Marilynne Roach, 62, took the Watertown Line every day to the Massachusetts College of Art when she was young. One of the things she remembered most about the trip wasn’t what she saw, but what she heard. “Certain corners that the trolleys took would cause a loud screech, depending on the weather,” Roach said. “It made quite a noise.”
Just having the trolley line itself not only brought new residents to Watertown, but it allowed families to escape “the country” and experience what the city had to offer — for only a nickel — according to 82-year-old resident James Bean. “It enabled people to do a lot of things they couldn’t normally do,” Bean said.
Though passenger trolley service was replaced with buses, the tracks remained for many years, and safety concerns grew as more car traffic hit the roads. Barry Steinberg, owner and CEO of Direct Tire on Galen Street in Watertown, recalled seeing accidents every week from cars’ tires sliding on the tracks. Later, the removal of the tracks in the 1990s caused a huge disruption to his business. “It was like the Big Dig of Watertown,” Steinberg said.
Despite what many Green Line riders may believe, the MBTA knows how to begin the alphabet.
While thousands of T passengers take the B, C, D and E lines every day, the lack of an A Line isn’t an oversight, it’s evolution.
In 1965, the T designated letters to its trolley branches and collectively named them the Green Line. Today, all but one remain, though riders still take the A Line route between Kenmore station and Watertown Yard every day — only it’s served by the Route 57 bus.
Forty years ago yesterday, the MBTA replaced the A Line with bus service as it faced a trolley car shortage and a mounting deficit. Back then, the line followed the same track as the B Line down Commonwealth Avenue to Packard’s Corner, where it then continued straight down Brighton Avenue through Allston to Oak Square and Newton Corner.
“People wonder where the A Line is? Well, this is it,” said David J. Russo, chairman of the Watertown Historical Commission.
After several attempts to transition the line — long known as simply the Watertown Line — to bus service in the ’60s, the conversion finally took effect on June 21, 1969.
Restoring the trolley service was analyzed in several reports in the two decades that followed. Proponents said the trolley provided a one-seat ride to Park Street, while opponents argued the tracks were dangerous and bus boardings were safer. The MBTA also cited the enormous cost savings from using buses in that corridor.
