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When trolleys ran all night on New Year's
By adamg on Thu, 12/31/2015 - 11:03am
As 1943 turned into 1944, Boston trolleys ran every 10 minute, all night, the folks at the Boston City Archives inform us. The BAC Library identifies the station as today's Prudential stop.
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Comments
Speaking of all night service
This is what it looks like in true world class cities.
http://www.theguardian.com/cities/ng-interactive/2015/dec/31/night-rider...
From that article, in
From that article, in Copenhagen "last year only 1.2 % of trains were delayed." If only!
From that article, in
From that article, in Copenhagen "last year only 1.2 % of trains were delayed." If only!
The MBTA's pension fund
Probably equals their budget. Public and quasi public employee should not be receiving pensions at the expense public, particularly when they're making $100K/ year. Get a 401k like the rest of us.
Kind of like this.......
Kind of like this.......
Ex-Health Connector chief cashes in on unused vacation time ( her two-year tenure.)
''Yang cashed in all eight weeks of her vacation for 2013 and 2014, plus another seven days — meaning she essentially didn’t take a vacation day during her two-year tenure.
Jean Yang, who earned national headlines for breaking down in tears over the disastrous website meltdown in 2013 and 2014, took home a $39,929 check for 57 vacation days when she left on Jan. 6, according to Connector records.''
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_coverage/2015/12/ex_health_connec...
And if she'd been using
And if she'd been using vacation days while the website was embroiled in controversy, people would be bitching about that too. Vacation days are compensation. They're part of the total package along with salary and value of other benefits (health insurance etc) that people are given in payment for working. Should she not have taken compensation she had earned? Hell, maybe she shouldn't have taken that last paycheck, either. Or ANY paychecks. Damn these public sector employees, wanting recompense for their labors!!!
I agree with you, but...
Eight weeks of vacation time for one year strikes me as excessive.
however, for 2 years, it seems normal enough
It was 2013 and 2014, wasn't it?
Normal by what measure ? I
Normal by what measure ? I receive no paid vacation time per year and I do my job.
Also, getting back to topic (sort of), maybe in 1943 and 1944 the automobile lobby was too busy selling stuff to the War Department to continue their own war against public transportation ?
Shame on you for allowing
Shame on you for allowing your employer to take advantage of you.
I scream
"I receive no paid vacation time per year and I do my job."
Normal people see another person with a tasty ice cream cone and think "I wonder where that person got the ice cream. It looks good. I should go get some for myself."
Too many Americans today see someone with a tasty ice cream cone and want to slap it out of their hand, screaming "Nobody gets ice cream!"
Public employees pay into
Public employees pay into their own pension funds too.
Used to be most jobs came with a pension. Sorry your private company decided it was more important to give your CEO a golden parachute than taking care of the employees. You guys could always unionize. :)
"Sorry your private company
"Sorry your private company decided it was more important to give your CEO a golden parachute than taking care of the employees"
Either you're being willfully ignorant, or have never worked in a private company. I'm guessing you may be a public employee and may not know any better.
I really don't appreciate this type of broadbrushing of something important.
Yes, taxpayers should, and have every right, to question public pensions - especially the MBTA's due to their secretive nature and when taxpayers are on the hook for any shortcomings. Not to mention the shortcomings in other areas due to pension obligations in local town and city budgets.
Yes, employees deserve to be treated well. My feeling is public workers "forget" that the taxpayers are on the hook for some of this stuff and many taxpayers need to take care of their own families as well as the public sector union families.
Nice meme you got there (evil CEO's) but it's not always the truth
"Public and quasi public
"Public and quasi public employee should not be receiving pensions at the expense public"
Who was broadbrushing?
Remember Detroit?
You won't be laughing when your overgenerous underfunded pension turns into a worthless IOU.
But the bosses will get theirs.
You might want to check out
You might want to check out Denmark's pension system.
Or at the very least put them
Or at the very least put them under the same transparent state pension fund all other government workers are under. Here, like everywhere elese, the MBTA loves to exploit their "best-of-both-worlds" position as an "Authority," where they're a taxpayer-funded, government agency when it suits them but they're a private corporation not subject to the same law and rules that government agencies are, when it suits them.
Those are substantially
Those are substantially larger places and the main economic hubs, Boston will get along just fine either way.
Jesus H
I just want them to run every 10 minutes, all DAY for starters.
Mechanics?
Was the previous name of the stop "Mechanics"? I seem to remember that.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
The photo has been cropped a
The photo has been cropped a little bit. If you view the whole image you will see a sign with that station name on it, on the right edge. It is either "Mechanic" or Mechanics" for "Mechanics Hall". The station opened in 1941.
Bingo!
You're absolutely correct. Mechanics Hall, which hosted everything from political conventions, to the Metropolitan Opera on tour, to Ted Williams doing flyfishing demonstrations at the annual Sportsman's Show, was where the Prudential Center now sits. The main entrance was on Huntington with the back of the building bordering the freight yards along Boylston.
Great rundown on the building & its history here:
http://retrobostonremembered.blogspot.com/2013/05/looking-back-at-mechan...
PS
If you look at the larger format photo at the BAC site you can actually see part of the Mechanics sign across the tracks.
Or, "When trolleys actually
Or, "When trolleys actually ran."
(No subject)
Thank you for posting
We need to constantly remind people that Boston used to know how to do stuff and that we used to be able to have nice things.
Forget the "World Class City" nonsense and the constant comparing with other cities - Boston forgot how to be Boston. No, it forgot it ever was Boston.
Screw all-night service
I want giant 'OUT' signs with pointing hands to come back
No spitting
Even as late as the 70s, I remember "no spitting" signage in most stations.
bring those back
I'm enough of a tightly wound old schoolmarm that I think spitting in public is, unless medically necessary, to be avoided at all costs. But I clutch my pearls extra hard when I see people spit inside on train platforms.
Used to be worse
The primary reason for prohibiting spitting wasn't that it was socially obnoxious and rude, it was to prevent the spread of tuberculosis, which was then rampant and incurable. Perhaps you're right, and with the resurgence in TB, now drug-resistant, the signs ought to come back.
I'm not sure that they would work, though. This was also the era when public shaming was a thing. Shaming people as a method of getting them to conform to social norms really doesn't work any more.
you're probably right
People have gotten much better at ignoring signs, especially if those signs are intended to shame them into good behavior. However, I do think we live in a new era of public shaming via social media: all you have to do is film or photograph someone being a dick, put it on Twitter, wait for it to go viral, and voilà! You've gotten your revenge in the form of a trending topic.
N.B. I don't actually advocate that particular form of shaming - but it exists as an option.
Agree with the need for more no spitting signs
Just a couple of weeks ago at Shawmut Station, a guy spit on the platform, about 2 feet from where I was standing. At least when I spit, I direct it into the pit.
On the one hand, it's
On the one hand, it's interesting to see how much these stations and vehicles have changed in 50+ years. OTOH, it's interesting to see how much has stayed the same. I bet an awful lot of that grime on the ceiling and the wall along the tracks is the same grime we get to see today, for example.
Night Car Service, Effective January 1940:
For the curious...
Scollay Square Station - City Point via Broadway & East Fourth
Scollay Square Station - Fields Corner via South End, Dudley, Warren, Geneva
Scollay Square Station - Neponset via Andrew, Uphams, Meeting House Hill
Dudley Station - Milton Lower Mills via Dudley Street, Dorchester Avenue*
Ashmont - Dudley via Blue Hill Ave, Four Corners, Codman Square*
South Station - Gallivan/Morton via Dorchester Avenue*
Scollay Square Station - Mattapan Station via South End, Egleston, Seaver, Blue Hill
Scollay Square Station - Cleary Square via Huntington, J.P., Forest Hills, H.P. Avenue
Scollay Square Station - Dedham Line via Tremont, Columbus, Washington
Arborway - Charles River Loop (via modern MBTA Route 36)
Massachusetts Upper - Cypress Street via The Fenway, Brookline Village*
Kenmore Loop - Allston via Beacon, Lake, Comm Ave
Lechmere - Watertown (old "A" Branch)
Lechmere - Chestnut Hill Avenue/Comm Ave via Inman, Central, Western*
Harvard - Watertown Square (modern MBTA Route 71)*
Harvard - Dudley Square (essentially modern MBTA Route 01)*
Arlington Heights - Scollay Square (the 77 extended downtown via Main)*
Arlington Center - Sullivan Square Lower (the 80, but to Sullivan)*
Lechmere - Clarendon Hill via Highland Avenue*
Sullivan Square - Scollay Square Station via Main Street OR Bunker Hill
Sullivan Square Lower - Clarendon Hill via Somerville Avenue, Union Square*
Salem Street CH - Sullivan Square Lower via Medford Square, Winter Hill*
Salem Street CH - Everett Station via Fellsway, Sullivan Square
Everett - Lebanon via Main Street, Malden Square**
Everett - Linden via Broadway**
Maverick - Revere Beach via Broadway
Maverick - Orient Heights & Beachmont via Bennington
Scollay Under - Maverick Station via East Boston Tunnel (Rapid Transit)
*Night Bus
**Night Trackless Trolley
All other lines ran with streetcars; typically Type Fives
Not the MBTA, of course
Notably, not an MBTA train, not even MTA (est. 1947), but owned by one of the original private companies (probably BERy?) that built the original streetcar and rail lines in Boston.
The MBTA ran 24-hour service for Y2K/First Night 2000
For New Year's Eve 1999/2000, the T ran 24-hour service on all rail lines (and I think some bus lines too).
Not intentionally
Frequent MBTA service was one of the few documented Y2K glitches.