Evening at Boston harbor.

If there are any riders who need "moments of joy" on their daily commutes, it's Green Line B Branch riders.

Official Post of Massachusetts

As I gaze at the structural column in Copley Station, cracked nearly in two and held together with zip ties that have been carefully painted over to match the column underneath, I feel my soul intertwined with that of a small Italian boy of days gone by, who also stopped to look up at a large, groaning, newly painted tank full of molasses

I feel that some non-Boston people think I may have been exaggerating this. While I did not snap a photo as I was on the train, someone else did several months ago. I do want to stress that this column is now freshly painted and therefore completely structurally sound and in absolutely no danger of causing the entire tunnel to collapse. And yes, it did in fact never cross my mind that the original post was nearly 105 years to the day of the Molassacre

This is so safe this is the safest I’ve ever felt good job mbta gold star

Fun fact: Copley station was built 5 years after the molasses flood so we’re in good hands

Official Post of Massachusetts

Arthur Pollock. A helicopter delivered a model dinosaur to the city’s Museum of Science (Boston). 1984

hold on let me google something

what the fuck

happy Boston Molasses Flood to all who celebrate

Official Post of Massachusetts

Have you ever found yourself thinking, "You know what I wish there was fanfiction of? 1948 political protest song (Charlie on the) M.T.A., popularized by the Kingston Trio, now unofficial Boston anthem and the somewhat sinister backstory behind their public transit cards' mascot!" No? Well, someone in the 2023 Yuletide exchange did!

And it wasn't even my assignment but I could not stop thinking about it, so check out 'Neath the Streets Of Boston on ao3 for 2k of trains, literary references, and a sad little New England cryptid.

now you too can read fic about. Him:

Please reblog this and feel free to put your reasoning in the tags

Official Post of Massachusetts

im not one to post scrrenshots from twitter, but this needs to be seen by those of you who dont have it.

Official Post of Massachusetts

what’s my name???

FUCKACCINO!!!

went to the cop slide and got yelled at by a cop

@solardrifter the park is closed i think but also it’s being patrolled by people who hate fun

bro this quote made it into the boston globe 🥲

The fact that the Boston transit system has been a garbage fire for so long that our mascot is a sad little man who is literally stranded on the train until the end of time due to a fare increase. Charlie's desiccated corpse has been riding this train since the 1940s and everyone just sort of rolls with it it this point

Back in the 40s the T installed a fare to get off the train as well as to get on, because the system has always been that broken. So a song was written about the mythical man of Charlie on the M.T.A., who doesn't have the extra fare and becomes stuck there. Forever. Riding around in a never-ending circular nightmare because the city is corrupt and everyone else in Boston is a cheapskate who won't lend him a goddamn nickel. Adding insult to injury his wife throws him food every day but not money, probably because she's better off single.

The T responded by saying "to hell with it, he's our mascot now."

The solution to crumbling public infrastructure should always be a jaunty banjo solo

(An addition about the song: it was actually commissioned as a protest song by Boston politician Walter O'Brien, after the exit-fare thing was introduced in 1946. It was written in 1949, by Jacqueline Steiner and Bess Lomax Hawes (yes, the sister of folklorist and ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax). The above Kingston Trio version became a hit in 1959.

O'Brien did not win the mayoral race. He came in dead last, in a field of four.

As a frequent rider of the T, for the interest of anyone who wants to know details, I feel it's worth adding / clarifying:

The "exit fare" system was always only on the outbound trains and buses. When you got on a trolley* or bus inbound, you paid when getting on. But when you got on going outbound, you would pay when getting off. (It wasn't asking people to pay TWICE. It was EITHER pay to get on, or pay to get off.)

This was put in place for a few reasons.

On the subway system and the Green Lines (which are underground in the center of the city, but which goes above ground and are then referred to as a trolley), fares could vary the farther out you rode. There are four lines of the Green Line, and the D line especially goes way the hell out there. So the lines are zoned, and you paid a little more to go to the further stops. Impossible to indicate, when you're getting on in Boston, how far any given passenger is going to go. Better to have them pay according to where they get off.

You can imagine the problem, though, if you had someone who was riding the train for the first time, and didn't know how much it cost to exit at a station further out on the line. (Similar to Charlie's dilemma in the song!)

This system also had the benefit (?) that these trolleys had side doors, as well as the door by the conductor in front. So when you were boarding at downtown stops (where tons of people would get on during rush hour to go home), you could just open ALL the doors and load the cars faster. Downside: even on a packed trolley, at each outbound stop, people had to worm their way to the front to pay and get off. A frequent cry heard on trains and buses of this type was, "Open the side door and I'll come around and pay!"

Anyway, with the advent of the CharlieCard and other changes, this system ended in 2006.

It lingered, however, on three bus routes running out of Harvard station, which were called "trackless trolleys" -- they were buses, but they had poles on top that connected to overhead live wires, and that's how the buses were powered. (Much earlier, these were streetcar routes that ran on tracks; but they were replaced by the electric buses by 1936.) At its height, the trackless trolley system had 44 routes all over the city. It mainly lingered, I guess, because the buses had originally been modeled after the trolleys or streetcars, with side doors as well as a front door. When getting on in Harvard station outbound, everyone entered via the side doors, then exited at the front and paid.

Not really sure why this was instituted, as the buses did not have the "zone" fare system at all, as far as I know. It did make for faster loading in the station at rush hour, I guess.

But the last trackless trolley buses in Harvard station ended in 2022.

There are no more public transportation lines in the Boston MBTA that require paying the fare upon exiting.

Anyway, efficacy as a protest song, or mayoral campaign song aside, I too always wondered why the hell Charlie's wife could hand him a sandwich every day but never put a nick IN THE BAG with it so he could get off.

CONTAINMENT BREACH

This image leaves out crucial context:

#cityrumble Round 4: Minneapolis v Boston

In one corner, Beantown, the heart of American academia, which beat out Eastern rivals Philadelphia and Atlanta to get here! In the other, a dark horse which has bested many opponents above its weight class! Will it be Boston or Minneapolis that advances to the finals?

For my fellow massholes

it's like Tim Horton's but for USAmericans

boston ma