The Red Line

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The Red Line is an expansion of the former West Line that once terminated at Harvard Square. During the 1980's the Red Line was expanded to its present terminal at Alewife Road. The expansion included a deep subway tunnel with Porter Square most likely being one of the deepest subway stations in the United States. Construction of the expansion was by boring the tunnel rather than the cut and fill method used on other subways in the city to minimize any traffic disruptions. On the north end the Red Line does run above ground where it crosses the Charles River on the Longfellow Bridge. The one station is the Charles/MGH station where several shots were taken. Heading south the line submerges again where it ends up at the historic Park station. Passengers can board the Green Line at that point. The line heads south where it ultimately splits with one branch going to Ashmont where passengers can board the historic heritage trolley service of the Mattapan-Ashmont PCC High Speed Line. The other branch goes to Braintree where there is a direct connection to the Purple (commuter) Line.

Porter station, located at Massachusetts Ave (Mass Ave) and Somerville is the focal point of different MBTA services.  On the street is the 77 which goes on Mass Ave from Harvard Square To Arlington.  If you notice the trackless trolley wires they're for rush hour service on Mass Ave. and regular service on lines radiating out from Harvard Square.  The Cambridge Garage is down the street where the fleet of trackless trolleys are stored and serviced.  The square itself has two entrances.  The first is to the Purple Commuter Line whose final destination is Fitchburg. Passengers can transfer between the Red and Purple lines. The second entrance is for the Red Line.  After going down one flight on the escalator you reach a mezzanine where commuters can purchase tickets or the Charlie Ticket ©,  There is always a customer assistant either in the booth by the turnstile or the area to help out.   After going through the turnstile another set of escalators takes you to the tracks which is at least three flights below.  The tracks are at different levels with the outbound tracks a level below though the tracks are not stacked on top of each other.

Column 1
1	Entrance to the Fitchburg Commuter Line
2	Entrance to the Red Line Kiosk to the station.
3	The very long trip to the trains - notice art work.
Column 2
1	A six car Red Line train pulls out of Porter towards Alewife.
2	A 1700 Class car at Porter Station.
3	Passenger gets off 1800 class Bombardier car at Porter Station.
Column 3
1	It's a long way up that escalator from the trains to the mezzanine.
2	The 4 PM commuter train on the Purple Line gets ready to load passengers at the Porter station.
3	All Purple Line commuter trains are push-pull.
Column 4
1	Two Views of New Flyer DL40 Low Floor buses delivered 2006-07
2	Both taken on Mass Ave. at Porter Square.

   

The Mattapan-Ashmont High Speed Trolley was not in service at the time the webmaster was in Boston.  Stations were being rehabbed to conform to ADA regulations and the historic PCC cars were also being modified to include air conditioning.  The service was restored during December, 2007.  Here is a teaser picture of one of the cars as well as  a CNG bus at the layover spot doing the trolley shuttle honors at Mattapan.  Presently Boston has a large number of Compressed Natural Gas buses in their fleet to cut down on pollutants.

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Red Line (Cabot Shops)
Red Line Fleet (220 cars)

Fleet notes: 01600s and 01800s are married pairs, 01500s and 01700s are self-contained units, but in practice are operated as pairs. 01500s were built with double-ended cabs, but rebuilt to single-ended.
01800s can only trainline with their own group

Red Line Active Fleet: 218 cars (74 #1 cars, 58 #2 cars, and 86 #3 cars):
01500/01501 through 01522/01523, 01600/01601, 01602/01603, 01606/01607 through 01650/01651
01700/01701 through 01756/01757   (cars 01714/01715, 01732/01733, 01752/01753 held for truck and suspension repairs)
01800/01801 through 01884/01885   (01816/01817 held for parts)

Out of Service Red Line cars: 2  cars (2 #1 cars):
Stored at Codman Yard, not rebuilt, wrecked 08/75, parts source (2 #1 cars): 01604, 01605

A mid-life overhaul program for the 01700-01757 series of cars is expected to begin in 2009. In February 2008, the MBTA awarded an engineering service contract to Booz, Allen, and Hamilton to help evaluate if a mid-life program should be performed in-house or contracted out, and to help develop specifications if it is contracted out.

Red Line Work Cars (13 cars)

Additional maintenance of way equipment maintained by automotive maintenance, that can be used on all four rapid transit lines such as tampers, hi-rail equipment, ballast cars, etc. are not included in table.
Peak vehicle requirement for Red Line is 162 cars (11 six-car trains for Ashmont, 15 six-car trains for Braintree, 1 run as directed six-car train)

Material from various sources including Wikipedia

Updated 12 September 2008 01.00 hrs.

copyright 2007-08