The subway connecting Harvard, MIT and UMass to the rest of Boston. Oh, and in Beantown "subway" is spelled "T".

The red line is the central line of the London Underground. it stretches from West Ruislip in the west to Theydon Bois in the east. (Ongar in peak hours). After Leytonston it does some wierd swirly thing splitting into two parts and confusing me.

Famous stops areOxford Circus, Tottenham Court Road, Marble Arch and Bond Street.

In Portland, Oregon, the Red Line is the MAX that runs from downtown to the airport. Between downtown and Gateway TC, it follows the same tracks as the Blue Line, the East-West MAX line. The Red Line turns north and runs about 6 kilometers to the airport, more or less following the line of I-205.

The Red Line was completed in a very short amount of time, about two years, much less then the other MAX lines. Of course, the Red Line didn't involve boring through several miles of rock hundreds of feet underground.

As much as the Red Line was a great accomplishment in being built with a minimum amount of disruption, and very efficiently in terms of money and time, it had the bad luck to open on September 10th, 2001, surely not a very fortunate date for a transportation link to an airport.

More on TriMet's Red Line in Portland, Oregon:

The MAX Red Line light rail runs on the same tracks as the Blue Line from the Galleria/SW 10th Avenue/Library/SW 9th Avenue stations in downtown Portland to the Gateway Transit Center/NW 99th Avenue station. It then turns north and follows the I-205 median, which was originally intended for transit purposes, for about 4 kilometers. It then turns to a northwesterly direction and runs through the PDX airport complex for the remainder of the 8.8 kilometer extension. It runs first on newly developed land south of Airport Way, then along Airport Way until it reaches its terminus at the south end of the PDX terminal. Transit time between the airport and downtown is 38 minutes. Frequency is every 15 minutes from 5 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Trains on the Red Line will consist of one low floor car, though trains may become longer if ridership increases.

The Red Line was built not only to provide a link for travellers and employees to get to the airport, but also to spur development at CascadeStation, a high-density transit-oriented development. CascadeStation will be a complex of hotels, retail, office space, and parks, and will employ an estimated 10,000 by 2015. The development will have the Cascades light-rail station at one end, and the Mount Hood Avenue station at the other.

The Red Line airport extension was first approved by a public review committee in September 1998 and began construction in June 1999. It opened on September 10, 2001, one day before airports nationwide were shut down for several days due to terrorism. On its second day of operation, the Red Line proved very useful in the evacuation of the airport, delivering stranded travellers to downtown hotels and workless workers to their homes. However, the September 16, 2001 opening celebration was cancelled.

The MAX Red Line extension was funded without increased property taxes or federal transportation dollars (though the all-local funding of the line was used in creative accounting to get additional "retroactive" federal funds for the Yellow Line and the Portland Streetcar). Funding sources include $28.3 million from the Port of Portland, $45.5 million from TriMet, $23.0 million from the City of Portland, and $28.2 million from the Cascade Station development company. The total construction cost comes to $125 million. Other development costs, new rail cars, &c. bring the total cost to $180 million.

Following the completion of the Red Line, the Airport was moved from zone 2 to zone 3 to improve continuity along the line, as Gateway Transit Center was and is in zone 3.

Stops on the Red Line, from airport to downtown:


Much information from http://www.trimet.org/

You haven't had the full (Boston) Red Line experience until you've followed it all the way to Mattapan, one of its southern ends. To do this, you'll have to get off the train at Ashmont and board a rickety green line-type trolley. There are six stops between Ashmont and Mattapan:

  • Cedar Grove
  • Butler
  • Milton
  • Central Ave
  • Valley Rd
  • Capen St

The whole trip is only 2.2 miles, but it seems longer than that because the trolley stops so frequently. It's easily the most scenic part of the Red Line, winding along the Neponset River at the edge of the city. It goes through the middle of a cemetery, and past the old Baker's Chocolate factory.

I grew up in Milton, and Mattapan was the closest stop to my house. I used to take my brother, twelve years younger than me, into the city sometimes on weekends. He loved trains, and I was always happy to get away from Milton. Mattapan, decrepit as it was, seemed like the gate to the ultimate playground.

The CTA's Red Line, formerly known as Howard-Dan Ryan. Its two sections used to be separate (the northern half used to be paired with the south part of the Green Line, and the south half with the Green Line's west branch). This line travels from Howard on the city's northern limits, through the Loop (Chicago's central business district), and south to 95th Street.

The line operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In the event of problems in the subway, the line will be routed over the loop elevated tracks, following the Brown Line's route to Merchandise Mart, the traveling along the north and east parts of the loop, taking the Orange Line's track to Roosevelt, and then using a connector track to resume normal service along the Dan Ryan Expressway median.

All trains on the line are wheelchair accessible, though most stations are not. Customers who require accessibility should also contact the CTA before riding (1.888.YOUR.CTA) to ensure that the elevators are working at the stations they wish to use.

The following is a text map of the Red Line's route. It is not to scale. Traffic is two-way in all sections of the map. North is up. Stations are marked with either an o or a (T). The latter represents a free transfer station. Mouse-over the (T) to see which lines you can transfer to at that station. Track designated by a · indicates subway track. Stations between Chicago and Roosevelt, inclusive, run along the State Street Subway - in other words, their cross streets are all State Street (0 E/W). Travel times (approximate) are provided on the left side of the map.

         
~~~~(T) HOWARD
      \
       o JARVIS
        \
         o MORSE
          \
           o LOYOLA
           |
           o GRANVILLE
 16        | 
 Min.      o THORNDALE
           |
           o BRYN MAWR
           |
           o BERWYN
           |
           o ARGYLE
           |
           o LAWRENCE
           |
~~~~~~~~~~~o WILSON
           |
           +-o SHERIDAN
             |
 10          o ADDISON
 Min.        |
            (T) BELMONT
             |
             |
~~~~~~~~~~~~(T) FULLERTON
             |
             ·
             o NORTH/CLYBOURN
              ·
 10            ·  CLARK/DIVISION
 Min.           ··o·            
                   ·
                   o CHICAGO 
                   ·
                   o GRAND
                   ·
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(T) LAKE *     
                   ·               
                  (T) WASHINGTON   
                   ·               
                   o MONROE      
                   ·             
 12               (T) JACKSON    
 Min.              ·                
                   o HARRISON       
                   ·                
                  (T) ROOSEVELT 
                  ·
                  o CERMACK-CHINATOWN
                  |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o SOX-35th
                  |
                  o 47th
 10               |
 Min.             o GARFIELD
                  |
                  o 63rd
                   \
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o 69th
                    |
                    |
 8                  o 79th
 Min.               |
                    |
                    o 87th
                    |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o 95th/DAN RYAN

* Transfers at Lake Street require you to either have used a Transit Card or Chicago Card. Passengers who paid cash need to get a free transfer pass from the station attendant.

Things to note:

  • All stations have some form of warming-shelter on their platforms. Usually, there is a bus-shelter with heat lamps. Though these are not the best in the world, they do provide some warmth and protection from the wind during the winter.
  • Most stations have Pepsi vending machines (20 oz $1.00), and some also have convenience stores.
  • The CTA uses electric trains, which run off of power from a third rail. Therefore, it is imperative that you stay off the tracks!
  • All train cars have an intercom system to the motorman, located on a panel next to the wheelchair-accessible seat by the cab of each car, with a blue light overhead. This can be used in an emergency, or by customers with disabilities to alert the motorman to wait until they have exited the train.

Sources: http://www.transitchicago.com, personal knowledge.

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