Author Archives: Garrett Wollman

It’s budget time again (already?)

Posted on 2021-04-17 by Garrett Wollman

Last week, the House Committee on Ways and Means reported out its version of the state budget for fiscal year 2022, H.4000, and the Mass. House of Representatives gave it second reading. It’s supposed to be taken up again a … Continue reading →

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Weekend excursion: Stations of the Old Colony Railroad (MBTA Kingston and Middleboro Lines)

Posted on 2021-04-14 by Garrett Wollman

Of all the passenger routes bringing commuters from Boston’s suburbs into the city, none were hit quite so hard by the automobile age as those of the former Old Colony Railroad. The construction of the Route 3 and Route 24 … Continue reading →

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Weekend excursion: Stations of the B&M Western Route/MBTA Haverhill Line

Posted on 2021-04-08 by Garrett Wollman

It’s been nearly two weeks since I took this trip on a windy Saturday in March, and since that time I’ve seen nearly all of the remaining stations in the MBTA system, so if I’m a little hazy on the … Continue reading →

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Weekend excursion: Stations of the Eastern Route/MBTA Newburyport Line

Posted on 2021-03-31 by Garrett Wollman

Attention conservation notice: another 3,000 words about an MBTA commuter rail line and its stations, which could easily have been 5,000 words if I hadn’t gotten tired of writing and skimped on the exposition towards the end. Already more photos … Continue reading →

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Weekend excursion: Stations of the Franklin Line

Posted on 2021-03-23 by Garrett Wollman

It’s getting on nine days since I actually did most of this travel, and in the mean time I’ve also seen stations on three other lines (although one of them has historic connections to this one), so I’ll at least … Continue reading →

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Weekend mini-excursion: Stations of various south-side lines

Posted on 2021-03-21 by Garrett Wollman

I had hoped to publish my thoughts about the Franklin Line by now, but photo editing took a bit longer than usual, and I wanted to wait anyway for a sunny day when I could go out and get pictures … Continue reading →

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Weekend excursion: Stations of the Greenbush line

Posted on 2021-03-16 by Garrett Wollman

Well, after two very opinionated posts about the two next-nearest MBTA rail lines to me, what could I say about the Greenbush Line? Turns out, there isn’t very much to say. The Greenbush Line is, strictly speaking, the newest MBTA … Continue reading →

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Weekend excursion: Stations of the Needham Line

Posted on 2021-03-15 by Garrett Wollman

This is the first of three posts about MBTA commuter-rail stations I went to see on the weekend of March 13–14: on Saturday I saw all of the Needham and Greenbush lines, and then on Sunday I saw nearly all … Continue reading →

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Weekend excursion: Stations of the Fitchburg Line

Posted on 2021-03-10 by Garrett Wollman

Attention conservation notice: 3,900 words about passenger stations on a railroad you probably don’t ride in a city where you don’t live, with embedded rants about the conservatism of railroaders and the necessity of integrating service planning with capital construction … Continue reading →

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Weekend excursion: Stations of the B&A/MBTA Worcester Line

Posted on 2021-03-01 by Garrett Wollman

In the past few months, the MBTA has announced emergency closures of two commuter-rail stations, and emergency construction (without closure) on a third. The most recent station to be closed due to unsafe conditions was the Providence Line station at … Continue reading →

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