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MBTA Green Line

More Boston Transportation

Location: Downtown Boston to Brighton, Jamaica Plain, Brookline and Newton.

Our thoughts: The Green Line is a streetcar line linking downtown Boston with other parts of Boston and some of Boston's western suburbs. The service on the Green Line is generally terrible, with crowded trains, long delays and poor communication from the MBTA about the Green Line's status. Thing are particularly difficult at rush hour, but it's sometimes also bad at other times of the day.

The heart of the Green Line is Park Street Station, and the stretch between Park Street and Boylston was America's first subway. In addition to serving the Green Line's B, C, D and E lines, Park Street also has a Red Line station for connections to Alewife, Braintree and Ashmont.

Going outbound from Park Street, trains go through Boylston, Arlington, Copley, Hynes Convention Center (known to longtime Bostonians as "Auditorium") and Kenmore (near Fenway Park).

After Copley, the E line branches off, and after Kenmore, the line splits into the B, C and D branches.

The B line goes along the median of Commonwealth Avenue (known locally as Comm Ave) through the Brighton section of Boston, as it passes through Boston University and terminates at Boston College.

The C line runs down Beacon Street in Brookline, passing through Coolidge Corner and Washington Square before ending in Cleveland Circle in Brighton, just over the Boston border.

The D line is the longest of the Green Line surface lines, and it's the only one with a dedicated right of way, uninterrupted by grade crossings. After leaving Kenmore, trains stop at Fenway Park (which is actually farther from the ballpark than Kenmore station), Longwood, Brookline Village, Brookline Hills, Beaconsfield, Reservoir, Chestnut Hill, Newton Center, Newton Highlands, Waban and Woodland before terminating at Riverside.

The E line is generally called the Arborway Line, but it actually doesn't go that far, as it hasn't gone past Heath Street since 1985. After Copley, stops include the Prudential Center, Symphony Hall, Northeastern University, the Museum of Fine Arts and the Longwood Medical Area before terminating at Heath Street near the VA Medical Center.

(Note to people following the alphabet here: There is no longer an A line, and there hasn't been since the Watertown branch was shut down in 1969.)

Tip: Get on the first train that comes, even if it's not the right line. You can always change at Kenmore (or Copley for the E line).

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