Results tagged “silverline”

The Silver Line now runs from Dudley Station to South Station. The bus is called Silver Line 4, SL4 on the maps, and it went into operation today. Bostonist joined a throng of real reporters and state and local politicians on the first SL4 to South Station, which left Dudley a little after 1 p.m. and arrived a little after 1:30 p.m. more ›

So, we're feeling a little sheepish about the fact that we made fun of the MBTA's decision to include the nonexistent Silver Line Connector on its new maps. It turns out that the T is about a month away from debuting the new service. more ›

Remember the Silver Line? The world's fanciest and most often maligned bus routes will finally be joined by the world's most expensive tunnel if the MBTA has its way. The "Little Dig" (or, more formally, "Silver Line Phase III") will cost more than $1.2 billion, take more than five years to complete, and quite possibly cause the entire Bay Village neighborhood to slide below the Earth's crust. The completely broke MBTA has no plan to pay for the project, aside from federal matching funds, which would leave the T on the hook for more than $500 million, plus any budget overruns. Every blogger in Boston thinks that it's a bad idea. How about you? more ›

The fight over the mayor's pet project of moving City Hall to South Boston is about to fire up again. Mayor Menino has been dreaming of escaping the concrete confines of the current City Hall and its depressing plaza. Hence, the City Council is putting up a fight by launching an exploratory committee. (That's how American politicians do things--they don't get into a fistfight. They form opposing committees.) more ›

If you saw the Boston Herald cover for today, you might think the Red Line is crawling with gropers--or, as Bostonist likes to call them, "T Bags"--even though it's the Green Line that spawned its own groper only recently. But Jessica Heslam took a look at the MBTA's recent crime reports and writes, more ›

The MBTA is making like Santa Claus, increasing the number of times the 111 and 15 buses run and boosting the Silver Line for the holidays. Now they've announced that the trolley between the Ashmont and Mattapan stops is back in business. more ›

--Former Boston City Councilor, Albert "Dapper" O'Neil, who probably enjoyed the best nickname bestowed up on a councilor, passed away at age 87. The Globe used many adjectives to describe him, all of which can be freely interpreted, such as "irascible" and "colorful." He opposed desegregation and, in the words of the Globe, "railed against feminists, gays, and immigrants." [Boston Globe] more ›

Snow emergencies have been declared in Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville. Here's the dirt on parking and getting around: more ›

Just when we got our hopes up that Mayor Thomas Menino had forgotten about his plans to move City Hall to South Boston, he declared yesterday that the move is still very much on his mind. Jay Fitzgerald reported that Menino spoke at a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce breakfast yesterday, and he said that he'd like to sell the current City Hall space at Government Center and then use the money to move.... more ›

It's official. You can now put Charlie in your cell phone or on your computer. The T has a big, fat announcement on its home page, featuring an image of a gleeful woman. She's happy now, but she hasn't seen the charges that will result from all her text messages. Anyway, Bostonist has signed up. You can choose the "mode of service" you prefer: commuter rail, subway, bus, silver line, and boat. (Thank goodness... more ›

a Herald review shows passengers at busy MBTA stations such as Forest Hills in Jamaica Plain, Ruggles in Roxbury and Dorchester’s Ashmont stop are most likely to be victims of assaults, robberies and other mayhem. Watch out, "other mayhem" may afflict you next time you're looking to hop a train. The Herald has a write-up today (with interactive -but incorrectly labled (thanks for the tip reader GreenLine) - maps if you head to the website)... more ›

Today most of the MBTA system will be running on a Saturday schedule anticipating lighter rider-ship on the Martin Luther King holiday. Of course there's to "advisory" posted on the website, it's just a press release. The Saturday Schedule might be better for a T rider looking to get to Jamaica Plain than, say, a Friday Schedule. A tip to the blog Charlie on the MBTA indicates that the T’s Trip Planning website is having... more ›

Yesterday the fanfare that has been the opening celebration for the new ICA building in the Seaport district opened to the general public for a 12 hour free ride in the new space. The news today is that nearly 5,000 people visited the new facility over the course of the day, many of whom had positive things to say about it even after a two hour wait. The museum opened at 9 am and... more ›

Boston awoke this morning to the news we dread, more Big Dig stories. Last night, sometime around 11 pm a large hunk of ceiling in the Turnpike connector tunnel came crashing down when a steel tieback let go. The three ton slab of concrete crushed a car; while the driver was rescued alive the passenger in the vehicle was killed. The stretch of turnpike connector to the Ted Williams Tunnel is closed until at least mid-day tomorrow. more ›

People in Boston have gotten pretty good at finding new and innovative ways to clear up the rainy day blues. Still in our collective memory is a two-week long wash out that had everyone wondering if we would ever see summer – or just have to build an ark real quick. With gray skies all day today and a weekend looking like it will be another washout, there is a never fail way to... more ›

The Celtics didn’t make the NBA playoffs. The Bruins didn’t make the NHL playoffs. So what’s happening at the TD BankNorth Garden? Not much. The action underneath the Garden is today’s news. Dan Grabauskas announced today that the commuter train platforms for Amtrak and the Commuter Rail will see a more than 100% increase in size by November. If completed this would be an amazing feat for the MBTA, which has been working on... more ›

Trains go fast and have a lot of momentum behind them. We don’t think of the Green Line as a train system, we say “trolley” and mean it, it’s a streetcar, light rail, whatever you want to dub it, we can beat it on bike no problem. There are all sorts of crazy crossings when the Green Line has right of way and others where they’re going to have to stop and wait for the... more ›

Bostonist is scrambling to make sure that all our servers and home computers are ready for y2k. The date will roll over in a matter of months and our computer will start thinking we live in 1900. The Big Dig will be complete: tunnels and bridges open, and a beautiful greenway will roll past the North End and Haymarket, the Green Line will extend into Somerville and Silver Line service will run smoothly connecting Dudley Square to the Airport. Oh, wait. It’s 2006. We forgot. FutureBoston has this snazzy video posted on their website to let us know what to expect after 2000. Most of the Big Dig projects have been completed and Armageddon didn’t hit when computers rolled past midnight on 1999. We’re not living in fantasy-land so it isn’t surprising that there is still some work to be done and contentious issues to solve. Take a look at what the “block” will show you. more ›

Bostonist has found that biking around the city is much more convenient that other vehicular travel. Boston may be a walking city, but when you’re looking to get from Central Square to Centre St., the bike ride is only about 20 minutes, it’ll take you that long in a car with no traffic, and a bit longer if you’re taking the subway or busses. The Southwest Corridor park is one of our favorite ways to... more ›

The Globe tells us this morning us that soon, soon, the T will be fully converted to automated fare cards, a la New York (but hopefully without any crippling strikes). CharlieTicket [sic], as the card is known (the MBTA, ever hip to the latest typographical trends, eschewed the space between two words but preserved the capitalization of the second word), will allow free transfers from bus to subway, T top dog Dan Grabauskas promises, though no word on whether that will work in reverse (why wouldn't it, you ask? Because it's the T). Also, there appears nary a suggestion (that Bostonist can find, anyway) that the CharlieTicket might be used to allow a transfer from the red to the blue lines, which are achingly close but require riders to take a third line one stop for a connection. Our step-father-in-law, who lives along the Silver Line in the South End, reports that the implementation of CharlieTicket has slowed things down considerably on that already slow T line bus, but Grabauskas swears that won't last. Grabauskas also claims the use of the fare card will cut down on turnstile-jumping (though we're not sure exactly how). Bostonist wonders, though, whether he's considered the other types of illicit behavior that might arise: We recall from our days as a Brooklynist that the introduction of the MetroCard in New York spawned a cottage industry of people who purchased unlimited ride cards then hung around the station selling discounted fares (see #4). The city quickly figured this out and put a 17-minute time limit between uses of the unlimited cards, but that just encouraged people to buy multiple cards and rotate them. Bostonist looks forward to seeing how local entrepreneurs will take on the system. more ›

The Globe reports that state environmental officials are giving the nod to the Green Line extension (to Union Square in Somerville and West Medford); more stops on the Fairmount commuter line in Mattapan, Dorchester, and Hyde Park; and more parking spots all around the area. Mass transit advocates are, understandably, dissatisfied, as JP is getting the short end of the stick, the Silver Line continues to be the stupidest "train" ever, and the Blue and... more ›

The Boston Globe may actually have something interesting to run in the Sidekick this week. The story emerged earlier today that, unlike other metropolitan areas , the MBTA was experiencing the lowest volume in riders since 2000. Boston.com started collecting riders opinions at 6:30 a.m. this morning, an early hour to start catching the flack that T riders are so easy to provide about their travels. We presume this question of the day will make... more ›