Trolley Thursday 10/29/20 - Charlie on the MTA

Talk to any musically-minded rail enthusiast and you'll be met with plenty of hits that celebrate the colorful history and identity of America's railroads. From bittersweet ballads like Arlo Guthrie's "City of New Orleans" to joyful hobo songs like the "Wabash Cannonball", it seems all of America's railroads has its identity and popularity set in musical form. Oddly, the same cannot be said for street railways; perhaps it's their mundane nature that keeps them from being romanticized in song, or it's the fact that Meet Me In St. Louis' famous "Trolley Song" is enough to fill the nostalgic void. However, in the City of Boston, there is one song that's lived on in fame, and infamy, about what was once one of the most confusing fare systems ever implemented on a street railroad. On today's Trolley Thursday, make sure you take along an extra dime as we look at the odd and colorful history of Boston's most famous subway song: "Charlie on the MTA."

Trolley Thursday 10/27/20 - Notable Streetcars and Rapid Transit of Boston

 While Boston has had a fantastic and varied streetcar history, possessing both the oldest subway in America and some of the longest-running revenue streetcar lines in the world, one of the biggest oversights we've had this month is discussing just how varied and unique some of Boston's streetcars actually are. We already touched on the differences between heavy- and light-rail systems, so now that we've established where these cars have run (and still do), we can dig deep and see what sets Boston's streetcar fleet apart from the rest of America. Climb aboard and indulge in your inner nerd as we excitedly discuss the different types of streetcars to grace the Boston Elevated Railway (BERy) and the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (better known, of course, as the MBTA). 

Trolley Thursday 10/22/20 - The Mattapan-Ashmont High-Speed Line

As we've gone through the many avenues of streetcar history, we've seen lines that've never closed since their inception, lines that were returned from the dead with brand new technology, and many many many heritage streetcar lines. What we haven't talked about yet is such an outlier it seemingly only exists in Southern Boston. To my knowledge, and to my editor's, it's the only revenue (non-heritage) streetcar service in America that still runs with heritage equipment. Why is this "Hooterville" streetcar so unique a branchline, both on the MBTA and in America? Why hasn't it been closed? And more importantly, what makes it a "high speed line"? All of these questions and more will be answered in today's Trolley Thursday, all about the Mattapan-Ashmont High Speed Line!

Trolley Tuesday 10/6/20 - The Boston Elevated Railway

Today, Boston's North Station is home to the mighty nest of Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics, TD Gardens, which sits directly atop one of the city's most prestigious and famous railway terminals, North Station. Not only is this area still the hub of rail transit in Boston for Amtrak, MBTA, and the Green and Orange Line subways, but in 2004, it played host to the final moments of one of the city's most beloved (or maligned) city transit services. On June 25, 2004, the last "streetcar" service along the Washington Street Elevated entered North Station and closed yet another chapter of century-old history in the Hub of the Universe. Today, we'll look back on how the Boston Elevated Railway both captivated and caused distress for the City's people, and why it still deserves to be remembered.