Red Line (MBTA)

The Red Line is the newest of the four MBTA subway lines in the Boston, Massachusetts metro area. It has its northwestern terminus at the Alewife station near Fresh Pond Parkway and Route 2 in West Cambridge, meets the Green Line at Park Street and the Orange Line at Downtown Crossing, and splits into two branches south of South Boston. One branch terminates at Braintree, and the other at Ashmont in Dorchester with a trolley extension to Mattapan.

History

The Red Line gets its name from crimson, the school color of Harvard University. Until 1985, when it was extended to Alewife, the Red Line terminated at Harvard Square.

The Red Line was originally known as the Cambridge-Dorchester Tunnel. The segment from Harvard to Park Street Under opened first, with a surface-elevated section crossing the Longfellow Bridge, on March 23, 1912, followed quickly with underground extensions southward to Washington Street and South Station by late 1916. Service was extended to South Boston in 1917 and 1918. Completion of the Dorchester Branch did not resume until the late 1920s, with Ashmont Station opening September 1, 1928. The Braintree Branch (also called the South Shore Line) opened exactly 43 years later, in 1971, over the former right of way of the Old Colony Railroad, and was finally extended to its current terminus in Braintree on March 22, 1980.

The Northwest Extension opened as far as Davis Square on December 8, 1984, and to Alewife Station on March 30, 1985. Platforms on older stations were lengthened later in the 1980s to allow six car trains. During the expansion, the MBTA invested in an Arts on the line public art program. Some of the works are listed in the station stop articles.

Station listing

Main line

Just prior to JFK/UMass, the Red Line separates into two branches which operate on separate platforms at JFK/UMass. Just south of the station, the two branches divide as described below.

Dorchester Branch

Diverging from JFK/UMass:

Braintree Branch

Diverging from JFK/UMass:

Accessibility

Most, but not all, Red Line stations are wheelchair accessible. See MBTA accessibility.

Rolling stock

Red Line trains consist of mated pairs of Electrical Multiple Unit cars powered from a 600 VDC third rail. Two basic types of cars are in use today:

• Three series of older aluminum-bodied cars built by Pullman-Standard and United Technologies. The older two series of this batch, the 01500 and 01600 series, were built by Pullman in 1969-1970. The 1700 series was built by UTDC in 1988. These cars seat 62 to 64 customers and approximately 132 cars are in active service. All cars in these series are painted white with red trim and use manually-operated exterior signs.

All three groups of these older cars (units 1500 through 1757) use traditional DC traction motors with electromechanical controls manufactured by Westinghouse and can inter-operate among the three series. The 1500 and 1700 series cars could operate as singletons, but in practice, are always operated as mated pairs. The 1600 series could only operate as mated pairs.

• One series of newer stainless steel-bodied cars built built by Bombardier from components manufactured in Canada and assembled in Barre, Vermont. These cars seat 50 passengers and 86 cars are in active service. An automatic voice synthesis system provides station announcements; the announcements are also displayed on LED signs in each car. Train operation is automated. These cars are stainless steel with red trim and use yellow LCD exterior signs.

Known as the 1800 series, they were built in 1993-1994. These newer cars (units 1800 through 1885) use modern AC traction motors with solid state controls manufactured by General Electric, can only operate as mated pairs, and can not interoperate with the older three series of cars.

Rolling stock is stored and maintained at the South Bay Yard, near the Broadway station in South Boston. An old, unused double-portal from the yard is immediately adjacent to the Broadway station across Broadway and is still visible from the Broadway bridge; this was formerly used by streetcars.

Culture and trivia

• In 1944, Tom Lehrer wrote a song called Boston, (a parody of the song Mother) whose lyrics list stops on the Red Line beginning with "H" is for my alma mater, Hahvid..., and ending with Put them all together, they spell...HCKC...PW...Which is just about what Boston means to me!

• The tunnels of the Red Line have a cameo in the H. P. Lovecraft story At the Mountains of Madness, in which a character rattles off the stops from South Station to Harvard to calm himself as a nameless horror chases him through a cave in Antarctica.

• At the Harvard station (and no-where else on the main branch of the Red Line), the electronic announcer on the newer (Bombardier-built) trains makes a special announcement: "No smoking, please!"

External links

• MBTA official Red Line map

References

• Changes to Transit Service in the MBTA district (PDF)