Red Line (MBTA) - History

History

The Red Line was the last of the four original Boston subway lines (Green, Orange, Blue) to begin construction. The section from Harvard station and Eliot Yard connecting to Park Street station and the Tremont Street Subway opened on March 23, 1912. At Harvard, a prepayment station was provided for easy transfer to streetcar routes operating in a separate tunnel (now the Harvard Bus Tunnel). Opening of the line required construction of the Cambridge Tunnel just beneath Massachusetts Avenue and Main Street from Harvard onto the (now historic) Longfellow Bridge. The line occupied a previously constructed rail right-of-way in the center of the bridge. On the Boston side of the bridge, the line briefly transformed into an elevated railway, rising over Charles Circle and connecting to another tunnel dug through Beacon Hill to Park Street. Further extensions (built as the Dorchester Tunnel) to Washington Street and South Station Under opened on April 4, 1915 and December 3, 1916, with transfers to the Washington Street Tunnel and Atlantic Avenue Elevated respectively. Further extensions opened to Broadway on December 15, 1917 and Andrew on June 29, 1918, both prepayment stations for streetcar transfer. The Broadway station included an upper level with its own tunnel for streetcars, which was abandoned in 1919 due to most lines being truncated to Andrew. The upper level has since been incorporated into the mezzanine.

Next came the Dorchester Extension, now known as the Ashmont Branch. The branch followed a rail right-of-way created in 1870 by the Shawmut Branch Railroad. In 1872, the right-of-way was acquired by the Old Colony Railroad to connect the main line at Harrison Square with the Dorchester and Milton Branch Railroad, running from the Old Colony at Neponset, west to what is now Mattapan station. The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad succeeded Old Colony in operating the branch and rail passenger service ceased in anticipation of the Boston Elevated Railway expansion on September 4, 1926,

The Boston Elevated opened the first phase of the Dorchester Extension to Field's Corner station on November 5, 1927. Service ran south from Andrew station, turned southeast to the surface, and ran along the west side of the Old Colony mainline in a depressed right-of-way. Columbia station and Savin Hill station were built on the surface at the sites of former Old Colony stations. The remainder of the extension opened to Ashmont station and Codman Yard on September 1, 1928, and included a station - Shawmut - where there had been no Old Colony station due to the relatively close proximity to Fields Corner. The first phase of the Ashmont-Mattapan High Speed Line opened on August 26, 1929, using the rest of the Shawmut Branch right-of-way, including Cedar Grove station, and part of the old Dorchester and Milton Branch.

The color red was assigned on August 26, 1965 to what had been called the Cambridge-Dorchester Tunnel and marked on maps as route 1. The color was chosen because the line then ended at Harvard University, whose school color is crimson.

The first section of the South Shore Line opened on September 1, 1971. This line branched from the original line at a flying junction north of Columbia and ran along the west side of the Old Colony right-of-way (since reduced to one track), crossing to the east side north of Savin Hill. Its northernmost station was North Quincy, with two others at Wollaston and Quincy Center. The rest of the line, the Braintree Extension (first planned by the Boston Transportation Planning Review) to Braintree station, opened March 22, 1980, and the intermediate station at Quincy Adams station opened on September 10, 1983.

The first part of the Northwest Extension, the relocation of Harvard station, was finished on September 6, 1983. During construction, several temporary stations were built at Harvard Square. The old Eliot Yard was demolished; Harvard's Kennedy School of Government now sits inside the retaining walls built for the railyard. Subsequent extensions to Porter station and Davis station on December 8, 1984, and to Alewife station on March 30, 1985 brought the Red Line to its current terminus. This extension was scaled back from the original plan to extend the Red Line from Harvard to Route 128 in Lexington via the former B&M/MBTA Bedford Branch railroad right-of-way. That plan had been supported by the Town of Lexington but was scuttled by fierce anti-urban sentiment in parts of Arlington. The right-of-way on which the extension would have been built instead was developed into the Minuteman Bikeway.

Platforms on older stations were lengthened in the late 1980s to allow six-car trains, which first ran January 21, 1988. During the expansion, the MBTA pioneered an investment in the "Arts on the Line" public art program. A platform on the South Shore Line opened at JFK/UMass (formerly Columbia) on December 14, 1988.

In 1968, letters were assigned to the south branches - "A" for Quincy (planned to extend to South Braintree) and "C" for Ashmont. "B" was probably reserved for a planned branch from Braintree to Brockton. As new rollsigns were made, this lettering was phased out. In 1994, new electronic signs included a different labeling - "A" for Ashmont, "B" for Braintree and "C" for Alewife.