Riding the T for fun
By adamg - Thu, 07/05/2007 - 8:18am.
Susie reports talking to the parents of two little kids on a C car yesterday:
... The mom and dad informed us that the kids had never been on a subway. So, they were riding the T from Government Center to the end of the C-line and then right back to Government Center...for fun. Fun and T in the same sentence? The kids were ecstatic to be riding the T, despite the fact that our car was packed full with people leaving the Sox game. ...
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Aw, that's sweet!
Today's crop of kids who ride the T are tomorrow's transit bloggers and train fans. Brings a smile to my eye and a tear to my heart, it does.
Kids and trains
Greta has informed me that next weekend, she wants to ride all four subway lines - just because.
Take the kids on the Mattapan trolley (once it reopens)
Has Greta ever been there? Hopefully it will be back in service some time this fall, though probably too late for foliage season.
Definitely
No, the last time I went on the High-Speed Line (which you probably remember), she wasn't much interested in trains. Back then, she was more of a construction-equipment/truck kid (best thing ever: Having a kid like that and just sitting on your front steps watching a paving crew re-do your street - with the winds blowing all the vile smells away from you).
Oh, she's a construction fan?
Does she know about this place in Waltham?
Past tense
Now she's more of a "let's assemble every single Barbie on the block on the sidewalk in front of our house and all 67 million of their shoes and tops and tables and beds and refrigerators and stuff and hope those big kids on their bikes don't run over these tiny little fragile things our parents keep telling us not to bring outside because they'll get run over" kind of kid.
Riding the T for fun
The T is fun. Good to see the T through children's eyes as opposed to the typical grumps who post on Universal Hub.
Things kids would probably like on the T
The trip over the Longfellow Bridge on the Red Line, of course.
The Green Line trip from North Station to Lechmere, which also involves coming up out of a tunnel onto an elevated structure, and gives you some view of the river.
Charles/MGH and Science Park stations themselves. They're up in the air, and you can walk to the end of the platforms and see a bit of the Charles River.
The Green Line from Brigham Circle to Heath Street runs down the middle of the street.
The Silver Line from South Station features buses running in a subway tunnel; you can also see this at Harvard Square station.
The outer part of the Blue Line has some views of the ocean.
The Orange Line doesn't have much to see, except where you cross a bridge over the Mystic River. And a bit of a skyline view along the Mass. Pike near Back Bay station.
You'll probably want 7-day passes ($15 each). There is also a 1-day pass for $9 but it doesn't make a whole lot of sense unless you aren't going to use the T at all for the following six days. If the kid is under 12 she can ride for free.
Even better than just riding the Blue Line
Is getting off at Revere Beach and going to the beach - especially if you throw in some ice cream at the Twist & Shake :-).
If the kid is old enough, she'll also appreciate stuff like the decrepit old under-construction Green Line stations, other mysterious tunnel-like things (the old Scollay signs at Government Center, that Lifesavers-colored tunnel at Downtown Crossing, etc.), the mile-long Porter escalator (which she will then ignore in order to skip down all those stairs) and the automaton who announces stops on the newer Red Line trains. She will, however, have a hard time coming to grips with the way some Red Line stops have have one set of tracks built above the others, unlike the more sensible way they do things on the Orange Line.
If the kid is under 12 she can ride for free.
Some T guy at Forest Hills explained how to do that: You put one hand on her shoulder as you both go through the gate at once. To date: The alarm has gone off roughly 9 times out of 10. And yet not once has a burly (or any) T employee come over to investigate.
Gloves
Don't forget the bronzed gloves all over Porter (Art by Mags Davies?)
I always found stations at the end of the line interesting, watching trains turn around or whatever. As well as riding the little trolley from Ashmont, you can get a pretty swell view of the trainyard.
Going from tunnel to outdoors to tunnel again (although not elevated) happens on the ashmont train between Andrew and Shawmut. That can be fun. Or, if a Braintree train on the Red Line, there's that bridge over the Neponset for a neat view.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
That's great!
I fell in love with the subway when I was a kid (six, perhaps) visiting Mexico City. Since then I've collected subway/trolley experiences in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Atlanta, Washington DC, Paris, Amsterdam, Prague, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Beigjing, Shanghai, Tokyo, Kyoto, Hong Kong, and of course, Boston.
The T', believe it or not, is one of the main reasons I decided to make Boston my home. Kids loving the subway become grownups loving dense urban centers. My children will be quite proficient T' riders someday.
How cool!!
As a young kid back in the mid to late 1950's, when visiting my grandparents, who then resided in Brooklyn, NY, I, too, loved riding the NYC subway trains.
I've also ridden subways in Montreal, Paris, and in and around Boston. Too bad Providence, which is an hour's drive south of Boston doesn't have a subway system. A subway system is an integral part of a city/urban area.
Providence transit
They don't have a subway, but they do have a bus-only tunnel, nearly a century old, originally built for streetcars.
Subways I've ridden: Boston, New York City, PATH (NYC-New Jersey), Washington DC, Chicago, San Francisco (both BART and Muni), Montreal, Vancouver, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Milan, Cairo. I wanted to ride the one in Haifa, but it was closed for construction during my visit.
I, Too, Enjoy Subways Very Much
My favorite is probably New York, but I also love London. I've taken a ride on Boston (of course), Washington DC, Amsterdam (trolley system), Toronto, Chicago and Berlin.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com