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In 1631, Thomas Williams made a ferry service to run from the North End to CHarlestown. In the 1700s the first stagecoach in Boston opened and ran from Boston to Cambridge. Later, in the 1800s, a bigger stagecoach called Omnibus started making stops on existing roads. New horse lines were created between Central Square and Bowdoin Square. This line lead to many companies serving the city of Boston. The smaller companies grouped together to become the West End Street Railway.

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After lots of service, Boston’s horses were getting expensive to feed and maintain, and overworked. Boston then came up with the idea to add electric powered streetcars which were a new, and faster way for public transport. Along with that, there was also no long term expenses with streetcars. In 1889 the train route from Braintree Street in Allston to Park Square in Back Bay was finished. It was created by Henry M. Whitney. After that inaugural line the number of them just kept increasing.

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1897: The Hemisphere’s First Subway Emerges

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1897: The Hemisphere’s First Subway Emerges

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The MBTA was becoming very crowded as it became more and more popular. Because of that, Boston appointed the Rapid Transit Commision to give ideas for the new railway lines. They gave ideas for four elevated railway lines and 1 tunnel for the streetcars on Tremont Street. The company also created the Boston Elevated Railway Company. The subway line on Tremont was up and running in fall of 1897. Lots of MBTA riders were very excited in the changes being made to the T. As Boston entered the 20th century many more subways and elevated train lines were built.

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In January of 1899 Boston’s Elevated Railway Company build 7 miles of elevated track that was colored olive green. They also build 10 stations for the track and 2 multilevel terminals, as well as supplied 150 train cars for the T. The main elevated train line that was built was the Dudley Square to Sullivan Square (Roxbury to Charlestown). It was opened in 1901. There was also the Everett to Forest Hills line that was able to be ridden on in 1909. In 1930, the percent people riding the T or walking was 75%, which is 41% more than the percent of people who rode the T in 2018. By 1943 there were 52 open streetcar lines.

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In 1947, the Metropolitan Transit Authority took over the El (The Boston Elevated Railway Company). The Metropolitan Transit Authority was “a political subdivision of the Commonwealth” which served 14 cities in the Boston area. During this time, the large transit system was getting very crowded with many elevated tracks and not much underground.

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The Newton Highlands Branch of the Boston and Albany track was expanded in 1957 and gave service in 1959. Today, this is the Green Line D Branch. There were also some lines removed like the Orange Line El, which was entirely demolished in 2004. As more and more people owned cars at the time, the amount of traffic grew higher and higher, making more people ride the T. Because of the large increase of people taking the train, the MTA lost a lot of money and grew lots of debt as it tried to keep up with demand. Because of  these problems, the state decided to combine all the railroads into one big public transportation system, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, which formed in 1964. The MBTA immediately applied for funding from the country to modernize 10 train stations, Copley, Maverick, Prudential, Orient Heights, Governmental Center/Blue and Green Lines, Fields Corner, Columbia, Kenmore, Haymarket, and Arlington.

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Due to gas prices riding for car, the amount of people riding the MBTA grew a lot in the 1970s. This exposed the T’s continuous aging more and more, which led to it being shut down in 1980. People thought they would never ride the T again. To prevent this from happening again, the MBTA added more board members to 7 people. This was to prevent future calamities sooner rather than later. By 2009, the MBTA had joined the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDot). In the past 10 years though, the T has continued to struggle because of age, debt, lack of repair and population growth of the area.