History of The MBTA - MTA Incorporation and Takeovers

MTA Incorporation and Takeovers

In 1947, the newly-formed Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) purchased and took over subway, elevated, streetcar, and bus operations from the Boston Elevated Railway. The original MTA district consisted of 14 cities and towns — Arlington, Belmont, Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Malden, Medford, Milton, Newton, Revere, Somerville and Watertown.

The last two streetcar lines running into the Pleasant Street Portal of the Tremont Street Subway were substituted with buses in 1953 and 1962, and the portal has since been covered over by a public park.

Between 1952 and 1954, the Revere Extension (now part of the Blue Line) opened to Wonderland, mostly along the former narrow-gauge Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad right-of-way.

In 1959, MTA streetcar service opened on what is now the Riverside Green Line "D" Branch, connecting to the Boylston Street Subway and using trackage purchased from the New York Central Railroad, which had stopped running on the line the previous year. The new service required much more rolling stock than expected, due to heavy ridership.

Also in 1959, with the opening of the Southeast Expressway, the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad halted passenger service on the former Old Colony Railroad lines. Replacement rapid transit service was promised. but did not open until nearly a decade later.