Boston Elevated Railway

The Boston Elevated Railway ( Bery ) was the forerunner of the Metropolitan Transit Authority and thus today's Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority in the state of Massachusetts in the United States. She entertained trams, subways and bus lines in the area of Boston. Previously, Bery was known as the West End Street Railway.

The subway lines were in course of time to the present lines Red Line, Blue Line and Orange Line. The only remaining trams are the different branches of the Green Line and the Ashmont - Mattapan High Speed ​​Line, all other lines were replaced by buses.

The Boston Elevated Railway has worked in the following cities:

• Arlington
• Belmont
• Boston including the eingemeindeten cities
• Brookline
• Cambridge
• Chelsea
• Everett
• Malden
• Medford
• Newton
• Revere
• Somerville
• Stoneham
• Watertown

Additionally drove trams other companies from neighboring cities and areas across the tracks of the Boston Elevated Railway.

History

The beginnings to 1900

The Bery was originally founded as the West End Street Railway in 1887 to build a short, electrified light rail route to Brookline. The following year, the company already owned several horses tracks with a total of 7,816 horses and 1,480 railcars. With the growth of the consideration was made to abolish the horses and instead to rely on a set into the ground cable that should work similarly to the San Francisco Cable Cars. After a visit to Frank Sprague and seeing the system in Richmond Henry Whitney decided as president of the West End Street Railway to introduce an electric drive system.

In a section of the railroad system of Bentley -Knight has been tested, but left due to error vulnerability and security concerns fall, especially after 1889, some horses had been killed by an electric shock. Comparative tests between the systems of Sprague and the Thomson - Houston Electric Company was in favor of Thomson - Houston, who then won the contract for equipping the entire railway system of the West End Street Railway with overhead lines. The electrified system was described in 2004 as " a milestone in Electrical Engineering ."

The first electric streetcar, which was built by the West End Street Railway, drove from Union Square on Allston and Park Square to the city center via the Harvard Street, Beacon Street, Massachusetts Avenue and Boylston Street. The first trams wrong there 1889. Later, the Green Line A drove approximately the same distance.

The last horse-drawn trolley line ran along the Marlborough Street in Boston's Back Bay and was never electrified. The line was closed in 1900.

1900-1947

In the late 19th century, the electricity supply was still in the early stages of their development, and the power supply was largely still in the planning phase. Undertakings that need power for their operation, hence could not rely on an existing infrastructure and had to take care of themselves for a suitable wiring. The Bery therefore built their own power generators, which allowed for decentralized power generation in Boston's center, Allston, Cambridge, Dorchester, Charlestown, East Cambridge and East Boston around 1897. In 1904, the system produced an output of 36 megawatts, supplying 421 mi ( 677.5 km ) walk-in tracks with more than 1,550 vehicles and 16 mi ( 25.7 km ) elevated tracks with 174 vehicles with power.

In 1922, the first bus of the company which went from Union Square Allston over to Faneuil Street was born. This route was later part of today's bus route 64

The difficult overland transport of coal from the port of Boston and the short range of the DC system prevent an expansion in the interior. In 1911, therefore, a large generating station in South Boston was built, the generated alternating current with a frequency of 25 Hertz, which could be transferred with high electrical voltage over long distances. Distributed in the network, there were smaller stations which transformed the incoming voltage to the use of the vehicles to a suitable level. 1931 such stations in use and the whole power of the Company were 14 converted to alternating current. Built in 1911 generating station remained in operation until 1981, when the MBTA decided externally buy power from local utilities instead of its production.

The first route, which was served by trolleybuses, was opened on April 11, 1936 Route 77 (later 69) of Harvard after Lechmere via Cambridge Street. Even today, take trolleybuses from Harvard on routes 71, 72, 73 and 77A.

The business of the company were taken over by the Metropolitan Transit Authority ( MTA), later the MBTA emerged from the, in 1947.