Blue Line (MBTA)

BLUE LINE
One of the new 0700 series Blue Line trains at the rebuilt Airport station, outbound to Wonderland.
Overview
Type	Rapid transit
Locale	Boston, Massachusetts
Termini	Bowdoin Wonderland
Stations	12
Daily ridership	66,933
Operation
Opened	1904 (streetcar) 1924 (rapid transit) 1952 (Revere extension)
Owner	MBTA
Operator(s)	MBTA
Rolling stock	Type 4 East Boston cars
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Route map Legend Lynn Proposed Wonderland Revere Beach Beachmont Suffolk Downs Orient Heights yard Orient Heights Wood Island Airport Catenary Third rail Maverick Boston Harbor Aquarium State Orange Line Government Center Green Line Bowdoin Charles MGH Proposed

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 Suffolk and Middlesex district.

History

Tunnel entrance near Atlantic (now Aquarium) Station, 1906

Joy Street Portal (1915), looking eastwards

Joy Street Portal location (2011), similar view. Subway ventilation grill and emergency exit are visible in foreground.

See also: History of the MBTA

The East Boston Tunnel, opened in 1904, was the first subway in the world to run underneath a section of the ocean. It was initially designed to carry streetcars, and ran from Maverick to Court Street via State. 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.

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 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.

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 the former streetcar track down Cambridge Street, then most of the distance across the westbound side of the Longfellow Bridge, connecting to the Red Line just east of its Cambridge Subway portal, near what is now Kendall/MIT 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.

As of 2012, 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.

Plans

Station renovations

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.

As of 2012, 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.

Extension to Lynn

Potential connecting route for Blue Line Extension

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. 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.

The Blue Line extension has been proposed in various forms for over 80 years. The 1926 Report on Improved Transportation Facilities and 1945-47 Coolidge Commission Report recommended that the East Boston Tunnel line, which had been converted to rapid transit from streetcars in 1924, be extended to Lynn via the Boston, Revere Beach & Lynn right-of-way. Ever since the 1954 Revere extension was cut short to Wonderland, a further extension to Lynn has been planned. Following on the 1926 and 1945-47 studies, the 1966 Program for Mass Transportation recommended that the Blue Line be extended to Lynn, while the 1969 Recommended Highway and Transit Plan proposed that the extension run as far as Salem. An extension was not present in the 1972 Final Report of the Boston Transportation Planning Review, but the 1974 Transportation Plan revived the project with possible termini of Lynn, Salem, or even Route 128 in Peabody. The 1978 Program for Mass Transportation report and 1983 Transportation Plan both continued support for an extension to Lynn. Despite the continued recommendations, however, other projects like extensions of the Red and Orange lines were given funding instead of the Blue Line.

In 2005, Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healy estimated construction would begin in 2017. Authorization to bond for planning money for the project was included in an April 2008 state bond bill, and $25 million in federal earmarks have been obtained. 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). The Draft Environmental Impact Report was expected to be complete by the end of 2008, but has been delayed as planners focus on meeting the legal deadline for the Green Line extension to Somerville and Medford.

Red Line-Blue Line Connector

As of 2012, 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 at Government Center, 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.^{[citation needed]}

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 2012. Construction is expected to take 6 years, but a start date and funding scheme have not yet been announced.

Station listing

Station	Time to Government Center	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
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

Accessibility

See also: MBTA accessibility

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 2012, 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.

Equipment

Aboveground, Blue Line trains use pantographs to collect power from overhead wires

600 series cars at Airport

700 series cars at Airport

Like the MBTA Orange Line and Red Line, the Blue Line tracks are standard gauge heavy rail. (The Green Line uses lighter weight rail which is more compatible with street running, though the rails are also set to standard track gauge distance between the rails.)^{[citation needed]}

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. 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.

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.

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 had been beset with problems, and the delivery was pushed back numerous times. The cars were ultimately delivered beginning in January, 2007. 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.

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 were 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). The design was based on the PA3 model used by PATH in New Jersey. There were originally 70 Hawker cars, numbered 0600-0669.

By 2011, most of the 600-series cars were retired because of severe corrosion, mainly caused by the salty air that results from much of the line being very close to the ocean. Twenty of the 600-series cars were still on MBTA property but no longer usable as of February 2012. Parts of scrapped cars are used to maintain Orange Line 1200 series rolling stock, which was built at the same time by Hawkey Siddeley and used many of the same components.

Around 2009, the Seashore Trolley Museum received retired Hawker set 622-623 for their collection.

External links

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• MBTA - Blue Line (official site)
• East Boston Tunnel images Shows original streetcar tunnel from Maverick Square (East Boston) to State Street (Boston).
• Blue Line at world.nycsubway.org
• History of Revere, including the narrow-gauge predecessor of the Blue Line