Red Line (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority)
The Red Line is the newest of the four MBTA subway lines in the Boston, Massachusetts metro area. It has its northwestern terminus at the Alewife station near Fresh Pond in West Cambridge, meets the Green Line at Park Street and the Orange Line at Downtown Crossing, and splits into two branches south of South Boston. One branch terminates at Braintree, and the other at Ashmont in Dorchester with a trolley extension to Mattapan.The Red Line gets its name from crimson, the school color of Harvard University. Until 1985, when it was extended to Alewife, the Red Line terminated at Harvard Square.
The Red Line was originally known as the Cambridge-Dorchester Tunnel. The segment from Harvard to Park Street Under opened first, on March 23, 1912, followed quickly with extensions southward to Washington Street and South Station by late 1916. Service was extended to South Boston in 1917 and 1918. Completion of the Dorchester Branch did not resume until the late 1920s, with Ashmont Station opening September 1, 1928. The Braintree branch opened exactly 43 years later, in 1971, over the former right of way of the Old Colony Railroad, and was finally extended to its current terminus in Braintree on March 22, 1980. The Northwest Extension opened as far as Davis Square on December 8, 1984, and to Alewife Station on March 30, 1985.
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Diverging from JFK/UMass Station:
Diverging from JFK/UMass Station:
Stations
Dorchester Branch
Braintree Branch
External links