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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Tylr00 (talk | contribs) at 21:09, 15 September 2016 (→Key photo?). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Wiki neologism

This uses as its title a name which is neither official nor colloquial, and claims that the "official name" is a near-literal nonce phrase. It also implies that the RT operations, which are overwhelmingly surface, are subway. Anmccaff (talk) 18:05, 14 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

MBTA Subway is an acceptable name for the article (though MBTA Rapid Transit or MBTA rapid transit is probably better); all three of those are defensible from MBTA documentation including the Bluebook. Anything with 'Boston' is definitely not a correct name - 29 miles of the current system is in Cambridge, Somerville, Brookline, Quincy, Braintree, Revere, Medford, and Malden; next year will add 1.5 miles in Chelsea, and the GLX 4 more miles in Somerville and Medford - and nowhere is that used anywhere in official sources. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 20:56, 14 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Well, at the time it was still saying The Boston Subway (commonly referred to as "the T" and officially Massachusetts Bay Rapid Transit), which was wrong on so many levels it is hard to keep track. There's a slight disconnect, even now,between "MBTA subway", which is used in some T pubs for all RT operations, and "MBTA rapid transit", which a little more accurate. Anmccaff (talk) 21:17, 14 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Use either, or both, MBTA Subway or MBTA Rapid Transit, but they are both referenced in the Bluebook, and that's probably the best source for a definition. I don't think "The Rapid Transit" is specific enough to this system and is quite ambiguous. Also, I agree that "The T" is vague and colloquial, but we could also mention that the system is sometimes referred to as "the T". Tylr00 (talk) 13:48, 15 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Neither "MBTA Subway" nor "MBTA Rapid Transit" appear more than once in the Bluebook, and rarely in other sources. Neither is a definitive official title; your edits to the lede are misleading and in some cases flat-out wrong. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 15:02, 15 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Following this argument, perhaps the name of this article is misleading. In which case, we would go with "The unnamed heavy rail, light rail, and bus transit services in the Boston metropolitan area operated by the MBTA". Basically, I'm just trying to say that MBTA Subway is not misleading or incorrect, and would provide for a logical lead paragraph. On the MBTA website it is referred to as "the Subway" or "Subway", which would be too ambiguous for an article title on Wikipedia, so we use MBTA Subway. Tylr00 (talk) 21:05, 15 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

There are no contemporaneous cites for this explanation of the color scheme.

The folklore explaining the color scheme is now widespread, but there is no early indication of it, and there should be, if it were real. There is also some direct contravention of it; Cambridge7 explicitly noted that they preferred to start with the primary colors, and only switched away from yellow to orange when it proved unworkable in signage. Anmccaff (talk) 21:08, 14 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Silver Line not "underground" in the usual sense

The only extensive underground section is actually underwater; this isn't the usual usage of "subway." Anmccaff (talk) 21:32, 14 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The portion referred to in the article is actually the tunnel from South Station to Silver Line Way, not the TWT (which I believe is what you're referring to). Whoop whoop pull up Bitching Betty | Averted crashes 22:07, 14 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
...yupp, most of which is due to the Fort Point Channel, no? Anmccaff (talk) 22:33, 14 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
No, the FPC crossing is fairly short - only about 600 feet of the 4800-foot Transitway. The route on Google Maps is fairly accurate. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 01:14, 15 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
SL1 and SL2 buses are underground for half their journey, with stations that are nearly identical to traditional underground subway stations. Courthouse (MBTA station) is one example of which Tylr00 (talk) 13:51, 15 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
The immersed tube section alone -that is, the channel crossing proper- is 700 feet almost exactly, and the approaches, NATM on the west, C&C on the east, IMS, add a good deal more. The "world trade center" (Gawdalmighty, what pretentious crap summa these name are.) station's walls break grade; it has a conventional roof, clerestories, and everything; most of the enclosed volume is above ground, and the east end daylights. SL1 & 2 have only two stations below grade by choice. Anmccaff (talk) 17:53, 15 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Key photo?

Why the change from the blue line to orange line picture? Does one portray the subway system better than the other? Tylr00 (talk) 13:54, 15 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The Blue Line photo is from an awkward angle and has poor contrast; it's not a great image to use as the lede. The Orange Line image has better contrast and is taken from a better angle. I'm not strongly attached to it if you have another image to suggest, but it's definitely much better than the Blue Line image. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 15:05, 15 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
The Blue line picture also only captures the equipment from the deck up. The ideal photo would, I think, be something like a perspective isometric of a train just leaving a platform, showing the forward truck from front and side. Anmccaff (talk) 18:00, 15 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
I'm not against the orange line photo, but wanted to open the discussion on characteristics for an ideal photo Tylr00 (talk) 21:09, 15 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
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