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BLUE LINE
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One of the new 0700 series Blue Line trains at the rebuilt Airport station, outbound to Wonderland. |
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| Overview | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Type | Rapid transit | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Locale | Boston, Massachusetts | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Termini | Bowdoin Wonderland |
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| Stations | 12 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Daily ridership | 66,933[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Operation | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Opened | 1904 (streetcar)[2] 1924 (rapid transit) 1952 (Revere extension) |
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| Owner | MBTA | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Operator(s) | MBTA | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rolling stock | Type 4 East Boston cars | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Technical | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Blue Line is one of four subway lines of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) serving Downtown, East Boston and the North Shore. It runs from northeast to southwest, extending from Wonderland station in Revere, Massachusetts to Bowdoin station near Beacon Hill in Boston. It meets the Green Line at Government Center, connects with the Orange Line at State Street, and provides service to Airport station which has a free shuttle connection to Logan International Airport.
The Blue Line is the only MBTA subway line to serve only a single district in the State Senate — the First Middlesex and Suffolk district.
Contents |
The East Boston Tunnel, opened in 1904, was the first subway in the world to run underneath a section of the ocean.[2] It was initially designed to carry streetcars, and ran from Maverick to Court Street via State.[2] In 1906, Atlantic Station (now Aquarium) was opened, with a connection to the Atlantic Avenue Elevated. In 1916, the terminus at Court Street was moved to Bowdoin, and the Scollay Square station (now Government Center) was opened near the closed Court Street station.[2]
In 1925, the subway portion of the line was retrofitted for high platform service, and rapid transit cars began shuttling between Bowdoin and Maverick. From 1952 to 1954, a surface extension was created along the disused Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad, from Maverick to the current terminus at Wonderland. The old railroad was narrow gauge, but was converted to standard gauge for this Revere Extension of the subway.
The line, officially known as the East Boston Tunnel & Revere Extension by the MTA since 1952, was redesignated Blue on August 26, 1965[3] as part of the new MBTA's color-based re-branding. The color blue represented water, as the line passes under Boston Harbor and travels near the coast for much of its length.[4]
In the early part of the 20th century, the Blue Line was actually connected to the Red Line by a direct rail connection (though the color designations of the subway lines had yet to be assigned at that time). Rail cars from the Blue Line could emerge from a ramp portal surfacing between Joy Street and Russell Street, just beyond Bowdoin station, and run on tracks down Cambridge Street to connect to the Red Line near what is now Charles/MGH station. Because the tracks were unpowered, individual cars had to be towed along the street at night. This connection was never used in revenue service, but was used to transport Blue Line cars to the Eliot Street Yard maintenance shops then located near Harvard Square station. When the Blue Line eventually got its own maintenance shops, the connection was removed and the ramp portal was permanently covered around 1952.[5][6][2]
As of 2011, there are plans to rebuild this historic Red/Blue Line connection, but in a more permanent manner. The new connection would be entirely underground, with no direct track connection — passengers would transfer at Charles/MGH inside a fare paid area.[7][8]
The Blue Line Modernization Project begun in the late 1990s includes renovating stations to increase the length of trains from four to six cars, to make all stations wheelchair accessible, and to improve appearance. The first Blue Line six-car trains began service on September 15, 2008.[9][10]
As of 2011, passengers can disembark from all 6 cars at the outbound platform of Bowdoin Station, but due to the shape of the platform (which is inside a turn-around loop), passengers can only board 4 cars at the inbound side. The MBTA uses "POP buttons" on the outside of 6-car trains to allow passengers to open only the doors they need to board. The station may eventually be closed or reconfigured as part of the Red Line Blue Line Connector project, as discussed below.
There is a proposal to extend the Blue Line northward to Lynn, Massachusetts. The land to extend the line was purchased for the initial construction of the Revere Extension, but due to budgetary constraints Wonderland station was designated the northern terminus. Two potential extension routes have been identified. One proposed path would run through marshland alongside the existing Newburyport/Rockport commuter rail line, on rail lines formerly operated by the Boston and Maine Railroad. An alternative route would extend the line alongside Revere Beach Boulevard through Point of Pines and the Lynnway, along the remainder of the BRB&L right of way.[11] Other alternatives include increased commuter rail or bus service, or connecting the Blue Line to a commuter rail stop near Wonderland via a short connector.[12]
In 2005, Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healy estimated construction would begin in 2017.[13] Authorization to bond for planning money for the project was included in an April 2008 state bond bill,[14] and $25 million in federal earmarks have been obtained.[15] A 2004 state bond bill authorized $246.5 million on the condition of finding 50% non-state matching funds (which presumably would come from the federal government).[12] The Draft Environmental Impact Report was expected to be complete by the end of 2008,[15] but has been delayed as planners focus on meeting the legal deadline for the Green Line extension to Somerville and Medford.[16]
As of 2011, the Green Line is the most convenient way to transfer between the Blue Line and the Red Line, thus causing the short Green Line segment between Government Center station and nearby Park Street station to be especially congested during peak travel times. This bottleneck, combined with tight platform clearances on the Green Line outbound side, has been the cause of significant delays and crowding on the Green Line. In the past, an underground pedestrian passage had been proposed, paralleling the Green Line tracks and connecting the two stations, but this idea was dropped in favor of a direct transfer connection between the Blue and Red Lines.
It also is possible to transfer between the Red and Blue Lines by traveling one stop on the Orange Line between State and Downtown Crossing stations, but this path involves navigating a longer and more convoluted path through stairs and passages of those stations. The Red and Blue Lines are the only pair of rapid transit lines in the MBTA system that lack a direct transfer connection. The idea of connecting them was studied in the Boston Transportation Planning Review in 1972.
As part of a lawsuit settlement relating to air quality mitigation for the Big Dig highway tunnel project, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts agreed to build a direct transfer connection between the Blue and Red Lines. This would be done by extending the Blue Line beyond Bowdoin station, continuing to run a further 1500 feet (450 m) beneath Cambridge Street to Charles/MGH station on the Red Line. Unlike the historic Red/Blue Line connection described earlier, there would be no direct rail connection between lines at Charles/MGH station (the rail gauges are identical, but the Red and Blue Line railcars are otherwise dimensionally incompatible). However, passengers would be able to transfer between the Red and Blue Lines without needing to crowd onto the Green Line, and many passengers from the North Shore of Boston would be able to reach the Massachusetts General Hospital area directly without further transfers.
After failing to take any action for over a decade, and under threat of further lawsuits, the state finally agreed to start detailed engineering design for such an extension, which is ongoing as of 2011. Construction is expected to take 6 years, but a start date and funding scheme have not yet been announced.[7][8][17]
| Station | Time to Government Center[18] | Opened | Transfers and notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wonderland | 21 minutes | January 19, 1954 | Site of former Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad Bathhouse Station |
| Revere Beach | 19 minutes | January 19, 1954 | Site of former Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad Crescent Beach Station |
| Beachmont | 17 minutes | January 19, 1954 | Elevated above the site of formerly at-grade Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad Beachmont station |
| Suffolk Downs | 15 minutes | April 21, 1952 | Site of former Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad Belle Isle Station and adjacent to former street car terminal |
| Orient Heights | 13 minutes | January 5, 1952 | Site of former Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad Orient Heights Station |
| Wood Island | 11 minutes | January 5, 1952 | Formerly Day Square, renamed Wood Island Park October 21, 1954, renamed Wood Island 1967 |
| Airport | 9 minutes | June 3, 2004 | Replaced older station a few hundred feet south of current station. Old station opened January 5, 1952 and closed June 2, 2004. Connection to the Silver Line via the Massport Shuttle to the Airport Terminals. |
| Maverick | 7 minutes | April 18, 1924 | Streetcar portal opened December 30, 1904 |
| Aquarium | 4 minutes | April 5, 1906 | Transfer to Ferry Formerly Atlantic, renamed February 13, 1967 Transfer to Atlantic Avenue Elevated open from April 5, 1906 to October 1, 1938 |
| State |
2 minutes | December 30, 1904 | Transfer to Orange Line Formerly Devonshire, renamed January 25, 1967 |
| (Court Street) | 0 minutes | December 30, 1904 | Formerly Scollay Square Upper; closed March 17, 1916, replaced by Government Center, partially demolished[19] |
| Government Center | 0 minutes | March 18, 1916 | Transfer to Green Line Formerly Scollay Square Under, renamed October 28, 1963 |
| Bowdoin | 2 minutes | March 18, 1916 | Closed evenings, holidays, and weekends; slated to be closed when expansions of Government Center are completed |
From approximately 1998-2011, the MBTA made most Blue Line stations fully accessible as part of a larger effort to accommodate 6-car trains on the line. As of 2011, the only stations on the Blue Line which are not fully accessible are Government Center and Bowdoin. A major rebuild of Government Center station is being planned; the future of Bowdoin station depends on the Red Line Blue Line Connector project, which is in the design phase.[7]
Like all MBTA lines, the Blue Line tracks are standard gauge heavy rail.[20]
Blue Line cars are unique among rapid transit vehicles in Boston, in that they use both third rail power and pantograph current pickup from overhead catenary wires. Trains switch between the two modes at Airport station, near where the line transitions between running in a tunnel and running above ground. Previously, the switchover was made underground at Maverick station, but the temporary loss of power and lighting during switchover is less disconcerting above ground. The overhead pantograph was implemented to avoid third rail icing that frequently occurs in winter. Third rail power is used in the original Blue Line tunnels, which are smaller than most modern subway tunnels.[5]
The Blue Line cars are also narrower and shorter than otherwise similar ones running on the Orange Line, due to the stations and tunnels on the former line having been originally designed to accommodate streetcars.[5][21]
The Blue Line fleet consists mainly of 94 700-series cars (47 pairs) with stainless steel bodies from Siemens, with each car 48 feet (14.9m) long and 9 feet 3 inches wide (2.8m), with two pairs of doors per side. The cars are of a similar design to those built for the Tren Urbano system in San Juan, Puerto Rico, also designed by Siemens. Originally scheduled to be delivered beginning in January, 2004, the development of the trains has been beset with problems. The contract price of the cars is $174 million, with a total cost to the MBTA (including engineering and other related services) of $200 million.
Twenty of the older 600-series cars are also still in operable condition, though as of June 2010 they are only kept as a contingency fleet and are not in everyday use.[22] Previously, all of the fleet consisted of the 0600 series, built 1978-1980 by Hawker Siddeley Canada Car and Foundry (now Bombardier Transportation) of Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. They are 48 feet 10 inches (14.9 m) long and 9 feet 3 inches (2.8 m) wide, with two pairs of doors on each side, and a design maximum speed of 65 mph (105 km/h).[23] They are based on the PA3 model used by PATH in New Jersey. There were originally 70 Hawker cars, numbered 0600-0669. As of 2011, most of these cars have been retired because of severe corrosion, mainly caused by the salty air that results from much of the line being very close to the ocean. However, 12-20 cars will be retained until 2012. Seashore Trolley Museum received set 622-623 for their collection.[24]
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