Orange Line (MBTA)

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	Orange Line
									Oak Grove
									Malden Center
									Wellington
									Sullivan Square
									Community College
									North Station
									Haymarket
									State
									Downtown Crossing
									Chinatown
									NE Medical Center
									Back Bay
									Mass Ave
									Ruggles
									Roxbury Crossing
									Jackson Sq
									Stony Brook
									Green Street
									Forest Hills
	Old Main Line Elevated stations Everett - Sullivan Square Thompson Square City Square - North Station Tunnel (Haymarket to Chinatown) Dover - Northampton - Dudley Egleston - Green - Forest Hills

The Orange Line is one of the four subway lines of the MBTA. It extends from Forest Hills in Jamaica Plain, Boston in the south to Oak Grove in Malden, Massachusetts in the north. It meets the Red Line at Downtown Crossing, the Blue Line at State, and the Green Line at Haymarket and North Station. It connects with Amtrak and Commuter Rail service at Back Bay and North Station, and just the commuter rail at Ruggles station in Roxbury.

Contents 1 History 2 Station listing 3 Equipment 4 Accessibility 5 Notes 6 External links

[edit] History

The current name is derived from Orange Street,^{[citation needed]} an old name for the section of Washington Street immediately south of downtown under which the Washington Street Tunnel, forming the center of the line, still runs. (Cars throughout the Boston rapid transit network were formerly painted orange or with orange stripes by MBTA predecessors, and restored streetcars on the Ashmont-Mattapan High Speed Line wear their historical orange livery, but this is largely coincidental.)

The Main Line of the electric Boston Elevated Railway opened in segments in 1901. It proceed from Everett along the Charlestown Elevated to the Canal Street Incline near North Station. It was carried underground by the Tremont Street Subway (now the Green Line) returning above ground at the Pleasant Street Incline (now closed, located just outbound of Boylston Station). A temporary link connected it to the Washington Street Elevated, which in 1901 ran from this point via Washington Street to Dudley Square (which is most of what is now Phase 1 of the Silver Line).

Also in 1901, the Atlantic Avenue Elevated opened, branching at Causeway Street to provide an alternate route through downtown Boston (along the shoreline, where in 2007 there is no rail transit) to the Washington Street Elevated.

In 1908, the Washington Street Tunnel opened, allowing Main Line service to travel via new portals at the Canal Street Incline, under downtown, and back up again to meet the Washington Street Elevated and Atlantic Avenue Elevated near Chinatown. Use of the Tremont Street Subway was returned to streetcars exclusively.

By 1909, the Washington Street Elevated had been extended to Forest Hills. Trains from Washington Street were routed through the new subway, either all the way to Everett, or back around in a loop via both the subway and the Atlantic Avenue Elevated.

At some point, the southern connection between South Station and Washington Street was closed, breaking the loop. By 1938, the entire Atlantic Avenue Elevated had been closed, leaving only the subway routing through downtown - the core of what is now the Orange Line.

Ownership of the railway was transferred from the private Boston Elevated Railway to the public Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) in 1947, reconstituted as the modern Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority in 1964.

The Boston Transportation Planning Review looked at the line in the 1970s, considering extensions to the beltway Route 128 with termini at Reading in the north and Dedham in the south. The first actual realignment was in 1975, when the Charlestown Elevated was demolished. The Haymarket North Extension rerouted the Orange Line through an underwater crossing of the Charles River, with a terminus in Malden, Massachusetts instead of Everett.

Construction of Interstate 95 into downtown Boston was cancelled in 1972 after local protest over the necessary demolition. However, the Southwest Corridor through Roxbury had already been cleared. Instead of a highway, the Orange Line subway would be re-routed into the corridor. In April 1987, the Washington Street Elevated south of the Essex (Chinatown) station was closed. Coming out of the southern end of the Washington Street Tunnel, instead of rising into elevated tracks, it instead veered west at the Massachusetts Turnpike and followed the Pike and the old Boston and Albany Railroad right-of-way to the existing MBTA Commuter Rail stop at Back Bay. It then continued along new tracks, partially covered and partially open but depressed, to Forest Hills. This right-of-way is also shared by Amtrak as part of the national Northeast Corridor.

While ending up more or less in the same place, the new routing bypassed Washington Street significantly to the west; local residents were promised replacement service. This would not come until 2002, when Phase 1 of the Silver Line bus rapid transit was added to connect Washington Street to the downtown subways. This was controversial, as many residents had been hoping for the return of rail transportation.

The old Orange Line El was the train seen in the opening sequence of the television program St. Elsewhere. During the last season, however, the Washington Street El no longer existed, and its showing was thus anachronistic.

Haymarket and North Station received major renovations during the Big Dig in the 1990s and 2000s, as the Causeway Street elevated portion of the Green Line was buried, its physical connection to the Orange Line was improved to make transfers easier, the Canal Street Incline was finally closed, and the Green Line was re-rerouted through a new portal closer to the river, near the Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge.

[edit] Station listing

Station	Time to Downtown Crossing (min)[1]	Opened	Transfers and notes
Oak Grove	15	March 20, 1977
Malden Center	13	December 27, 1975	Commuter Rail, Haverhill/Reading Line
Wellington	10	September 6, 1975
Sullivan Square	7	April 7, 1975	originally a station on the Charlestown Elevated closed April 4, 1975
Community College	5	April 7, 1975
North Station	3	April 7, 1975	Green Line and Commuter Rail north side lines
Haymarket	2	November 30, 1908	Green Line originally Friend-Union until January 25, 1967
State	1	November 30, 1908	Blue Line originally Milk-State until January 24, 1967
Downtown Crossing	0	November 30, 1908	Red Line, Green Line and Silver Line originally Winter-Summer until January 22, 1967, then Washington until May 3, 1987
Chinatown	2	November 30, 1908	Silver Line originally Boylston-Essex until February 10, 1967, then Essex until May 3, 1987
New England Medical Center	3	May 4, 1987	Silver Line
Back Bay	6	May 4, 1987	Commuter Rail, Providence/Stoughton Line, Framingham/Worcester Line, Franklin Line and Needham Line also called Back Bay/South End
Massachusetts Avenue	8	May 4, 1987
Ruggles	9	May 4, 1987	Commuter Rail, Providence/Stoughton Line, Franklin Line and Needham Line
Roxbury Crossing	10	May 4, 1987
Jackson Square	12	May 4, 1987
Stony Brook	14	May 4, 1987
Green Street	16	May 4, 1987	originally a station on the Washington Street Elevated closed April 30, 1987
Forest Hills	18	May 4, 1987	Commuter Rail Providence/Stoughton Line, Franklin Line and Needham Line originally a station on the Washington Street Elevated closed April 30, 1987

[edit] Equipment

The Orange Line is standard gauge heavy rail. The current fleet is the 01200 series, built 1980-1981 by Hawker Siddeley Canada Car and Foundry (now Bombardier Transportation) of Fort William, Ontario, Canada. They are 65 feet (20 meters) long and 111 inches (2.8 meters) wide, with three pairs of doors on each side. They are based on the PA3 model used by PATH in New Jersey. There are 120 cars, numbered 01200-01319. These units are expected to remain in service until 2015.[1]

All in-service trains run in six-car configurations. A train's conductor generally rides in the booth at the head-end of the 5th car, although occasionally he or she rides in the booth at the head-end of the 4th car. At either terminus, if a train is remaining in-service, the operator generally does not turn it around at the nearby yard--the train will arrive, unload and then begin loading for the next run, meanwhile the operator control of the train simply reverses to the opposite end and the conductor is repositioned in the appropriate booth. Thus, throughout most of the day, if not the entire day, the direction of the configuration does not change. Here are a few examples of six-car configurations:

• 01288-01289-01315-01314-01309-01308
• 01245-01244-01315-01314-01227-01226 (more recent)
• 01213-01212-01215-01214-01204-01205
• 01237-01236-01271-01270-01303-01302
• 01234-01235-01298-01299-01202-01203

As with most heavy rail rapid transit systems, configurations generally only change when a car or cars need to be singled out for maintenance purposes. Otherwise, ideally, all cars would be serviced at the same time.

[edit] Accessibility

All stations on the Orange Line are handicapped accessible, though State is not fully accessible on the Blue Line.

edit Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (official site)
Red Line		Alewife – Ashmont / Braintree ––– Ashmont-Mattapan High Speed Line: Ashmont – Mattapan
Green Line		Lechmere – Boston College ("B") / Cleveland Circle ("C") / Riverside ("D") / Arborway (Heath Street) ("E") ––– Watertown ("A")
Orange Line		Oak Grove – Forest Hills ––– Charlestown Elevated – Atlantic Avenue Elevated – Washington Street Elevated
Blue Line		Wonderland – Bowdoin
Silver Line		Dudley Square – Downtown Crossing; South Station – various points
Buses		List - Crosstown Buses - Former Streetcars - Trackless Trolleys - Key Routes - East Boston Area - South Boston - Urban Ring
Commuter Rail		Greenbush – Old Colony Lines (MBTA) – Fairmount – Providence/Stoughton – Franklin – Needham – Framingham/Worcester – Fitchburg – Lowell – Haverhill/Reading – Newburyport/Rockport - North-South Rail Link
Miscellaneous		Accessibility – Boat service – CharlieCard – Nomenclature
Predecessors		Boston Elevated Railway – Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway – Middlesex and Boston Street Railway

v • d • e Currently operating heavy rail rapid transit systems in the United States
MBTA Blue, Orange, and Red Lines | MTA New York City Subway and Staten Island Railway | PATH | SEPTA Market-Frankford and Broad Street Lines | PATCO Speedline | Baltimore Metro Subway | Washington Metro | MARTA | Miami Metrorail | Tren Urbano | RTA Rapid Transit Red Line | Chicago 'L' | BART | LACMTA Red and Purple Lines

[edit] Notes

1. ^ From MBTA website, roughly interpolated by distance between stations.

[edit] External links

• MBTA - Orange Line
• Jamaica Plain Historical Society - Orange Line Memories
• Jamaica Plain Historical Society - Orange Line Replaced Old Railroad Embankment