Unbuilt Transit

Since the nineteenth century, public agencies and various commissions have prepared formal recommendations for transit improvements for Boston, including a myriad of projects that remain unbuilt. In 1913, the Boston Transit Commission (BTC) proposed new tunnels to connect the Tremont Street Subway with an underground loop at Post Office Square. VC4.3 In 1926, the Massachusetts Division of Metropolitan Planning proposed aggressive extensions of transit lines into the suburbs, mostly following existing railroad rights of way. VC4.1 It also proposed improvements to central transit lines, VC4.2 including joining the East Boston Tunnel line with the Tremont Street Subway, converting it to rapid transit, and extending the line to Brighton. In 1947, the Metropolitan Transit Authority sought to combine the streetcar platforms at Scollay Square and Park Street Stations into a single superstation. VC4.4 Of all the maps of proposed transit expansion projects for Greater Boston, the 1945 map published by the Metropolitan Transit Recess Commission is among the most intriguing. VC4.5 With three-dimension pictorial representations of stations and key pieces of infrastructure, the map seamlessly combines what already existed and what had been proposed.