The Tufts Daily

Welcome back to Tales from the T! Every other week, I’ll be diving into a story about the history and future of the T and other transportation around Boston. I get to indulge in my pathological obsession with trains and you … I don’t know, might learn something interesting along the way, I guess. It’s […]

For my last column, we’ll talk about the station nearest and (questionably) dearest to all of us: Davis Square. Today, it’s the most convenient place to catch a train to downtown (at least before the GLX opens in 2050). But before there was the Red Line, you could catch other trains at Davis: luxury sleeper […]

In my last column, I talked about the Silver Line, the black sheep of the T. To recap: The Silver Line was designed as Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) — buses providing subway-like service using several key design features, including high-capacity stations and dedicated lanes. What we got instead was a haphazard cocktail of overpriced construction, […]

Today’s topic is a laughable excuse of a project, a dumping ground of wasted potential and crushed dreams, a mere shadow of what it should have been. No, not you, the Silver Line. The Silver Line was envisioned as Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), a transit mode that uses design features like off-board fare payment and […]

You might know that Boston has the oldest subway system in North America, with the Green Line’s central section dating back to 1897. But did you also know that part of the Red Line runs over the oldest commercial railway in the United States, dating back to 1826? Today, let’s discuss the Red Line’s Braintree […]

Today we’ll be exploring the Green Line’s D branch. The D, running from Kenmore to Riverside, has one of the most unique, convoluted histories of all the T’s lines, evolving from an intercity steam railroad into a modern subway line.  Today’s D is composed of several separately built segments. The line first opened in 1848, […]

In my previous column, we discussed the proposed West Station, a transit hub designed to accommodate a new Indigo Line, a brand-new system of rail lines slated to open in 2024. Spoiler alert: It won’t. But the story of the Indigo Line and its demise is a fascinating (if infuriating) one, and one with consequences […]

Anyone who’s traveled to the neighborhood of Allston knows how difficult it can be, requiring a trek from the Green Line, a bus ride through traffic or a drive along twisting highways. But a massive new project is promising to change all this by bringing a frequent rail service from South Station, Worcester and Kendall […]

The T, greater Boston’s transit system, is one of the quickest, cheapest ways to get around the city — but it can certainly be confusing for first-time riders. Maybe you’re from the suburbs and are too used to driving everywhere. Or maybe you’re from outside the U.S. and are too used to trains that actually […]

Welcome to Tales from the T part 2: Electric Boogaloo! Each week we’ll be diving into a story about the T and other forms of Boston transportation. Who knows, some of them might even be interesting. For this week’s column, we’ll be discussing a hilariously awful type of train that once ran on the Green […]