The Tufts Daily

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 […]

I think by now it’s time to address the elephant in the station — and I don’t mean Jumbo’s flattened corpse. Let’s talk about the Green Line Extension, or GLX: What is its history, what will it bring, why did we spend $2 million to name one station, I mean seriously, who on Earth thought […]

Boston’s streetcars have a fascinating history and legacy that deserve a look in their own right. As congestion and climate change worsens, it may soon be time to ditch our polluting cars and buses, and give streetcars another chance.

The Mattapan trolley, known to its friends as the M Line and to its mother as the Ashmont-Mattapan High Speed Line, is quite the quirky (insert sparkle emoji) little line. Shuttling between Ashmont and Mattapan, it’s part of the Red Line, but runs streetcars (trolleys) instead of subway trains. And these aren’t the Green Line’s modern streetcars, but PCC streetcars, a revolutionary 1930s-era model whose innovative, reliable engineering made it a mainstay on streetcar lines across the globe. 

What do CharlieCards, burlesque and the second coming of Christ have in common? In this week’s column: Government Center station, Charlie's backstory and the monstrosity that is Boston City Hall.

Part of the Orange Line until 1987, the Washington Street Elevated was then demolished, ostensibly due to its noise and age. The Orange Line was then rerouted westward to its current route, in a trench alongside commuter and intercity trains. If postwar planners had their way, the line would also have run alongside an eight-lane expressway. What happened?

Last week, we discussed the inconvenient transfers between North Station and South Station. But it hasn’t always been this way — at one point there were two railroads connecting them. What happened to them? Why do Boston’s streets allegedly smell like molasses in the summer? Why do I always push away the people I love most? We’ll answer two of these questions this week, with our story starting back in 1872. 

In last week’s column we discussed the history of the Lowell Line that runs by Tufts, so perhaps it’s fitting to now discuss a plan proposed for its future. It’s a plan that could bring modern electric commuter trains from Tufts through downtown Boston to Allston, Wellesley and even Providence, via a true regional transportation […]