Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway

The Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway (Eastern Mass. ) was a tram and later bus company in the eastern part of the state of Massachusetts in the United States, which connected most suburbs of Boston with each other.

History

The Eastern Mass was founded in 1892 with the start of operation of a route from Reading to Billerica. In 1895 a line was used, which went on their route to and from Woburn by Wilmington. The trams were a very popular form of transport for the urban population, who worked in Woburn and Wilmington or there wanted to spend their leisure time. Because of their extensive network, the company had many connections to the Boston Elevated Railway.

In 1919, integrated the Eastern Mass, the Bay State Street Railway, which was active in the Boston environment in turn since 1911 and took over the operations of the Boston & Northern Street Railway.

In the 1930s and 1940s, however, the trams lost in the course of the growing automotive industry and improved road connections in popularity. The Eastern Mass sat then propagated buses and continued only a few of its tram lines, but these were finally shut down in 1952 and replaced by buses.

The Eastern Mass. in 1968 was sold to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority ( MBTA ), which took over the bus and operates for the most part today. Routes outside the catchment area of the MBTA were transferred to the Brockton Area Transit Authority, Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority and Lowell Regional Transit Authority.