MBTA Accessibility - Subways

Subways

• All stations on the Orange Line and Red Line are accessible and all have high level platforms on the same level as train car doors, except for Wollaston on the Red Line proper and Valley Road on the Mattapan Line (see below). Porter is not accessible (as of June 2012) due to elevator maintenance that started in March 2011. "During this time, an accessible bus shuttle will be provided between Porter Sq. and Davis Sq."

• Stations on the Blue Line are wheelchair accessible except for Government Center and Bowdoin. Reconstruction of the State Street station started in 2005, including the addition of accessibility on the Bowdoin-bound (inbound) platform. As of April 2011 the project is complete and both platforms are now accessible, with only cosmetic work remaining. All Blue Line stations have high level platforms which should be on the same level as train car doors, although in a few stations, the actual alignment between the floor of the train and the station platform may be sufficiently mismatched that a wheelchair user will need to ask the train crew for assistance.

Bowdoin was originally scheduled to be closed permanently in 2008, but has been kept open due to lack of funds for an additional entrance to Government Center that would have removed some of the need for Bowdoin. As of 2011, design work is ongoing for a complete rebuild of Government Center station, including complete wheelchair access to all platforms. Bowdoin will remain open during the Government Center rebuild, but likely will be closed permanently afterwards. For more details, see the article on Government Center and the Red Line Blue Line Connector project described there.

• The Green Line runs trolley cars, and only newer vehicles (MBTA Type 8, also called "Breda") have low-floor, wheelchair accessible entrances; these entrances are only wheelchair accessible at the minority of stations that have matching raised platforms, although a few stations that lack such platforms have been equipped with portable lifts or wayside ramps.

The low-floor wheelchair access is by means of a bridge plate that extends from the vehicle to the platform (which requires that the platform have been upgraded to match). This is much less demanding upon the operator and requires much less time than use of the portable lifts. However, it is often necessary to remind the driver of the need for the ramp to be extended when a wheelchair passenger has reached the desired destination; the blue button with the universal disabled symbol located inside near the door is for this purpose.

Low-floor Type 8 vehicles are now running on the D branch of the Green Line (starting in December 2008), after a track upgrade to accommodate them without danger of derailment. With this upgrade, low-floor streetcar service is available on all branches of the Green Line, and all 2-car trains are supposed to contain at least one low-floor streetcar, although as noted above, this is actually usable for wheelchair access only at a minority of stations; single-car trains may still lack low-floor access, and in actual practice, occasional 2-car all-high-floor trains do run in service.

Access to the older high-floor vehicles requires either a portable lift or a wayside ramp equipped with a bridge that can be lowered into the vehicle through one of the doors. Use of the portable lifts to load and unload wheelchair-using passengers requires considerable physical effort from the operator (usually the driver) and may require several minutes.

• The Mattapan portion of the Red Line run runs older, high floor PCC trolley cars. Wheelchair ramps with hinged metal bridges have been installed at each station except for Valley Road, which has a long staircase from the platform to street level, which makes the platform itself inaccessible for wheelchair users.