Saturday 30 September 2017

Getting to know the MBTA

If people who reside in Greater Boston, Massachusetts, find daily commute convenient, they have the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, or MBTA, to thank for that. Although the MBTA wasn’t always the body responsible for public transportation in the city. 

Image source: MBTA.com

Back in the day, independent private companies owned and operated public transportation in Boston. A huge change occurred in 1947 when many of these companies folded up and became an agency called the Metropolitan Transit Authority or MTA. It was only in 1964 that the organization was renamed the MBTA and established as its own department as part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Several decades later, in 2009, the MBTA became part of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation or MassDOT. 

The MBTA is one of two transit agencies in the United States that make use of the five major types of mass transit vehicles on land – light rail vehicles, heavy rail trains, regional rail trains, electric trolleybuses, and motor buses. On an average, all the vehicles of the MBTA make around 410,357 trips each weekday. Its subway line averages approximately 210,000. 

Another important detail to note is that the MBTA consumes the most electricity in the state of Massachusetts and owns the second-most land. It also has its own law enforcement group in the form of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Police. 

Image source: MBTA.com

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