Monday Musings: Some things never change...

The first tracks of what would become the MBTA were opened in 1830 with the chartering of the private Boston and  Lowell Railroad, which provided transportation to that famous mill city (the tracks are now a part of the Green Line D Branch, or so I’m told).  Streetcars began operating on the streets of Boston on March 26, 1856.  However, these eventually became so popular, and the traffic on Tremont Street so heavy (some things never change), that engineers began investigating the possibility of running a train above or beneath the streets.  Thus it was, in 1897, that the MBTA in its more recognizable incarnation was born, with the opening of the Tremont Street Station.  If you look out the windows as you enter Park Street Station from North Station, you can still see the gates and disused tunnels from this little landmark. 

Imagine, for a moment, the genteel Brahmins of Boston boarding that street car.  

Pardon, Sir, could my enormous sleeves and I perhaps sit beside you?

  According to the Boston Evening Transcript for September 2, 1897:

Numbers of people used the subway today, but from the total of those who rode during the forenoon and early afternoon it was apparent that few were taking the trip for observation only.  The majority today was made up of those who were riding for business, instead of pleasure or curiosity.  About four thousand tickets were sold at the Park-square ticket offices up to two o’clock…the rush was expected later in the afternoon.

And just in case you want to talk about the “good old days”, later on in the article, we learn:

During the evening there was a blockade, but its cause lay outside the subway, at the place where the tracks are being repaired on Boylston street, between Berkeley and Clarendon street…this blocked the cars so that they extended in a long line, at times nearly as far back as the Boylston-street station in the subway…many wondered that the company should take that particular evening to pull up tracks where the business would be blocked; but Superintendent Hawes explained that the company had an agreement with the city to take up its tracks at that particular time, in order not to delay the repairing of the street; so the work was unavoidable.

Apparently, it was also impossible to buy any tickets for future rides, resulting in crowded stations and long waits for commuters.   

It has been suggested that if patrons could supply themselves with enough subway tickets to last them several days, they could then enter merely on showing a ticket…and would avoid having to wait for people who were stopping to buy, or have the collector make change for them.  It was suggested that a man who could enter in this way might often catch a car that he would otherwise be obliged to look at helplessly as he stood in line outside the ticket window.

…Think about that the next time you are stuck waiting for the automatic ticket machine to spit out your monthly pass, as it regurgitates your ticket three and four times, keeping its sliding glass door implacably closed, and your train zips away.  Some things, they never change.