square–Boston service via Western Avenue

10388-486: Was built by Werner von Siemens who contacted Pirotsky. This was the world's first commercially successful electric tram. It drew current from the rails at first, with overhead wire being installed in 1883. In Britain, Volk's Electric Railway was opened in 1883 in Brighton. This two kilometer line along the seafront, re-gauged to 2 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ( 825 mm ) in 1884, remains in service as

10494-420: Was extended from Park Street to Lechmere, and the existing shuttle services to Lechmere were replaced with Kenmore–Park Street shuttles. The subway station opened on October 23, 1932, replacing the former Kenmore Incline – whose portal archway can still be seen east of Kenmore Square – and the surface station. The Commonwealth Avenue and Beacon Street services – now the B and C branches – were routed through

10600-482: Was installed as a commercial venture operating between the outer Melbourne suburb of Box Hill and the then tourist-oriented country town Doncaster from 1889 to 1896. Electric systems were also built in Adelaide , Ballarat , Bendigo , Brisbane , Fremantle , Geelong , Hobart , Kalgoorlie , Launceston , Leonora , Newcastle , Perth , and Sydney . By the 1970s, the only full tramway system remaining in Australia

10706-416: Was replaced with a bus route on February 23, 1922. A Watertown–Arsenal Street bridge bus route, which ran on North Beacon between Watertown and School Street, was briefly run in 1925–26. The Central Square–Union Square line was rerouted via Western Avenue and Soldiers Field Road on December 14, 1925, with a new bus route on River Street. The bus route was extended to Union Square on September 11, 1926, replacing

10812-548: Was restarted in 1860, again using horses. It was worked by steam from 1877, and then, from 1929, by very large (106-seat) electric tramcars, until closure in 1960. The Swansea and Mumbles Railway was something of a one-off however, and no street tramway appeared in Britain until 1860 when one was built in Birkenhead by the American George Francis Train . Street railways developed in America before Europe, due to

10918-616: Was tested in San Francisco , in 1873. Part of its success is attributed to the development of an effective and reliable cable grip mechanism, to grab and release the moving cable without damage. The second city to operate cable trams was Dunedin , from 1881 to 1957. The most extensive cable system in the US was built in Chicago in stages between 1859 and 1892. New York City developed multiple cable car lines, that operated from 1883 to 1909. Los Angeles also had several cable car lines, including

11024-616: Was the Melbourne tram system. However, there were also a few single lines remaining elsewhere: the Glenelg tram line , connecting Adelaide to the beachside suburb of Glenelg , and tourist trams in the Victorian Goldfields cities of Bendigo and Ballarat. In recent years the Melbourne system, generally recognised as the largest urban tram network in the world, has been considerably modernised and expanded. The Adelaide line has been extended to

11130-411: Was the cable car, which was pulled along a fixed track by a moving steel cable, the cable usually running in a slot below the street level. The power to move the cable was normally provided at a "powerhouse" site a distance away from the actual vehicle. The London and Blackwall Railway , which opened for passengers in east London, England, in 1840 used such a system. The first practical cable car line

11236-851: Was widely used in London, Washington, D.C., and New York City, and the surface contact collection method, used in Wolverhampton (the Lorain system), Torquay and Hastings in the UK (the Dolter stud system), and in Bordeaux , France (the ground-level power supply system). The convenience and economy of electricity resulted in its rapid adoption once the technical problems of production and transmission of electricity were solved. Electric trams largely replaced animal power and other forms of motive power including cable and steam, in

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