LARGER ASPEQS OF PASSENGER
TRANSPORTATION IN METRO¬
POLITAN BOSTON
REPORT OF THE BOSTON CITY PLANNING BOARD
TO THK
MASSACHUSETTS PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION
LARGER ASPECTS OF PASSENGER
TRANSPORTATION IN METRO¬
POLITAN BOSTON
REPORT OF THE BOSTON CITY PLANNING BOARD
II
TO THE
MASSACHUSETTS PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION
CITY OF BOSTON
PRINTING DEPARTMENT
I 9 14
INTEODUCTION.
Under the provisions of chapter 149 of the Resolves
of 1914 the Massachusetts Public Service Commission
is authorized and instructed to make a complete investi¬
gation and study of the transportation needs, present
and future, of Boston and other cities and towns served
by corporations having termini within the metropolitan
district and report thereon to the next General Court.
The Massachusetts Public Service Commission accord¬
ingly wrote to the mayors and boards of selectmen of
the various cities and towns of the metropolitan district,
suggesting the desirability of delegating to some official
body, perhaps to the planning boards, the duty of
immediate study and consideration of the problems
presented under the above-named Resolve, with the
further suggestion that such planning boards, or other
official bodies, consult and cooperate with other similar
official bodies in the other cities and towns to the end
that when public hearings were held they might be in a
position to present to the commission the result of
matured thought and study which would be of material
assistance in arriving at a wise and sound solution of
the metropolitan transportation problem as a whole.
This communication having been referred to the
Boston City Planning Board by his Honor the Mayor,
for its consideration, a conference was arranged with
the chairman of the Boston Industrial Development
Board, at which it was agreed that the efforts of the City
Planning Board should be confined entirely to the
problem of passenger transportation and those of the
Boston Industrial Development Board to the question
of freight transportation, to which it had already given
considerable attention.
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A conference was also arranged with the various
planning boards of the metropolitan district, who were
invited to be represented at a meeting to be held in the
office of the Boston City Planning Board on Wednes¬
day, September 23, 1914, in order that the matter
might be approached with an intelligent and compre¬
hensive understanding of the needs of the entire district.
As a result of such conferences and investigations the
Boston City Planning Board adopted the following
report on " The Larger Aspects of Passenger Transporta¬
tion in Metropolitan Boston," which was presented to
the Massachusetts Public Service Commission by the
chairman of the Subcommittee on Streets and Trans¬
portation of the Boston City Planning Board, at a
hearing given in the office of the commission on Tuesday,
October 20, 1914.
BOSTON CITY PLANNING BOARD,
Ralph A. Cram, Chairman.
William C. Ewing.
John J. Walsh.
Emily Greene Balch.
Henry Abrahams.
Elisabeth M. Herlihy,
Secretary.
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KEPOHT.
This general consideration of Boston's transportation
needs may be treated to best advantage under three
divisions —Physical, Corporate and Financial; the Phys¬
ical to cover the needed improvements in service; the
Corporate to cover the mutual relations of the various
public service corporations; and the Financial covering
the method of paying for the suggested improvements.
I. Physical.
In our study of the peculiar needs of the City of Boston
as regards the transportation of passengers, the City
Planning Board finds that the great weakness of our
present facilities is the failure to deliver passengers
reasonably near to their destinations in the business
district of the city. We may therefore fairly state the
problem as one of distribution. The practical side of
this, of course, is a question of the location of stations.
Using the word "terminal" in the sense of stations in the
center of the city, we thoroughly concur in the opinion
of the Metropolitan Improvements Commission that
this is almost entirely a terminal problem. On page 16
of their report they say:
So far as the problem of bringing the railroads and other
transportation facilities of Boston to the standard of efficiency
required by modern views of economy and commensurate with
Boston's potential future is to be solved by improved or addi¬
tional instrumentalities within the Metropolitan District, it
must be largely, if not altogether, a terminal problem. The
efficiency of every transportation line entering Boston, whether
by rail or water, is in great measure limited by the adequacy
and arrangement of its terminals. Judged by modern stand¬
ards the efficiency of a railroad depends no more upon the
length and quality of its roadbed and the character of its equip¬
ment than upon the adequacy and excellence of its terminals.
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As a chain is no stronger than its weakest link, so a railroad
can be no more efficient than its terminals permit it to be.
Confusion or rigidity of movement in a terminal situation will
produce the same confusion and absence of flexibility through¬
out the entire transportation line using that terminal.
If we agree that the great problem in Boston's passen¬
ger transportation is that of distributing passengers near
their desired destinations, and that this resolves itself
into a question of the location of stations, we find that
this is simplified when we compare the effectiveness
of the present distribution of passengers by the street
railway systems and the steam railroad systems.
In the heart of the city, the district bounded by Broad¬
way Extension, Pleasant street, Charles street and the
waterfront, there are twenty-seven subway, tunnel and
elevated stations on our street railway system. When
the Dorchester Tunnel is in operation, and especially
if the Boylston Street Subway be extended to Post
Office square, it will be possible to deliver every street
railway passenger within a four-minute walk of his
destination in the business district.
The distribution conditions of the railroads are very
different. In the same district where there are twenty-
seven intercommunicating street railway stations, there
are only three railroad stations, and one of these is
approached by ferry, the real railroad terminal being
in East Boston. Moreover, these three stations are on
the extreme edge of the business district, so that the
walk to one's destination is the maximum that could
be arranged without removing the stations from the
city proper.
It is not too much to say that in the near future the
distribution of passengers in the business district by the
street railway company will be highly satisfactory. The
present transportation problem of Boston, therefore, is
this: How to arrange our railroad stations so as to deliver
passengers near their destinations.
We now desire to call attention to three improvements
which have been proposed during the past five years,
7
the adoption of one or all of which will, we believe, solve
this problem. Before enumerating these three improve¬
ments, which for purposes of identification we shall refer
to as "The Wead Tunnel," "Boston Avenue" and the
"Joint Use of Tracks," let us say in the words of the
Metropolitan Improvements Commission (page 22) :
It is to be noted throughout the discussion of this plan, both
with reference to the arrangement of freight and passenger
terminals, that it presupposes and is conditioned upon the
electrification of all passenger lines entering Boston.
1. The Wead Tunnel.
The Joint Board on Metropolitan Improvements
reported to the Legislature of 1911, recommending the
construction of a tunnel connection between the North
and South Stations in accordance with a plan and report
made to them by Mr. Leslie C. Wead. A careful study
by Mr. Wead showed that the net land damages for the
undertaking would approximate four million dollars.
The transportation value of such a tunnel was considered
to be so great that the railroad companies were prepared
to pay a considerable part of the land damages in addi¬
tion to the cost of the tunnel, and it was stated that it
would result in saving the railroads five hundred thou¬
sand dollars annually in switching charges.
As a matter of personal convenience to the patrons of
the railroads, such a tunnel would make it possible for
persons working near the North Station to live in a
southern suburb, and for those working near the South
Station to live in a northern suburb, a condition which is
not now very practicable. If the tunnel should have
one or more intermediate stations, especially one near
the market district which might have a physical con¬
nection with the East Boston-Cambridge Street Tunnel,
then the improvement of distribution would be marked.
2. Boston Avenue.
It has been suggested that Portland street, which runs
from the North Station to Hanover street, be extended
8
through Brattle square, Franklin avenue, Court square.
City Hall avenue. Province street. Music Hall place.
Winter place, Haymarket place, Bumstead court, Boyl-
ston square and Hollis place to the junction of Shawmut
avenue and Tremont street. The Boston Chamber of
Commerce has recently had a study made of this route
by three prominent real estate experts. On the basis
of a street sixty feet wide they estimate the net cost for
land damages between Hanover street and Shawmut
avenue to be a little less than three million dollars.
The City Planning Board believes that such a street
would be of very great value to the commercial develop¬
ment of the city and the convenience of its inhabitants
for the following reasons:
First.— It will provide an entirely new inlet to the
city, thus improving traffic conditions on existing
thoroughfares.
Second.— It will encourage the spread of the retail
district to the south and west.
Third.— The rebuilding on both sides will provide a
double fire wall of first-class buildings through the
entire length of the congested district.
Fourth.— By proper traffic rules it may be made to
relieve Washington and Tremont streets of certain
classes of vehicles.
Fifth.— The land on both sides may be sold under
such restrictions as will permit a supervision of the
external appearances of the new buildings so that
Boston may have one street of architectural distinction.
As none of these advantages has to do with trans¬
portation, we will not consider them further at this
time.
We wish, however, to call attention to the inviting
possibilities of a railroad tunnel under such a street as
this so-called "Boston Avenue." A tunnel under this
street and extended under Tremont street to the present
railroad location near Castle square would permit of a
direct physical connection of the Boston and Maine
Railroad on the north with the Boston and Albany Rail¬
road on the west and the Providence Division of the
9
New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad on the
south. The existence of such a tunnel would make it
possible to run local passenger trains from the suburbs
through the middle of the city, with frequent stops, as is
the present practice with the Elevated Railway trains.
A certain proportion of the trains from the south and
west could still be run to the South Station as at present
and through the Wead Tunnel if that should be con¬
structed, much as the elevated trains between Dudley
street and Sullivan square go some by the Washington
street route and some by Atlantic avenue.
If it should seem desirable in the future it would be
comparatively simple to connect the Old Colony Division
of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad
with the Boston Avenue Tunnel under Broadway Exten¬
sion. If the Wead Tunnel should be open to such trains,
and there be proper operating connections with the
Summer street and State street rapid transit tunnels,
a connection of the Old Colony with a Boston Avenue
Tunnel may not be needed.
Even this brief discussion of Boston avenue should
not be closed without reference to one of the most
important of all possible developments of Boston's
street system. When the railroads are electrified,
the Boston & Albany tracks should be covered over
for use as a street all the way from the Cove Street
Bridge to Commonwealth avenue. This will give the.
city at small expense a new teaming thoroughfare which
will cross at grade every important radial thoroughfare
in the city. It is this new railroad boulevard which
will make Boston avenue a new inlet to the city, tending
to spread the business district to the South and West.
3. Joint Use of Tracks.
It has been suggested by the recent Joint Commission,
constituted by chapter 108 of the Resolves of 1913,
that it may be desirable to electrify and operate as a
part of the street railway system:
1. The Shawmut Branch of the New York, New
Haven & Hartford Railroad.
10
2. The Medford Branch of the Boston & Maine
Railroad.
3. The Watertown Branch of the Fitchburg Railroad.
We further suggest:
4. A possible use of the tracks of the Boston Elevated
Railway Company to bring electrified Providence Divi¬
sion trains through Washington street to Charlestown.
It is also evident that a future saving may be made by
5. A use as part of our street railway rapid transit
system of the right of way of the Newton circuit.
II. Corporate.
Any joint use of tracks or transfer privileges, or
similar cooperation among the four railroad and five
railway companies which carry passengers, is likely to
be clumsy and is almost certain to be inefficient.
The Boston Elevated Railway Company is in effect a
combination of six different street railway companies;
the Boston & Maine Railroad system is a combination
of one hundred and twenty-five separate railroads.
Similar statements could be made of most of the other
transportation companies operating in Greater Boston.
It would be impossible to do to-day's business with
the disunited transportation facilities of a few decades
ago. It will be equally impossible to do the business of
the future with the unrelated facilities of the present.
The remedy we would suggest is the logical conclusion
of the consolidations of the past which have resulted
in our present transportation corporations. In so
congested a territory as the Boston Metropolitan Dis¬
trict, efficient results cannot be obtained by diversified
operation. The conception of the Boston Terminal
Company, which supplies terminal facilities for two
different railroads, should be expanded to include all
transportation facilities from the center of Boston to
such convenient junction points as approximate the
limits of the Metropolitan district. Within these limits
all transportation facilities, stations, rights of way and
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so much of the rolling stock as is used exclusively within
that district should be in a single ownership and should
be operated under a single management.
III. Financial.
Past experience in many states leads us to the fear
that any terminal corporation which might be created
to take over all existing transportation properties in
Metropolitan Boston would be of such tremendous
importance as to overshadow the state. There is
danger that the tail might wag the dog. A further
objection to such a corporation is the difficulty of the
private financing of so great a project. And, finally,
is it wise to allow private profit to be made out of a
service of such crucial importance to the community?
As a result of these considerations we believe that the
Commonwealth itself should take over all railroad
and railway properties within the above-mentioned
limits. Great as would be the initial cost, we are
convinced that the project could be so financed that it
would prove no burden to the tax payers. The improve¬
ments recommended, including electrification, should
be made by the state, after taking over the properties,
and the cost of such improvements would be the only
new outlay involved.
Whether these utilities, if owned by the state, should
be operated by a single private company, as are the
Boston subways, or by the state, as are the Metropolitan
Water Works, is so important a question of public
policy that we believe it should be determined by a
referendum vote.
If state operated, the terminal district and its internal
conduct should be under the absolute control of a general
manager appointed by the Public Service Commission
and removable only for cause; but contractual relations
with connecting public service companies should be
subject to the Public Service Commission.
In case private operation is decided upon, the use of
12
the transportation property in the terminal district
should be leased to a private company, somewhat on
the plan of our subway leases, but combined if possible
with a sliding scale relation between fares and dividends
similar to that provided in the case of the Boston Con¬
solidated Gas Company.
Summary.
The Boston City Planning Board recommends;
1. That ownership of all transportation facilities
within the approximate limits of the Metropolitan
District be taken over by the Commonwealth.
2. That these facilities be operated as a unit by
either of two methods as the voters may determine:
(a.) By the Commonwealth through a General Man¬
ager appointed by the Public Service Commission.
(b.) By a private company which should lease the
facilities from the Commonwealth.
3. That the proposed Boston avenue and Wead
Tunnel be constructed substantially as already described,
and that the railroads on opposite sides of the city be
connected by tunnel under Boston avenue, with the
object of carrying all suburban passengers to stations
within easy walking distances of their destinations.
4. That the railroads be electrified and that the
Boston & Albany Railroad tracks be covered over for
a teaming boulevard from the Cove Street Bridge to
Commonwealth avenue.
Conclusion.
We have not mentioned many important issues, such,
for example, as the Boston connections of the Boston,
Revere Beach & Lynn Railroad, much less have we
endeavored to go into all the ramifications of the sub¬
ject. We have, however, presented a mode of pro¬
cedure which we believe will lead to a comparatively
simple solution of all the problems involved, whatever
their nature or magnitude.
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We wish to close with an appeal to do great things.
We believe, in the words of the recent Joint Commission,
that—
No large measure of relief can be afforded to the various
communities at the present time by a piecemeal dealing with
the situation, and that the only hope of any substantial
and effective immediate relief is by a thorough and funda¬
mental consideration of the whole Metropolitan transportation
problem.
We are too much in the habit of thinking in terms of
details; we need broad and courageous planning of
great things, such as resulted in the construction by the
City of Boston of the first of those subways which are
proving the solution of the transit problem in great cities.
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