Dorchester Avenue (Boston) - Public Transportation

Public Transportation

The Dorchester Avenue Railroad, one of the first street railways in Boston, started operations in 1857, eventually running over the full length (from downtown to the Neponset River). When the road was realigned around 1899, the tracks were moved, ending at a line along Summer Street.

As the Red Line opened in the 1910s and 1920s, parallel to Dorchester Avenue, most through passengers switched to that, and local routes were rerouted to feed into the new subway. Tracks were removed by the 1950s. Today the Red Line Ashmont Branch is sometimes referred to as the Dorchester Ave. Line.

Nowadays the only bus routes to use the road are local routes to subway stations:

Note: routes that use Dorchester Avenue for only a few blocks are not listed.

• 18 Ashmont—Andrew via Dorchester Avenue
• 27 Mattapan—Ashmont via River Street and Dorchester Avenue
• 217 Wollaston Beach—Ashmont via Adams, East Milton Square and Beale Street
• 240 Ashmont—Avon Square via Crawford Square Randolph