MBTA

The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) runs public transit around Boston and Cambridge. Yesterday when I arrived at Boston's Logan airport, instead of using a shuttle service to the hotel, I took the Silver Line bus to South Station, then the Red Line subway to Park station, and the Green Line trolley to Lechmere station. Total cost: Two dollars

Boston was the first US city to build a subway system. It's age is quite obvious when one looks at the layout of the tunnels and passages connecting the various lines in the inner city stations. Narrow stairwells directly connect the various platforms, usually on the most direct route, which leads to the amusing situation, that if you use the wrong stairwell, you easily end up on the platform for the wrong direction of the connecting line, and have to find your way through more connection tunnels to get to the other side of the tracks.



Amusingly, Lechmere station, the northern terminus of the Green Line, was featured in yesterday's Small Layout Scrapbook as a prototype example for a trolley terminus station with lots of tight curves and space efficient storage of trains.