Green Line D branch


The D branch of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's Green Line, also known as the Highland branch or the Riverside Line, is a light rail line in west Boston, Massachusetts, with stations also located in Brookline and Newton. It branches off near Kenmore Square from the Tremont Street and Boylston Street subways from downtown shared with the other light rail lines. It then continues west for about ten miles on a private surface right of way, formerly the Highland branch of the Boston and Albany Railroad. The right of way is double tracked throughout without express tracks. It is grade separated from roads and highways, though there are pedestrian crossings at stations and in Webster Conservation Area in Newton.
, the downtown terminus is at Government Center. Free transfer is provided to the rapid transit lines and other light rail lines at the various subway stops.
The D branch was the most recent light rail line to be built in the Boston area, opening in 1959. It was built on the Boston and Albany Railroad's Highland branch, which closed in 1958 for the conversion. The route has varied scenery, passing golf courses, residential neighborhoods, woods, lakes, and small town centers. The Newton Centre and Newton Highlands stations still feature Richardsonian Romanesque station buildings designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge in the 1890s.

History

Commuter rail

The first section of what became the Highland branch was built by the Boston and Worcester Railroad between Boston and Brookline in 1847. The Charles River branch railroad, a forerunner of the New York and New England Railroad, extended the line to Newton Upper Falls in 1852. The B&A, successor to the Boston and Worcester, bought the line in 1883 and extended to Riverside, rejoining its main line there. The B&A instituted loop service, going one way to Riverside on the main line and the other way on the Highland branch; the NY&NE continued to use the branch as well.
In 1906 the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad built a new cutoff from Needham Junction east to their Dedham branch at West Roxbury, and began routing NY&NE trains that way. However, in 1911, they too began running loop service on the "Needham Circuit", running one way on the old Boston and Providence Railroad to West Roxbury and the other way on the B&A Highland branch.
NYNH&H service through Newton stopped in 1925 and the last B&A train ran over the Highland branch on May 31, 1958.

Conversion to light rail

From mid-1958 to mid-1959, the Highland branch from Riverside to Fenway was converted to light rail by Boston's Metropolitan Transit Authority. This was to be a low budget project and the light rail option was chosen over third rail rapid transit trains because the last to downtown would be via an existing light rail subway. The primary $7M contract was let to the Perini Corporation with an additional $2M for work by the MTA, of which part was designated for added land purchases. With the Riverside terminal just off what is now Interstate 95 and from today's I-90, the line would be a showpiece of park and ride mass transit from distant suburbs using an existing railroad right of way.
The major project parts included the following:
Light rail operation began on the Highland branch on July 4, 1959, with single cars or 2 and 3 car trains, running from Riverside or Reservoir to Park St. Station downtown. It was intended to short turn every other rush hour train at Reservoir and berths at Park St. were marked "Riverside/Reservoir." But from the very start, ridership was heavy enough on the outer end of the line to require running nearly all trips to Riverside, the exceptions mainly at the very beginning and very end of the day. Scheduled service frequency ranged from 6 minutes during rush hours to 15 minutes late in the evening. The MTA chose to maintain at least a 10 to 15 minute headway throughout rather than short turn trains at Reservoir during off hours.
The Highland branch was originally given route number 4.
With few exceptions, on board fare collection has been used at the surface stations. Originally the fare was the flat 20 cent rapid transit fare. By 1961 a zone fare system, pay enter inbound and pay exit outbound, was instituted. Fare was 10 cents Riverside to Reservoir, 10 cents Reservoir to Fenway, and 20 cents Fenway to downtown. From the mid 1970s to the mid 2000s the outbound ride from Fenway to Riverside was free to speed up alighting from the cars. Beginning in 1996, passengers prepaid their fares at the Riverside station, first during morning rush hour only and ca 2006 full-time. Also, after Red Sox games and during a few other heavily traveled times, passengers sometimes prepaid fares at other stations, notably Fenway.
In 1961, passenger boardings were reported at 30,000 per day.
No passenger connection has been provided between the Riverside light rail station and the Riverside station on the B&A main line, now the MBTA Commuter Rail Framingham/Worcester Line. B&A Service to the latter Riverside station ended in the 1970s although a pedestrian underpass and platform still exists, the underpass was closed in 2016 because it is in very poor condition. The nearest commuter rail station on the latter line is in the Newton village of Auburndale, about half a mile away. The tracks from the D branch to the Boston and Albany main were severed and overgrown until, to facilitate the delivery of new light rail vehicles in the 1970s, they were rebuilt and have since been maintained, although they are not used for any regular service. Special commuter rail trains did run to South Station from a temporary platform near the Riverside light rail station from October 23–25, 1996 after heavy rain led to extensive flooding in the Boston area, closure of the Kenmore Square subway station and cutting off of the Riverside line from the downtown subway stations.

The MBTA takes over

By August 1964, when the MBTA took over, service on the Riverside Line was extended on all days but Sundays to Lechmere. Sunday service was extended on September 10, 1966.
In 1967, letter designations replaced the route numbers for the light rail lines and the 4 Riverside–Lechmere became the D Riverside.
Over the years, the following changes in eastern terminal have been made:
The MBTA's first Boeing light rail vehicles operated on the D branch on December 30, 1976, and turned around at Park Street or Government Center due to the North Station loop catenary not yet upgraded for pantographs.
Use of PCC cars on the "D" line officially ended March 23, 1978, but later LRV shortages prompted the occasional return of PCC cars.
;Timeline of the extent of "D" service

Track improvements

From the very start of light rail service, in 1959, there were complaints about rough riding followed by continual improvements to the track. While the ride was generally satisfactory at, many operators went faster. At least one news report, in response to riders encountering almost violent side-to-side swaying of the cars, mentioned a speed limit imposed by the MBTA management. Also, continuously welded rail joints were gradually introduced.
When the first Boeing LRV was brought in for testing in the early 1970s, it became clear that the entire track would need to be rebuilt in order to support the greater weight of those cars and take advantage of their speed. Different techniques were used for maintaining service as each of three sections of the line were rebuilt.
The tracks were rehabilitated again in 2007. This project was undertaken because the newest LRV's, low floor handicapped accessible models from Breda, did not operate reliably over the tracks at the desired speeds. While the Riverside line generally received the newest cars first, it was the last to get the Breda cars due to the need to upgrade the tracks.
The tracks will be rehabilitated once more. This work between October 8, 2018 throughout 2020, including a full modern signal system for the line from Beaconsfield to Riverside and partial track replacements. Between October & December 2018, shuttle bus service replaced service between Brookline Hills and Reservoir every weekday evening and every weekend until after December 16. During 2019 and 2020, shuttle buses will replace service on 15 weekends and on all weeknights from 8:30 to the end of service. Weekend diversion is particularly between Kenmore and Reservoir with coordination with the Fenway Portal flood prevention project. The shuttles will not stop at Beaconsfield because the nearby streets are too narrow to accommodate the buses.
Riverside station was rebuilt in the late 1990s, with raised platforms to provide accessible boarding on the then-under-construction Type 8 LRVs. Reservoir and Brookline Village were temporarily fitted with portable lifts for accessibility, with Brookline Hills added by 2003. Newton Center, Reservoir, and Fenway were retrofitted with raised platforms around 2003. Woodland was rebuilt for accessibility in 2006, followed by Longwood and Brookline Village in 2009. Construction at Newton Highlands and Brookline Hills began in 2019. That year, the MBTA indicated that the remaining four non-accessible stops were "Tier I" accessibility priorities., design for accessibility modifications at the stations is expected to be completed in spring 2021.

Incidents and accidents

On May 28, 2008, just after 6pm, two trains collided between Woodland and Waban stations, behind 56 Dorset Road. The driver of the rear train, Terrese Edmonds, was trapped by the collision and died. The National Transportation Safety Board investigation concluded that the driver of the rearmost train probably had an episode of micro-sleep caused by sleep apnea.
About a year later, another crash, this one in the central subway, was blamed on an operator texting while driving.

Station listing