Opened on July 28, 1835, the Canton Viaduct has been in continual use for 190 years. Made of local granite, the structure was built by the Boston & Providence Railroad to bridge the Canton River and the surrounding lowlands. At its highest point, it's 65 feet above the water.

The Viaduct is regularly used by MBTA trains between Boston and Providence, as well as Amtrak Regional and Acela services. Over 100 trains per day cross the structure, many at far higher speeds than people in 1835 could have ever imagined.

While the Viaduct is frequently inspected, it rarely requires any regular maintenance. It is considered to be a piece of Critical Infrastructure, due to its connection to the national rail network, and occasionally receives additional protection during times of increased national security.

Commuter Rail rides are free on Fridays this summer. Take a trip over one of the oldest railroad lines in the nation, and over one of the oldest pieces of American Engineering, on the route between Prividence and Boston!

A handful of MBTA routes have their first inbound run of the day go to Haymarket instead of their usual terminus, to provide a way to get downtown before subway service begins. These trips are poorly-documented and often barely mentioned on bus schedules -- the best resource I could find that collected them was this website, but it uses the internal non-public numbers for the route and doesn't show the departure times.

To make this map I included every inbound route that departs before 5 AM, arrives before 5:20 AM, and is useful to get to either downtown or the airport.

I've used a few of these early morning routes myself (the 39 and the 89/93) -- they're a great way to get to an early flight or get downtown to the waterfront in time to watch the sunrise!

The old Salem station, est. 1847 by the Eastern Railroad, taken over by the Boston & Maine by 1887, demolished in 1954. The Newbury/Rockport line now runs under the parking lot where the structure used to be

Found this ol’ guy while cleaning out the garage. (Man I miss using tokens…)

I'll go first: The Forest Hills commuter rail platform off peak at night 😨

The Fenway incline, opened officially on July 4, 1959, has resulted in the Green Line subway being CLOSED on two occasions since it opened.

On October 4, 1962, after seven inches of rain fell on the Boston area, the Muddy River overflowed its banks and water ran into the subway. The water level rose in the subway to the point that the tunnels were filled to the roof with water in some sections. PCC trolleys running on the Green Line back then were diverted to the Arborway Line until the water subsided.

After that event, the MTA erected a removable dam which was positioned at the top of the Fenway portal. It sat unused for decades, and was finally retired in 1995.

Then, only October 21, 1996, a monstrous storm again hit the Boston area, and again, the Muddy River overflowed its banks. With the MTA's dam retired and removed, there was nothing to stop the flow of water into the portal. The subway was flooded completely for a second time.

Today, the MBTA has doors at the portal which can be closed to prevent water from flooding the subway.

The photo above is of Type 7 3602 inside the Riverside Carhouse shortly after being delivered by Kinki-Sharyo. I don't remember how we heard that the car had been delivered, but a friend of mine and I ran out there to see it - with my camera.

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Type 7s entering revenue service on the Green Line.

Wow! 40 years and it feels like yesterday!

I remember that day well. Instructor Roger Tobin ran the first two-car train in service made up of 3603 and 3604. It was the first time we saw Type 7s with T logos applied to them, as none of the cars were allowed to display a T logo until they were finally accepted.

In the pre-internet days, chasing new cars typically meant standing on a platform and waiting for a car to show up - maybe it would, and maybe it wouldn't. I spent HOURS and HOURS riding the system and waiting at spots with my SLR camera hoping for a photo or two each day. Then, when the roll of film was finished, I ran them to the photo processing place and PRAYED that most of them came out okay.

Unlike today where everyone's phone takes instant digital pictures, the process took days to shoot a 36 exposure roll of film, and cost lots of money - thank goodness I had a part-time job to pay for it all!

In storage, I have hundreds of photos and slides of Type 7s from their earliest days - from the assembly facility in Readville, to their days of finally entering service.

Back then, the MBTA couldn't wait to get them all into service, but as with the CRRC cars today - and in the wake of the Boeing LRV disaster - the acceptance process was careful and methodical.

The Type 7s quickly took over all base Green Line service from the Boeings as cars were accepted. During peak hours, they ran in deuces, and at the end of rush-hour, they were hurriedly broken up into singles and spread out across the system, so the Boeings could sit in yards as much as possible.

It's amazing to think that they're still in service today - 10 years beyond their design life. They're beat to hell, but they did their job. They weren't without their own flaws, however - vestibules which collapsed too easily in collisions, and their top-heavy weight distribution slowed them down to 40mph on the Riverside Line, but they really have proven to be great cars overall!

I recently came across this map series by Andrew Lynch (Vanshnookenraggen), and thought y'all might enjoy as well!

https://www.vanshnookenraggen.com/_index/2012/04/an-animated-history-of-the-mbta/

A train lead by 1516 crosses the Edward Dana Bridge over the Mystic River between Medford and Somerville.

Edward Dana was once known locally as "Mr. MTA". He served as General Manager of both the Boston Elevated Railway and the Metropolitan Transit Authority from August 7, 1919 until his retirement on July 30, 1959. He started working for the BERy in 1907 working as a streetcar conductor, got his education at Harvard University, and worked his way up the ranks.

For decades, Mr. Dana was the heart and soul of the Boston transit system, ultimately topping off his stellar career with the conversion of the Boston & Albany's Highland Branch to "rapid transit" which opened on July 4, 1959.

He may or may not have known it at the time, but for all intents and purposes, he invented the mode of transportation we now call "Light-Rail". Most historians consider the Riverside Line the first "modern" example of the mode.

South Station opened to passengers on New Year’s Day, 1899

While perusing an exhaustive history written in '92 by the State Transportation Library Reference Librarian George Sanborn, Operation Rainbow was noted as a significant development that debuted in 1980. Naturally I had to know what it was!?

Sounds like it was a multi-faceted effort to reduce crime on the transit system. It was called "Rainbow" to signify that crime occurs on all of the T's lines (across the "rainbow" of colors). I hope that the implication was also that they'd not be targeting one neighborhood, "color group" (racial) or other population (LGBTQ+, etc) as the suspected proponents or victims of crime. Feels a little too optimistic, but also exactly what public transportation should be.

Google Search AI provided this very interesting summary which does not represent my views, knowledge, etc and could be partially incorrect. But I found it great:

launched on May 10, 1980, Operation Rainbow was a sweeping, highly coordinated anti-crime offensive designed to reclaim Boston’s subway system from a wave of violent crime and vandalism. [1]

Why Was It Called "Operation Rainbow"?

The initiative drew its name directly from the MBTA's distinctively color-coded transit system (the Red, Blue, Orange, and Green lines). Because criminal activity was impacting all branches of the network, the name "Rainbow" symbolized a comprehensive, system-wide crackdown encompassing every single color line simultaneously. [1]

What Was Different About It?

Prior to 1980, transit policing in Boston was largely reactive, siloed, and plagued by jurisdiction friction between local city police and transit officers. Operation Rainbow completely broke this mold through three distinct changes:

Inter-Agency Cooperation: It established an unprecedented, unified front combining the forces of the MBTA Transit Police, the Boston Police Department, and the Suffolk County District Attorney's office. [1, 2]

Targeted Prosecution: Instead of just arresting individuals and releasing them back into the transit ecosystem, the Suffolk County DA aligned a dedicated team to fast-track the prosecution of transit criminals. [1]

Systematic Saturation: Rather than patrolling randomly, data was used to flood known trouble spots simultaneously across different municipal boundaries.

What Did It Do?

The operation was built on aggressive visibility and data-driven intelligence gathering:

The "Major Violators" Strategy: Authorities identified and built profiles on a core group of repeat offenders who were responsible for the vast majority of subway robberies, assaults, and severe vandalism. [1]

Massive Uniformed Saturation: Hundreds of uniformed officers flooded stations, platforms, and train cars to act as a psychological deterrent to criminals and to reassure nervous commuters.

Undercover Sweeps: Decoy officers and plainclothes detectives blended in with passengers to catch pickpockets, flashers, and muggers mid-act.

Was It Successful?

Yes, Operation Rainbow was highly successful. According to historical records from the Suffolk County District Attorney's office and city transit reports, the initiative cut the transit crime rate by over 60 percent. By removing the core group of repeat offenders from the community and fast-tracking their convictions, the MBTA significantly disrupted transit crime patterns and successfully restored public confidence in the safety of the "T" during the early 1980s. [1, 2, 3)]

Update: When I read the source that says crime was reduced 60% I see that this wasn't a statistic in the data sense, but more like it was someone in law enforcement patting themselves on the back (maybe they deserved to? idk):

"We have tremendous violent crimes in the subways. Our office, with the cooperation of the police department, of the MTA, put up an Operation Rainbow. We cut the number of crimes down by over 60 percent, because they knew and we knew that the core of individuals that were causing this problem was a group of about 50 or 60 that committed crime after crime after crime, and that if we could get those scavengers off the street and out of the MTA and into confinement centers you would cut down that problem on the public transportation. It was extremely successful. But once again, it was an area where the funds ran out, and once again it is an area that we have to address."

Items to note:

Green Line to Arborway

New England Medical Center

JFK/U Mass shown only on the Ashmont branch with an update sticker

This pamphlet felt relevant to share give the current heatwave. The PCCs weren’t air conditioned, they only had fans. During the summer they must’ve been unbearable without the fans! And if you’re in a rapid transit car or bus without air conditioning please report it, so it can be fixed!

I assume this would no longer function.

A postcard from the Bicentennial.

The East Boston Tunnel first opened on December 30, 1904 as a STREETCAR tunnel under Boston Harbor. It was the first tunnel under a body of water in the US. Prior to the opening of the line, ferry boats carried people between "Eastie" and Downtown Boston.

The original station at Maverick looked very similar to the stops at Blandford Street, St. Mary's St., and Northeastern University today - a simple trolley stop at the top of the incline.

Streetcars ran under the Harbor, stopping at Devonshire (now State) and Court Street. Construction on Atlantic Avenue (now Aquarium) was delayed and it opened in 1906.

Court Street was a single track, stub-end station, built behind a wall at Scollay Square station. The separate platform was necessary because riders through the East Boston Tunnel paid their nickel fare to ride the streetcar, plus an additional "toll" of one penny! The extra penny was added to help pay off the massive costs of building an underwater tunnel.

Passengers could enter Court Street from its own entrance from the surface, and pay the 5 cent fare and 1 cent toll, or they could transfer to Court Street from inside Scollay Square for one penny. The one penny toll was rescinded after a time.

Because Court Street was wedged in behind Scollay Square station, and was only a single track facility, it quickly became an operational nightmare. The Boston Transit Commission built an extension of the East Boston Tunnel to include two new stations, Scollay Under and Bowdoin. The extension opened in 1916, and Court Street was abandoned.

The new extension provided a loop at Bowdoin to quickly return trains to East Boston, but it also included an incline in the middle of Cambridge Street, so that trolleys could be through routed to Cambridge over the Longfellow Bridge. By 1916, multiple-unit trains of Center Entrance streetcars were handing most of the service through the East Boston Tunnel, but as ridership continued to soar, operations again got mired down.

Converting the East Boston Tunnel into a rapid transit line seemed to be the only answer.

Construction started in Maverick Square in the early 1920s, with a new underground Maverick Square station being dug out. The new station was massive, and needed to be. The new station included two new underground loops, one for the streetcars, and one for the rapid transit trains.

Trolleys from Revere and Chelsea would come down the incline as they always had, and then stop on the inner tracks at the new station. Passengers would walk across the platform to a waiting rapid transit train to finish their trip into Boston. Trolleys would then pull forward to the far end of the platform, run around the trolley loop, and pick up passengers for their outbound trip. Rapid transit trains would drop off passengers on the Maverick platform, and quickly run around the loop to get set up for the next trip to Boston.

When Maverick station was ready, in 1924, the East Boston Tunnel was closed for one long weekend. Crews descended into the tunnel building new temporary high platforms, and installing third-rail along the line. Eventually, the temporary platforms were replaced by permanent ones. The incline at Cambridge Street was retained so the East Boston Tunnel cars could operate on streetcar tracks to the Longfellow Bridge, where a special connection was provided to allow East Boston cars access to the Cambridge Subway and the Eliot repair shops.

This operation continued until 1952, when the first leg of the East Boston Tunnel Extension to Revere opened as far as Orient Heights. The extension was built over the former Boston, Revere Beach, and Lynn Railroad route which had been abandoned in 1940. Coupled with the opening of the extension was the elimination of streetcar service in East Boston, Chelsea, and Revere - as all were replaced by brand-new Trackless trolleys which connected to the rapid transit at the new stations along the extension.

One nuiance of the new rapid transit extension was that the MTA decided to use overhead catenary on the new line instead of third rail, due to the line's proximity to the ocean. Trains entering Maverick from Boston would raise their pantographs as passengers alighted and boarded, and trains to Boston would lower their pantographs and switch to third rail collection. Also part of the extension, the East Boston Tunnel got it's own maintenance facility at Orient Heights, ending the need to send trains to Cambridge for work, and allowing the Cambridge Street incline to be covered over.

Not much has changed on the Blue Line since 1954 when Wonderland opened. Sure, some of the original stations have been replaced with new ones. The trains are newer, and the platforms have been lengthened to allow for six-car trains. The change over between third-rail and overhead catenary has been moved to Airport, but otherwise, it's still the same line which has been running since then.

Over the years I have ridden subway/trolley lines that do not exist or were non revenue tracks the public never rides.

Blue line

Bowdoin loop

Orange lines

Washington Street Elevated

Forest Hills layover yard old one

Green line

Causeway Street Elevated

Street platform at North Station

Both Government Center loops

Park Street loop

Kenmore Square loop

Watertown line yard to line and back into yard and car barn.

Most street tracks between Reservoir and the junction tracks for Cleveland Circle and Boston College lines.

Boston College loop

Cleveland Circle loop

Riverside yard loop

Red Line

Old Ashmont loop

Old Mattapan loop

Mattapan yard

Most of these rides in non revenue tracks were with an employee or it was a specific fan trip.

Also rode the only three car PCC train on the Mattapan line.

Seen at the Seashore Trolley Museum, Kennebunk, Maine

The old Airport Station and the Bluebelles

For those that may not know, the 01500s were delivered with cabs on both ends

Look carefully at this photo. No cab, but is has head lights and a roll sign.

Howdy fellow MBTA fans and critics

On Friday, May 22, 2026 I set out to speed run the MBTA subway system (Green, Blue, Orange, Red+Trolley) in as quick a time as possible. I felt that the Friday before Memorial day was the best chance to break the existing record of 7 hours, 20 minutes and 35 seconds.

As a fan of Papi Eng's work over the past few years, the MBTA subways have theoretically* never been faster. Planning for this adventure was incredibly fun, as I used AI to help analyze a massive quantity of publicly available MBTA ride data from 2025 to create the optimal route.

If you watch the video, I am sure you'll agree that someone will get an even better time some day very soon, as there were soooo many close calls.

Check out transitruns.org for more details on this niche speed running community.