   #copyright

Boston and Lowell Railroad

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Railway transport

   Boston and Lowell Railroad
   System map
   Map of the Southern Division as it was in 1887, just before it was
   leased by the Boston and Maine Railroad, including the original Boston
   to Lowell mainline.
   Locale Boston to Lowell, Massachusetts and beyond into New Hampshire
   and Vermont
   Dates of operation 1835 –
   Track gauge 4  ft 8½  in (1435  mm) ( standard gauge)
   Headquarters

   The Lowell Line is a railroad line of the MBTA Commuter Rail system,
   running north from Boston to Lowell, Massachusetts. Originally built as
   the Boston and Lowell Railroad, and later operated as part of the
   Boston and Maine Railroad's Southern Division, the line was one of the
   first railroads in North America and the first major one in
   Massachusetts.

Beginnings

   In the early 19th century, Francis Cabot Lowell decided to build a
   model mill town in a Massachusetts town near Boston that was promptly
   reincorporated in 1822 as Lowell, Massachusetts in his honour. This
   industrial town began to produce large amounts of textiles and other
   products which had to get to people so they could be used. It also had
   to get raw materials such as cotton from which to build these products.
   At the time, the best way for the factory owners to do this was to
   transport to and from Boston and let Boston merchants deal with the
   rest there.

   Before the railroad, there were two main ways of moving goods between
   Boston and Lowell. The first was the Middlesex Canal, built previously
   to bypass a circuitous coastal route from the Merrimack River. The
   other consisted of stagecoaches running on the road between Boston and
   Lowell. These sufficed for some time, but as Lowell grew and more
   industrialists built mills there, problems with both modes soon
   overwhelmed them.

   The canal was a very efficient way of moving large amounts of heavy
   goods cheaply and with minimal labor. It was slow, but no one had any
   delusions that it was suitable for perishables or other time-sensitive
   goods, passengers included. Unfortunately, it would freeze in the
   winter and the towpath was muddy in spring and late fall. This made it
   impractical for a burgeoning mill-town that needed year-round freight
   transportation.

   Stagecoaches provided the passenger aspect of the transport, moving 100
   to 120 passengers per day. There were six stagecoaches in operation at
   the time of the building of the railroad, for a total of 39 fully
   loaded round trips per week. This was sufficient passenger service for
   people who had to make an occasional trip but was much too expensive
   for daily use or what we would now call commuters.

   One of the first railroads in North America was nearby Quincy's Granite
   Railroad in 1826. It was a three-mile, horse-powered railroad, built to
   move large granite stones from the quarries in Quincy, Massachusetts to
   the Neponset River in Milton. As was believed to be the most sturdy -
   and convenient, in this case - method at the time, it was built on a
   deep foundation of granite, setting a precedent for all railroads that
   could afford it. The Granite Railroad showed the Lowell mill owners
   that a railroad could be a practical method of freight transport.

   The owners of the Lowell mills decided that they needed to do something
   about their transportation problem. They looked at the recently
   completed, nearby Granite Railroad and took inspiration. A railroad
   would supply exactly what they wanted. It could run year round, was
   expandable with as many tracks as they might need, and could use the
   new locomotives that were being highly praised in England.

Getting chartered

   Once convinced that they wanted a railroad, they formed a group called
   the Boston Associates. This new group had the task of convincing the
   state legislature that a railroad was a good idea, and later building
   the railroad itself. The former proved very difficult, as the investors
   of the Middlesex Canal were very much against them building a bypass
   that seemed designed to replace their canal and drive them out of
   business.

   Because there was no provision in Massachusetts State law for
   chartering railroads prior to 1872, all railroads had to be chartered
   by special acts of legislature. This made it slow and inefficient to
   charter a railroad because the politicians had to agree; the issue
   would become partisan. This also meant that the legislature would not
   let the Boston Associates build the line unless they could show it was
   completely necessary.

   The case of the Canal investors seemed reasonable and compelling at the
   time, though some aspects are humorous in hindsight. Their argument was
   mainly:
    1. Their investors spent a lot of money on the Canal.
    2. The Canal currently deals with all freight between Boston and
       Lowell.
    3. There is a finite amount of freight to be moved.
    4. The railroad is being built with the main purpose of transporting
       freight between Boston and Lowell.
    5. All the railroad can do is take business away from the Canal.
    6. This will ruin the canal.
    7. The railroad should not be built, or it should be forced to pay
       compensation to the canal's investors.
    8. Failure of the court to force compensation would decrease investor
       confidence and make it much less likely that people would be
       willing to invest in major projects in the future.

   The Boston Associates won because they convinced the legislature that
   the Canal was inherently incapable of providing what they needed:
   reliable, year round, freight transport.

   The Canal operators were also unable to foresee the future worth of
   canals. Before the State Legislature of Massachusetts, the Canal
   spokesperson testified that, "It is believed that no safer or cheaper
   mode of conveyance can ever be established, nor any so well adapted for
   bulky articles" than the Canal. This does not really reflect negatively
   on them because it was a common attitude at the time, but today is
   ironic and amusing.

   The Boston Associates got their charter on June 5, 1830, with no
   provision for reparations to the Canal's investors. It was a favorable
   charter because it allowed for, in addition to the right to build and
   operate a railroad between Boston and Lowell, a thirty-year monopoly on
   the right to have a railroad between the same. The people along the
   road and in terminal end cities bought large amounts of stock,
   financing half the company. These two ideas, monopoly rights to
   discourage competition and public interest in the company as shown by
   the large amount of publicly bought stock, were exactly what the
   argument over the Canal was about. The legislators seem to have
   realized the growth value in giving a monopoly that they more or less
   stole from the Canal, but the Canal's investors seem to have been wrong
   with their final point; people were eager to purchase stock, showing no
   decrease in confidence at all.

Building the railroad

   The Boston Associates, armed with their charter, now had before them
   the task of surveying and building the line. They brought in Mr. James
   Baldwin, son of Col. Laommi Baldwin, who had engineered the canal, to
   do the surveying, and charged him with finding a gently sloped path
   from Boston to Lowell, with few grade crossings and well away from town
   centers. This latter point ended up being quite inconvenient later on.
   The general popular view toward railroads in the late 1820s, when
   Baldwin was preparing to do his surveying, was that railroads were
   smoky, noisy, dirty, fire-causing nuisances that should be kept as far
   away from people as possible. No one had any idea of the future
   possibility of railroads acting as public transportation, or if they
   did they were not paid any attention by the builders or financers of
   the road.

   The right-of-way that Baldwin surveyed did well in each of these
   characteristics. The path sloped up at a gentle ten feet per mile at
   the maximum and there were only three grade crossings over the entire
   26 mile distance. The path was close to the older Middlesex Canal path,
   but was straighter - as boats can turn sharper than trains. To achieve
   this superior linearity it needed small amounts of grade elevation in
   places. The route ignored Medford centre entirely, going through West
   Medford instead, and totally bypassed Woburn and Billerica. This would
   have to be corrected later with various spurs (the one to Medford being
   built off the Boston and Maine Railroad) but were always sources of
   annoyance to both the riders and the operators.

   The proposed route was accepted by the Boston Associates and work began
   the on building phase. The road was begun from both ends at once and
   some sources say that they both started on the right hand side of the
   right-of-way, missing in the middle and having to put in an
   embarrassing reverse curve to tide them over until they built the other
   side. Irish laborers were brought in to do the building, which was made
   especially difficult and heavy because the Boston Associates wanted to
   make the road using the best techniques then known. This, for them,
   meant laying imported British iron rails with a four foot deep wall of
   granite under each rail. They did this because it was commonly believed
   that the train would sink into the ground if the rails did not have
   strong support.

   The first track of the road was completed in 1835 and freight service
   began immediately. The solid granite roadbed proved to be much too
   rigid, jolting the engine and cars nearly to pieces. Repairs on the
   locomotives (there were two at the time) would sometimes take most of
   the night, trying to get them ready for the next day's service. The
   much poorer Boston and Worcester Railroad could not afford a granite
   bed and so was built with the modern wooden ties. This turned out to be
   far superior so the owners of the Boston and Lowell decided they would
   upgrade their entire roadbed to wood when they added a second track.

   The original Boston terminal was at the north corner of Causeway Street
   and Andover Street (halfway between Portland and Friend Streets), at
   the westernmost edge of the current North Station. The bridge over the
   Charles River to access it was the first movable railroad bridge in the
   United States. The original Lowell terminal was at the south corner of
   Merrimack Street and Dutton Street.

Early operation

   The quantity of freight traffic on the Boston and Lowell was large from
   the first, as everyone expected it to be, with several large mills
   needing to be supplied with materials and to have someone take them
   away after processing. The level of passenger traffic, however, was not
   anticipated. People all over were fascinated with the trains, and loved
   that they could get from Boston to Lowell in twenty minutes. Twenty
   minutes meant travelling at over sixty miles per hour and on unwelded
   track on a granite roadbed, which was extremely bumpy. Passenger
   complaints about the rough ride were another reason that the B&L ended
   up switching to wooden ties.

   The B&L was now faced with a problem; it had a reputation for passenger
   speed which made it very popular and highly competitive with
   stagecoaches. Many people, however, did not want to go from Boston to
   Lowell but instead to and from places in between. The B&L decided to
   order another locomotive and some cars for local passenger rail in
   1842, and have them make six stops along the route. Passenger rail
   proved to be almost as profitable as freight.

The Boston and Maine Railroad

   Another railroad began about this time whose fortunes would be closely
   tied to those of the B&L. This road was the Boston and Maine Railroad
   (B&M). This road ran down from Portland Maine, through a bit of
   Southern New Hampshire, to Haverhill in Northeastern Massachusetts,
   connected to the B&L in Wilmington, and then used B&L track to Boston.
   This route was conceptualized in 1834, but took a long time to be
   built, mostly because, unlike the B&L, it did not have a secure base of
   funding like the Lowell Mills. It took two years to get to Andover,
   another to get to Haverhill, three more to get to Exeter, and did not
   get to Portland until 1852.

   This extra traffic on the B&L line, especially with the line still over
   granite, provided the extra impetus to double track and upgrade. In
   1838, the B&L began two years of extensive track improvements, first
   laying a second track on wood, and with that one built, going back and
   re-laying the old track on the more forgiving wood as well. B&L traffic
   continued to increase and even with double tracks, the schedule became
   tight enough that the B&M trains, as renters, began to be pushed around
   to annoying hours, often having to wait over an hour in Wilmington
   before being allowed to proceed on to Boston.

   The B&M soon tired of what they perceived as selfishness and decided to
   build its own track to Boston from Haverhill so that it would not have
   to rely on the B&L. The B&L tried to fight the B&M in court but failed
   because the monopoly granted in its charter was only good for traffic
   between Boston and Lowell. The shortcut, part of today's
   Haverhill/Reading Line, was started in 1844 and was in use by 1848.
   While the B&M was building it, they were still running their trains to
   Boston on the B&L. This made for a lot of conflict, with the B&L trying
   to squeeze every last penny out of the B&M before it lost the
   opportunity. The B&M tried to deal with this in court, and got the
   judge to forbid the B&L from raising rates until the case was done, but
   by the time they were close to an agreement, the bypass was complete.

   With B&M business gone, the B&L realized how much they had been relying
   upon their renters. Additionally, the Lowell mills began to decline
   somewhat and there was less freight traffic for the line to move. Over
   the next four decades, the B&L declined until the more successful B&M
   leased it on April 1, 1887.

Branches

   ca. 1886 map
   Enlarge
   ca. 1886 map

   The B&L built or leased many branches to serve areas not on its
   original line. Immediately before its lease by the B&M in 1887, it had
   five divisions - the Southern Division (including the original line),
   the Northern Division, the White Mountains Division, the Vermont
   Division and the Passumpsic Division. Additionally, it leased the
   Central Massachusetts Railroad in 1886.

Southern Division

   The main part of the Southern Division was the mainline between Boston
   and Lowell.

   Charlestown

   The Charlestown Branch Railroad was not itself taken over by the B&L,
   but as originally built in 1840 it was a short spur from the B&L to
   wharves in Charlestown. In 1845 the Fitchburg Railroad leased it and
   incorporated it into their main line.

   Mystic River

   The Mystic River Branch served the Mystic River waterfront on the north
   side of Charlestown.

   Woburn

   The Woburn Branch Railroad opened in 1845, connecting Woburn to the
   main line towards Boston. The Woburn Branch Extension Railroad, built
   in 1885, continued the line back north to the main line in North
   Woburn. The Horn Pond Branch Railroad was a short freight-only branch
   off the Woburn Branch to ice houses on Horn Pond.

   Stoneham

   The Stoneham Branch Railroad was built in 1862 to connect to Stoneham.

   Lawrence

   The Lowell and Lawrence Railroad was chartered in 1846 to build a line
   between Lowell and Lawrence, which opened in 1848. In 1858 the B&L
   leased the line.

   Salem

   The Salem and Lowell Railroad was chartered in 1848 as a branch from
   the Lowell and Lawrence at Tewksbury Junction to the Essex Railroad at
   Peabody, along which it used trackage rights to Salem. The line was
   opened in 1850 and operated by the Lowell and Lawrence until 1858, when
   the B&L leased it along with the Lowell and Lawrence.

   Wilmington

   The Wilmington Branch, now known as the Wildcat Branch, was built just
   west of the original Boston and Maine Railroad alignment to connect the
   main line at Wilmington to the Salem and Lowell at Wilmington Junction,
   providing a shorter route between Boston and Lawrence.

   Arlington and Concord

   The Lexington and West Cambridge Railroad was chartered in 1845 and
   opened in 1846, connecting the Fitchburg Railroad at West Cambridge to
   Lexington. It was operated by the Fitchburg from opening, and leased to
   the Fitchburg from 1847 to 1859. The line was reorganized as the
   Lexington and Arlington Railroad in 1868. The B&L bought the line in
   1870 and built a new connection to their main line at Somerville
   Junction.

   The Middlesex Central Railroad was chartered in 1872 and opened in
   1873, extending the line from Lexington to Concord. It was leased from
   completion to the B&L. An extension west to the Nashua, Acton and
   Boston Railroad at Middlesex Junction was built in 1879.

   Bedford

   The Billerica and Bedford Railroad was built in 1877 as a narrow gauge
   line between the Middlesex Central at Bedford and the B&L at Billerica.
   It was sold and abandoned in 1878, and the rails were taken to Maine
   for the Sandy River Railroad. A new standard gauge branch was built by
   the B&L in 1885, mostly on the same right-of-way.

   Lowell and Nashua

   The Lowell and Nashua Railroad was chartered in 1836 as an extension of
   the B&L from Lowell north to the New Hampshire state line. The Nashua
   and Lowell Railroad, chartered in 1835, would continue the line in New
   Hampshire to Nashua. The two companies merged in 1838 to form a new
   Nashua and Lowell Railroad, and the road opened later that year. In
   1857 the B&L and N&L agreed to operate as one company from 1860, and in
   1880 the B&L leased the N&L.

   Stony Brook

   The Stony Brook Railroad was chartered in 1845 and opened in 1848,
   connecting the Nashua and Lowell at North Chelmsford with Ayer. The N&L
   leased the Stony Brook in 1848.

   Nashua to Keene

   The Wilton Railroad was chartered in 1844. It opened a line from Nashua
   west to Danforth's Corner in 1848, to Milford in 1850 and to East
   Wilton in 1851. Since completion it was operated by the N&L.

   The Peterborough Railroad was chartered in 1866 to continue the Wilton
   Railroad northwest to Greenfield. In 1873 the N&L leased it; the road
   opened in 1874.

   The Manchester and Keene Railroad was chartered 1864 and opened 1878,
   continuing the Peterborough Railroad west from Greenfield to the
   Connecticut River Railroad in Keene. In 1880 the company went bankrupt,
   and it was operated by the Connecticut River Railroad until 1882, when
   it was bought half-and-half by the B&L and the Concord Railroad.

Other divisions

   Central Massachusetts Railroad

   The Massachusetts Central Railroad was chartered in 1869 to build a
   line east-west across the middle of the state, between the Boston and
   Albany Railroad and the Fitchburg Railroad. The first section opened in
   1881, splitting from the B&L's Arlington Branch at North Cambridge
   Junction, and the company was reorganized as the Central Massachusetts
   Railroad in 1883. The B&L leased the line in 1886, a year before the
   B&M leased the B&L.

   Northern Division

   The Boston, Concord and Montreal Railroad was chartered in 1844, and
   opened in stages from 1848 to 1853, eventually running from Concord to
   Woodsville, New Hampshire. That railroad, along with its branches,
   became part of the B&L Northern Division in 1884, when the B&L leased
   the BC&M.

   The Northern Railroad was also chartered in 1844, opening in 1847 from
   Concord to Lebanon, New Hampshire and later extending to White River
   Junction, Vermont. The B&L leased it in 1884 as another part of its
   Northern Division.

   The only connection between the Southern and Northern Divisions was at
   Hancock Junction, where the Manchester and Keene Railroad (Southern)
   and Peterborough and Hillsborough Railroad (Northern) met.

   In 1889 the BC&M merged with the Concord Railroad to form the Concord
   and Montreal Railroad, taking it out of B&M control until 1895, when
   the B&M leased the C&M.

   White Mountains Division

   The White Mountains Railroad was chartered in 1848 and opened a line
   from Woodsville to Littleton, New Hampshire in 1853. Along with
   extensions and branches, it was leased to the Boston, Concord and
   Montreal Railroad in 1859 and consolidated into it in 1872, becoming
   its White Mountains Division. In 1884 the B&L leased the BC&M and the
   old White Mountains Railroad became the B&L's White Mountains Division.

   The Northern and White Mountains Divisions were connected at
   Woodsville.

   Vermont Division

   The Essex County Railroad (chartered 1864), Montpelier and St.
   Johnsbury Railroad (chartered 1866) and Lamoille Valley Railroad
   (chartered 1867) were consolidated into the Portland and Ogdensburg
   Railroad in 1875 as their Vermont Division. The line was finished in
   1877, and in 1880 it was reorganized as the St. Johnsbury and Lake
   Champlain Railroad, which was taken over by the B&L as their Vermont
   Division. The line did not stay in the B&M system, and the easternmost
   part was leased to the Maine Central Railroad in 1912.

   The White Mountains and Vermont Divisions were connected at Scott's
   Mills, New Hampshire.

   Passumpsic Division

   The Connecticut and Passumpsic Rivers Railroad was organized in 1846
   and opened a line from White River Junction on the Northern Railroad to
   the border with Quebec, Canada in 1867, junctioning the Northern and
   White Mountains Divisions at Wells River and the Vermont Division at
   St. Johnsbury. The Massawippi Valley Railway, leased in 1870, continued
   to Sherbrooke, Quebec, where it junctioned the Grand Trunk Railway
   among others. The B&L leased the line on January 1, 1887, three months
   before the B&M acquired the B&L.

Life as a B&M line

   Over the next 70 years or so, things were reasonably stable and
   constant for the Lowell Line as a part of the B&M's Southern Division.
   Passenger train round trips per day hovered in the low 20's and while
   freight from Lowell itself did not last too long, the Lowell line got
   some traffic from railroads that connected from the west.

Modern times

   Winchester Center, a Lowell Line station in Winchester, MA.
   Enlarge
   Winchester Centre, a Lowell Line station in Winchester, MA.

   In the early 20th century, things began to change. Trucks began to
   increase in popularity, and they got the Eisenhower Interstate System
   to help them. More and more companies began to send freight by trucks.
   This was a bad time for a decline to happen, as the B&M, like most
   other railroads, had just switched over to diesel locomotives, meaning
   that they had large debts. By 1976 the B&M was bankrupt.

   This did not affect passenger service, just freight on the Lowell line,
   because in 1973 the MBTA bought the Lowell line, along with the
   Haverhill and all other local Greater Boston passenger lines. Along
   with the sale, the B&M contracted to run the passenger service on the
   Lowell line for the MBTA. After bankruptcy, The B&M continued to run
   and fulfill its Commuter Rail contract under the protection of the
   Federal Bankruptcy Court, in the hopes that a reorganization could make
   it profitable again. It emerged from the court's protection when
   newly-formed Guilford Transportation Industries (GTI) bought it in
   1983.

   When GTI bought the B&M, commuter rail service was in jeopardy. The
   MBTA had owned the trains and the tracks since 1973, but it had
   outsourced the operation to the B&M. When GTI bought the B&M in 1983,
   it had to honour the B&M contract, but GTI management was very much
   against passenger rail, and, in 1986, as soon as the contract expired,
   they let the job go to Amtrak.

   From 1986 until 2003, Amtrak managed the entirety of Boston's commuter
   rail. It did decently, though at times had strained relations with the
   MBTA. Quibbles centered on equipment failures, numbers of conductors
   per train, and who takes responsibility when trains are late. Because
   of these bad relations and Amtrak's repeated announcements that the
   contract was unreasonable, few people were surprised at Amtrak's
   decision not to bid again for the Commuter Rail contract when it came
   up for renewal in 2003.

   When the MBTA asked for new bids on the Commuter Rail operation
   contract, Amtrak did not bid but Guilford and the Massachusetts Bay
   Commuter Railroad Company did. The MBCR ended up getting the contract.
   When the MBCR began operating the Commuter Rail in July of 2004,
   nothing changed for the commuters as it is the MBTA that owns the
   trains, tracks, and sets the schedules.

   Guilford's main line between Mattawamkeag, Maine and Mechanicville, New
   York now uses the Stony Brook Branch, and the old main line north of
   Lowell. At Lowell it shifts to the B&M's original Lowell Branch to get
   to the B&M main line towards Maine.

   Another recent change on the Lowell line is the addition of the
   Downeaster. The Downeaster is an Amtrak line running from North Station
   to Haverhill and up to Portland. Due to scheduling conflicts with the
   MBTA, the Downeaster runs up the Lowell Line to Wilmington and then out
   the old B&M Wildcat Branch to the Haverhill/Reading Line. This route
   allows the Downeaster to pass a commuter train on the Haverhill/Reading
   Line without scheduling conflicts. The route is also historically
   significant because it is the same route that the original B&M used to
   Portland.

Accessibility

   North Station is wheelchair accessible, as are Anderson RTC and
   stations north of there. See also MBTA accessibility.

Station listing

   Milepost City Station Opening date Connections and notes
   0.0 Boston Handicapped access North Station Orange Line and Green Line
   MBTA Commuter Rail north-side lines
   Amtrak Downeaster service to Maine
   Boston Engine Terminal A flag stop with a wooden platform for MBTA
   employees only
   MBTA Fitchburg Line, Haverhill/Reading Line and Newburyport/Rockport
   Line split
   Cambridge East Cambridge closed
   on the old alignment, west of the current route
   1.9 Somerville Prospect Hill closed
   originally Milk Row
   2.4 Winter Hill closed
   2.8 Somerville Junction closed
   originally Somerville
   split with Lexington and Arlington Branch
   3.6 North Somerville closed
   4.0 Medford Tufts University November 1976 (had been open previously)
   closed October 1979
   originally College Hill
   4.6 Medford Hillside closed
   5.5 West Medford
   7.3 Winchester Wedgemere originally Mystic
   7.8 Winchester Centre split with Woburn Branch
   9.0 Winchester Highlands closed June 1978
   9.8 Woburn Montvale closed
   split with Stoneham Branch
   Lechmere Warehouse 1979 closed 1996
   10.5 Walnut Hill closed January 17, 1965
   11.6 Mishawum September 24, 1984 (had been open previously) originally
   East Woburn
   12.7 Handicapped access Anderson Regional Transportation Centre April
   28, 2001 Amtrak Downeaster service to Maine
   originally South Wilmington (had been open previously)
   Wilmington North Woburn Junction not a station
   merge with Woburn Branch
   15.2 Handicapped access Wilmington split with Wildcat Branch, carrying
   the Amtrak Downeaster service (without stopping here)
   17.0 Silver Lake closed June 27, 1965?
   Billerica East Billerica closed June 27, 1965?
   21.8 Handicapped access North Billerica junction with Bedford and
   Billerica Branch
   24.6 Lowell Bleachery closed
   junction with Lawrence Branch, Lowell and Andover Railroad ( B&M) and
   Lowell and Framingham Railroad ( NYNH&H)
   25.5 Handicapped access Lowell originally Middlesex Street
   junction with Nashua and Lowell Railroad (B&L)
   Merrimack Street closed
   Boston and Maine Railroad subsidiaries
   Eastern ( 1883) - Worcester, Nashua and Portland ( 1886) - Boston and
   Lowell ( 1887) - Passumpsic ( 1887) - Northern ( 1890) - Connecticut
   River ( 1893) - Concord and Montreal ( 1895) - Fitchburg ( 1900)
   Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority ( official site)
   Red Line Alewife – Ashmont / Braintree ––– Ashmont-Mattapan High Speed
   Line: Ashmont – Mattapan
   Green Line Lechmere – Boston College ( "B") / Cleveland Circle ( "C") /
   Riverside ( "D") / Heath Street ( "E") ––– Watertown ( "A")
   Orange Line Oak Grove – Forest Hills ––– Charlestown Elevated –
   Atlantic Avenue Elevated – Washington Street Elevated
   Blue Line Wonderland – Bowdoin
   Silver Line Dudley Square – Downtown Crossing; South Station – various
   points
   Buses List - Crosstown Buses - Former Streetcars - Trackless Trolleys -
   Key Routes - East Boston Area - South Boston - Urban Ring
   Commuter Rail Greenbush – Plymouth/Kingston – Middleborough/Lakeville –
   New Bedford/Fall River – Fairmount – Providence/Stoughton – Franklin –
   Needham – Framingham/Worcester – Fitchburg – Lowell – Haverhill/Reading
   – Newburyport/Rockport - North-South Rail Link
   Miscellaneous Accessibility – Boat service – CharlieCard – Nomenclature
   Predecessors Boston Elevated Railway – Eastern Massachusetts Street
   Railway – Middlesex and Boston Street Railway

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   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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