Green Line
The
Green Line is Boston's major trolley line. It has 4 branches: the B
line to Boston College, the C line to Cleveland Circle, the D line to
Riverside (originally the Highland branch of the Boston & Albany
Railroad), and the E line to Heath Street. Service on the A line to
Watertown was temporarily suspended in the 1960's, and the remaining
tracks ripped up in the late 1990's. Traveling inbound to Boston, the
first three lines enter the Boylston Street Subway at Kenmore Square
station, while the E line enters the Huntington Avenue Subway, which
joins the Boylston Street Subway at Copley station. The Boylston Street
Subway enters the Tremont Street Subway, the oldest in North America,
at Boylston station. Some trains terminate at Government Center
station, while the rest continue to the Haymarket incline, where they
go onto the Lechmere Elevated to the end of the line at Lechmere
(located in Lechmere Square in Cambridge). For a map of the Green Line,
click here.
Some D trains originate and terminate at Reservoir, which is also
connected to the Cleveland Circle terminus of the C line. Trains on
both lines use the Reservoir shop and yard for turning around and
laying over between runs.
There are three types of cars on the Green Line. The oldest are the Boeing-Vertol LRV's, which entered service starting in 1976. Originally there were 144 of them (3400-3543), 55 of which were rebuilt in 1996-7 by Amerail. All of them have been retired except for three that have been converted to work cars. Next are the Type 7's, built by the Japanese firm Kinki-Sharyo, which came in two groups: the first 100 (3600-3699) were delivered between 1986 and 1988, and the last 20 (3700-3719) were delivered in 1997. Newest are the Type 8's, built by the Italian firm Breda starting in the late 1990's. The latter have had some major breaking-in problems, which resulted in them being taken out of service for over a year in 2001-2. 100 Type 8's (3800-3899) have been ordered; about 4 dozen were delivered before the T declared them to be too troublesome and cancelled the rest of the order in 2004. After some negotiating with Breda, the T agreed to accept the remaining cars that had been built, along with the shells of the unfinished ones. The former are being tested and placed into operation a few at a time through 2006.
Tremont Street Subway The first subway in America, this opened on September 1, 1897. |
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Lechmere El The Lechmere Elevated and East Cambridge Viaduct were built in 1912. In 2004 the section from the old Haymarket portal to Science Park was demolished and replaced with a new subway and incline to Science Park. |
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| The Outer Branches | |||
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| *Links to gallery on Picasa |
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