Talk:Red Line (MBTA)

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Station articles

It wouldn't be such a bad idea to merge all of the red line station articles into this article. I doubt that any of them will grow beyond a few paragraphs or so. jdb 08:18, 12 Dec 2004 (UTC)

The usual Wiki alternative is to create an article such as "Red Line blah-blah-blah Stations" and put all the station info into that. But I certainly agree with your point. Atlant 23:11, 12 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Some of the station articles may eventually be quite significant, but the the real problem with merging them into an article on Red Line Stations is that many of these facilities serve transit other than the Red Line. South Station, Porter Sq., JFK UMass, and Braintree, also are commuter rail stations. Park St., Downtown Crossing and South Station also are used by other underground mass transit. Harvard is a major bus station, etc. Putative consolidation in the manner suggested would result in multiple entries for many articles on the various routes they serve. I think separate station articles is preferable. --DRTïllberġ^Talk 16:40, 1 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Zoetrope Ads

Currently, the article mentions that a zeotrope like system is used for the in tunnel ads between South Station and Broadway. One day, I was riding in the last car of a train and took an opportunity to scope out the ads as the train was pulling away--so I could see if they were posters or whatever. Anyway, I'm pretty sure I saw a long line of flatscreen monitors! There were definately no strobe lights--the monitors appeared to be backlit, and switched off a few seconds after we passed them. It seemed like the monitors were all just playing a video clip, and every monitor was displaying the same thing at any given time. Can someone else verify this, and either make the edit or respond here? Thanks. Michaelwsherman 20:34, 2 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The ads are actually a long stripe of static images, much like a filmstrip. Strobe lights are most certainly used, as can be seen clearly when riding from the front of a Bombardier and viewing through the front windshield (older trains are constructed differently making viewing difficult at best). The strobing effect appears to be created by white LED lights instead of incandescent flash bulbs.

Also, the article's reference to the zoetrope is incorrect, as there is no masking system to cause the zoetrope effect - the riders are moving at the same speed as the train.

The appearance of the posters being continuously animated as if they where flatscreen monitors is a side effect of the strobe light - for the same reason you can see several "copies" of the ad playing at once outside the windows of the train, you can view a large portion of the strip in this way appearing animated as wel l from the front or rear of the train.

Does anyone know if the ads are triggered by the ATC systems?

24.60.154.9 (talk) 00:23, 7 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Genesis

A tour guide once told me that this particular line was selected to be red because it passed by Harvard, a bastion of liberalism. If there is any truth to this anecdote, should it not be mentioned? --Adoniscik 23:36, 11 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Harvard's school color is crimson (red). The MBTA claims that as the reason for the color. --SPUI (talk) 20:57, 12 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Rolling stock

A nice addition to the page would be a section describing the rolling stock of the Red Line. This should include the current older mainline trains, the newer Bombardier mainline trains, and maybe the PCC streetcars run on the Ashmont-Mattapan High Speed Line (although that's probably better left to the sub-article). Atlant 16:33, 14 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Good idea. There's a table of the car quantities at at http://members.aol.com/rtspcc/roster/MBTAroster.html jdb ❋ 20:47, 14 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I'm confused about the photo, which the article describes as aluminium-bodied (1969-1970) equipment. I rode the Boston subways a lot in 1970-71-72, and recall that at that time, there were old cars and new cars both in service. The new cars were unpainted and I thought they were of stainless-steel construction. The photograph shows a painted car, and it resembles what were the old cars at the time --- judging by the lists on the MBTA roster page and the links from it, 01400 series. Can you clear up my confusion?

The 1970s unpainted cars were painted the old 1400 series red colors after a rebuild, and new stainless-steel cars were introduced in the 1990s. --71.124.173.134 (talk) 01:51, 6 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

"No smoking, please!"

I added the trivia item (which has now been expanded to):

* At the Harvard station, the electronic voice used on the newer (Bombardier-built) trains makes a special announcement: "No smoking, please!"

I haven't checked in the last few months, but it was definitely true the last time I've been the distance between Alewife and JFK/U.Mass that the announcement was only made at Hahvud. I always found it amusing; the synthivoice is *SO* emphatic about it.

Atlant 20:58, 14 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Odd that it's only at Havahd. The only other place I've heard it was on a B-line Type 8 Green Line car entering Boylston inbound. jdb ❋ (talk) 16:39, 25 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I did some field research yesterday afternoon and what I said is still true: Between JFK/UMass and Alewife, it's only Hahvud that gets the special announcement. They have been making tweaks to the synthevoice announcements, though, with a female voice now added to the ordinary Charles/MGH announcement: she adds "Mass Eye and Ear". Quelle difference!

Atlant 13:32, 4 Mar 2005 (UTC)

The high-pitched female voice saying "Mass Eye and Ear" at Charles/MGH was there for a while in the mid-1990s, when the Bombardier trains were new. It seems to come and go. --Matt McIrvin 14:07, 4 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I wonder if the Mass Eye and Ear announcement got installed on some train cars but not all of them. JNW2 (talk) 04:06, 26 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Incorrect roll signs?

A recent editor added this image and caption.

The caption led me to wonder whether, during the construction of the Alewife extension, there was a time when the trains reached Davis but not yet Alewife? This would explain the roll sign.

Atlant 11:10, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, between December 8, 1984 and March 30, 1985.[1] --SPUI (talk) 11:44, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I remember being on an older Red Line train earlier this year with really old roll signs - one of them read "Harvard/Park Street". I have a feeling that they don't pay much attention to what these older signs inside trains read anymore. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.181.19.252 (talk) 18:25, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! I'll take that as an explanation for this roll sign and edit the article to reflect that fact.

Atlant 12:11, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Right. I've no doubt that the sign was printed correctly, but it was certainly set incorrectly, since I took the photo this year. jdb ❋ (talk) 17:10, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Oops!

Atlant 17:16, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I wonder if it's worth noting in this article that when trains fall behind schedule, the MBTA tends to run ``express between Harvard and Alewife, not stopping at Porter or Davis. This invariably feels like doublespeak, since riders generally don't have to wait nearly as long for non-express Red Line trains, and thus express trains do not tend to get the rider to the destination faster when factoring in wait time. Express trains generally blow their horn repeatedly while going through the station, and in the last year or two with the new train arrival announcements, there's generally an announcement something along the lines of ``Attention passengers, the next red line train to <destination> does not take passengers. Please stand back from the yellow line. JNW2 (talk) 04:06, 26 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Map request

A map showing the complex geography of the historical portions and expansion of the line would be very helpful. -- Beland 05:35, 22 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Under header 'Station listing'

There's a listing of train stations on the Red Line. The so called "Stadium" exit? Was that actually exiting on the *Boston*(Allston?) side of the Charles? As in near Harvard Stadium CaribDigita 19:43, 19 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

My mother says if her memory serves her correctly, she believes the stadium exit came out at the current positing of the Charles Hotel. Just beyond the current alley where the trackless trolley buses go now to turn around.(Close to the Harvard Square Post office.) CaribDigita 20:39, 27 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

There's more info about this also on nycsubway.org See area about Eliot Station. CaribDigita 23:37, 16 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

{{mb}} to {{MBTABus}}

I have changed the {{mb}} template to a new {{MBTABus}} template (which is identical to the old {{mb}} template) so that {{mb}} can be used for {{Mfd bottom}}, in the same way that {{Ab}} can be used for {{Afd bottom}} —Mets501 (talk) 22:23, 20 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

1944? for Tom Lehrer song

I tend to doubt that the song "Boston" was written in 1944: Lehrer would have been pretty young at the time, and he started performing about a decade later. Perhaps that was 1954? -- BRG 19:14, 10 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Ride times

All the "time to park street" info is WP:OR and should be removed. - Keith D. Tyler ¶ (AMA) 00:15, 27 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds like the talk of "Stadium Station" is also OR. Grandmothers, while generally WP:RS, are still WP:OR. - Keith D. Tyler ¶ (AMA) 00:18, 27 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Shawmut Station

According to the book Boston's Red Line: Bridging the Charles from Alewife to Braintree, Shawmut existed as a Shawmut Branch Railroad station. The book has pictures of the station prior to the conversion, so I'm inclined to believe it. --71.124.173.134 20:38, 1 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Trivia heading removed

I've removed the trivia heading, but other than cleaning up the advertising stuff a bit, I haven't gotten rid of text that was under that section. And I think this article might benefit from a little bit more work in that area; the exact set of things that are in this article don't feel like they quite match the most important things to know about the Red Line. In some cases, expanding on those points may be a good way to end up with something that's reasonably well balanced. JNW2 (talk) 04:30, 26 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Citations

Regarding Changes to Transit Service in the MBTA district (PDF), it's over 300 pages. If it has information to support claims in this Wikipedia article, it would be helpful for specific page numbers to be mentioned next to specific claims, rather than just having a general mention at the end of the article. However, Wikipedia:No original research also suggests that self-published sources are less likely to be reliable, and Changes to Transit Serivce in the MBTA district appears to be self published, so it would probably be best to find other sources that substantiate any claims. JNW2 (talk) 23:24, 29 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]