1.
Auburndale, Massachusetts
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Auburndale, known to longtime residents simply as The Dale, is one of the 13 villages within the city of Newton, Massachusetts. It lies at the end of Newton near the intersection of interstate highways 90 and 95. It is bisected by the Massachusetts Turnpike, Auburndale is surrounded by three other Newton villages as well as the city of Waltham and the Charles River. Auburndale is the home of Williams and Burr elementary schools, as well as Lasell College, the first major settler in the area was William Robinson who built a house in 1678 on what is now Freeman Street. The oldest house in Auburndale stands at 473 Auburn Street and was built in 1730 by William Robinson, Auburndale, once billed as Auburndale-on-the-Charles was the home of Norumbega Park which closed in 1963. The park included rides, a zoo, and boating, the nationally-famous big band venue Totem Pole Ballroom was associated with Norumbega Park and closed in 1964. The area now contains over 60 acres of land as well as access to the Charles River. Percy Williams Bridgman,1946 Nobel Prize in Physics, grew up in Auburndale, florida Friebus, actress Louise Imogen Guiney, poet Grace H. Knapp, Christian missionary and teacher James E. Muller, M. D. Bernards Parish,41 Ash Street. Episcopal Parish of the Messiah,1900 Commonwealth Avenue, united Parish of Auburndale,64 Hancock Street. Auburndale Cove Park & Playground, West Pine Street
2.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
3.
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
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The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. Earlier modes of transportation in Boston were independently owned and operated. In 2008, the system averaged 1.3 million passenger trips each weekday, of which the subway averaged 598,200, making it the fourth-busiest subway system in the United States. Further, the Green Line and Ashmont–Mattapan High Speed Line comprise the busiest light-rail system in the U. S. with a ridership of 255,100. The MBTA is the largest consumer of electricity in Massachusetts, in 2007, its CNG bus fleet was the largest consumer of alternative fuels in the state. The MBTA operates an independent law enforcement agency, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Police, development of mass transportation both followed and shaped economic and population patterns. This marked the beginning of the development of American intercity railroads, which in Massachusetts would later become the MBTA Commuter Rail system, starting with the opening of the Cambridge Railroad on March 26,1856, a profusion of streetcar lines appeared in Boston under chartered companies. Despite the change of companies, Boston is the city with the oldest continuously working streetcar system in the world, many of these companies consolidated, and animal-drawn vehicles were converted to electric propulsion. Streetcar congestion in downtown Boston led to the subways in 1897, the Tremont Street Subway was the first rapid transit tunnel in the United States. Grade-separation added capacity and avoided delays caused by cross streets, various extensions and branches were added at both ends, bypassing more surface tracks. As grade-separated lines were extended, street-running lines were cut back for faster downtown service, however, the Green Lines Causeway Street Elevated remained in service until 2004, when it was relocated into a tunnel with an incline to reconnect to the Lechmere Viaduct. The Boston Elevated Railway started replacing trains with buses in 1922, in 1936, it started replacing rail with trackless trolleys. The last Middlesex & Boston Street Railway streetcar ran in 1930, by the beginning of 1953, the only remaining streetcar lines fed two tunnels—the main Tremont Street Subway network downtown and the short tunnel in Harvard Square. The old elevated railways proved to be an eyesore and required several sharp curves in Bostons twisty streets, the Atlantic Avenue Elevated was closed in 1938 amidst declining ridership and was demolished in 1942. As rail passenger service became unprofitable, largely due to rising automobile ownership. The MTA purchased and took over subway, elevated, streetcar, in the 1950s, the MTA ran new subway extensions, while the last two streetcar lines running into the Pleasant Street Portal of the Tremont Street Subway were substituted with buses in 1953 and 1962. While the operations of the MTA were relatively stable by the early 1960s, the 1945 Coolidge Commission plan assumed that most of the commuter rail lines would be replaced by shorter rapid transit extensions, or simply feed into them at reduced service levels. Passenger service on the entire Old Colony Railroad system serving the part of the state was abandoned by the New Haven Railroad in 1959
4.
Framingham/Worcester Line
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Service on the line is a mix of local and express trains serving Worcester plus short-turn Framingham locals. The Framingham/Worcester Line was one of the first commuter rail lines, since 2014 service has been operated by Keolis North America. In 1975 the line was cut back to Framingham, but service returned to Worcester in 1994 with four stations added between 2000 and 2002. After purchasing the Framingham-Worcester trackage from CSX in 2012, the MBTA has begun adding service to the section of the line and performing track work to increase speeds. Two new stations are planned, Boston Landing in Brighton opening in 2016, all stations from Yawkey east and West Natick west are handicapped accessible, those in between are not. Boston Landing and West Station will both be fully handicapped accessible, originally built in 1834 as the Boston and Worcester Railroad, the line was later part of the Boston and Albany Railroad and New York Central Railroad systems. Construction ran from 1962 to 1964, and reduced the railway to two tracks, the New York Central was merged into Penn Central Transportation in 1968, which went bankrupt in 1970. Amtrak was created in 1971 to take over intercity service from the private railroads. When Amtrak started operations on May 1,1971, no intercity service was kept on the line, thus ending direct connections from Boston to Springfield, Pittsfield, in mid-May, Amtrak added the Boston-New Haven Bay State. The train struggled to find consistent ridership, with frequent changes of schedule, in 1973, the westbound trip operated as a quasi-commuter train. The Bay State was canceled on March 1,1975, on January 27,1973, the MBTA acquired the remainder of the tracks east of Framingham, and began subsidizing service between Framingham and Boston. Commuter rail service between Worcester and Framingham was not subsidized by the MBTA, with just ten riders per day riding from Worcester, Amtrak began operating a Boston-Albany section of the Lake Shore Limited four days later. Boston-New Haven service was restored under the Bay State name in 1984, MBTA commuter rail service expanded to Worcester on September 26,1994 with limited rush-hour-only service. Off-peak service was added beginning on December 14,1996, Worcester Union Station underwent a major renovation in 2000, and in 2006 the citys main bus terminal was co-located at the train station. Infill stations at Ashland, Southborough, Westborough, and Grafton were added in 2000 and 2002, for a variety of reasons, the line had some of the worst on-time performance in the MBTA system for several years. CSX then dispatched on the line from their operations base in Selkirk, New York, in 2007, pessimistic that CSX would ever sell the line, the state Executive Office of Transportation began studying alternatives to improve service. In October 2007, only 48. 4% of trains ran on time, improving to 69. 3% in January 2008 after CSX, on February 18,2008, a new schedule went into effect, intended to more accurately reflect the run time on the line. By August 2009, actual performance was at 82%
5.
Side platform
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A side platform is a platform positioned to the side of a pair of tracks at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. Dual side platform stations, one for direction of travel, is the basic station design used for double-track railway lines. Side platforms may result in a wider overall footprint for the station compared with a platform where a single width of platform can be shared by riders using either track. In some stations, the two platforms are connected by a footbridge running above and over the tracks. While a pair of platforms is often provided on a dual-track line. Where the station is close to a crossing the platforms may either be on the same side of the crossing road or alternatively may be staggered in one of two ways. With the near-side platforms configuration, each platform appears before the intersection, in some situations a single side platform can be served by multiple vehicles simultaneously with a scissors crossing provided to allow access mid-way along its length. Normally, the facilities of the station are located on the Up platform with the other platform accessed from a footbridge. However, in cases the stations main buildings are located on whichever side faces the town or village the station serves. Larger stations may have two platforms with several island platforms in between. Some are in a Spanish solution format, with two platforms and an island platform in between, serving two tracks
6.
MBTA Bus
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The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority operates 177 bus routes in the Greater Boston area, many of which were formerly part of a large streetcar system. Some routes are for local transport within the city, others bring passengers from surrounding areas to stops on the MBTA Commuter Rail or subway lines, much of this service is provided by bus. Fifteen routes designed as key routes run with higher frequency at all times, most MBTA Bus service is served by diesel, compressed natural gas, and diesel-electric hybrid buses. Silver Line routes running in the Waterfront Tunnel use dual-mode buses that operate as trolleybuses in the tunnel, four routes based out of the Harvard Bus Tunnel run with trolleybuses in Cambridge, Massachusetts and also serve several surrounding suburbs. All buses and routes are wheelchair-accessible, most of the MBTAs bus fleet consists of buses with wheelchair ramps. All buses have amber colored LED exterior headsigns displaying route and destination and this is the current bus roster for the MBTA as of March 2017, including three groups of buses where delivery is ongoing. All buses are 102 inches wide, most buses are 40-foot length while 97 of the total MBTA bus fleet are 60-foot articulated buses. On June 29,2015, the MassDOT board approved the purchase of 325 new 40-foot buses from New Flyer, the 325 buses, costing a total of $222.2 million, will be delivered in 2016 and 2017 following the acceptance of a production test model. They will replace the remaining C40LF and 40-LFW fleets, six additional hybrid buses will be used for privately operated routes 712 and 713 when a new contract begins on July 1,2017. On October 5,2015, the MBTA Fiscal Control Board approved the purchase of 44 new 60-foot articulated hybrid buses from New Flyer to replace the now-retired CNG-powered Neoplan AN460LF fleet. The contract will include an option for a hybrid bus with extended-range electric operation for Silver Line Waterfront use. If tested successfully, an option for up to 45 hybrid buses with extended-range electric operation would be exercised to replace the dual-mode AN460LF fleet. In February 2015, the MBTA was awarded a $4.14 million FTA grant to purchase five 60-foot articulated battery electric buses from New Flyer, in late 2016, the MBTA will place a prototype 40-foot hydrogen fuel cell bus provided by the FTA into service. MBTA buses are operated out of the facilities listed below, Route 28, SL4, & SL5 use Southampton St. 40-foot buses, Route 39 uses Arborway and/or Cabot buses. Some buses are being loaned to other yards due to shortage, most local bus routes in Massachusetts outside the immediate MBTA operating area are operated by the states other regional transit authorities. However, some routes that connect with MBTA bus or subway service are operated by private contractors with partial subsidy by the MBTA. Five routes – the 710, 712/713,714, and 716 – are numbered like other MBTA buses, their operators accept MBTA passes on CharlieTickets, the five routes are primarily commuter routes which connect with other MBTA services at their inbound terminals. They were taken over various private operators
7.
505 (MBTA bus)
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The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority bus division operates bus routes in the Boston, Massachusetts metropolitan area. All routes connect to MBTA subway, MBTA Commuter Rail, and/or other MBTA Bus services, the Silver Line is a bus rapid transit system marketed as rapid transit. It is divided into two branches, Waterfront service that runs through the South Boston Transitway tunnel, and Washington Street service that runs on the surface via Washington Street. The Waterfront service costs the same as a fare, while the Washington Street service costs a regular bus fare. The SL5 route was created in 2002 as a replacement for the Washington Street Elevated, the Shuttle route began operations in 2004, followed by the Sl1 and SL2 in 2005 when dual-mode buses became available. The SL4 was introduced in 2009 as a replacement for the canceled Phase III tunnel, the crosstown buses provide limited-stop service on three routes that connect major subway and bus transfer points. The routes were created by the MBTA in 1994 and these routes provide almost all local service in the core of the metropolitan area, most were originally Boston Elevated Railway streetcar routes. They were originally numbered roughly clockwise from southeast to northeast, with 4 the furthest south in South Boston and 121 the furthest north in East Boston. The BERy folded into the Metropolitan Transit Authority in 1947, despite some changes, including minor routes being merged into trunk routes, the core service network has remained roughly intact since the BERy eta. Several new routes, including the 1,5, and 47, have been added during the M. T. A. and MBTA eras. Fifteen of these routes are designated as key bus routes, they supplement the system to provide frequent service to the densest areas of the city. In mid-2015, late-night service on key bus routes was cut back. Key bus routes are designated on this list with an *, numbers from 131 to 137 operate in the Melrose area, they are mostly former Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway routes which were folded into the MBTA system in 1968. The 136 and 137 were briefly operated as far as Lowell and Lawrence, their original Eastern Mass terminals, the 132 was a Service Bus Lines route which was not operated by the MBTA until 1975. 170 and 171 are special low-service routes, the 170 a variant of the 70 introduced in 1968, other numbers in the 170s were used for largely short-lived routes serving industrial areas. Routes from 191 to 194 are single round trips in the morning, mainly meant for subway fare collectors. They were introduced by the M. T. A. in 1960, route 195 is a special low-service route not open to the general public nor shown on MBTA maps. It connects downtown Boston with the shelter at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital
8.
558 (MBTA bus)
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The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority bus division operates bus routes in the Boston, Massachusetts metropolitan area. All routes connect to MBTA subway, MBTA Commuter Rail, and/or other MBTA Bus services, the Silver Line is a bus rapid transit system marketed as rapid transit. It is divided into two branches, Waterfront service that runs through the South Boston Transitway tunnel, and Washington Street service that runs on the surface via Washington Street. The Waterfront service costs the same as a fare, while the Washington Street service costs a regular bus fare. The SL5 route was created in 2002 as a replacement for the Washington Street Elevated, the Shuttle route began operations in 2004, followed by the Sl1 and SL2 in 2005 when dual-mode buses became available. The SL4 was introduced in 2009 as a replacement for the canceled Phase III tunnel, the crosstown buses provide limited-stop service on three routes that connect major subway and bus transfer points. The routes were created by the MBTA in 1994 and these routes provide almost all local service in the core of the metropolitan area, most were originally Boston Elevated Railway streetcar routes. They were originally numbered roughly clockwise from southeast to northeast, with 4 the furthest south in South Boston and 121 the furthest north in East Boston. The BERy folded into the Metropolitan Transit Authority in 1947, despite some changes, including minor routes being merged into trunk routes, the core service network has remained roughly intact since the BERy eta. Several new routes, including the 1,5, and 47, have been added during the M. T. A. and MBTA eras. Fifteen of these routes are designated as key bus routes, they supplement the system to provide frequent service to the densest areas of the city. In mid-2015, late-night service on key bus routes was cut back. Key bus routes are designated on this list with an *, numbers from 131 to 137 operate in the Melrose area, they are mostly former Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway routes which were folded into the MBTA system in 1968. The 136 and 137 were briefly operated as far as Lowell and Lawrence, their original Eastern Mass terminals, the 132 was a Service Bus Lines route which was not operated by the MBTA until 1975. 170 and 171 are special low-service routes, the 170 a variant of the 70 introduced in 1968, other numbers in the 170s were used for largely short-lived routes serving industrial areas. Routes from 191 to 194 are single round trips in the morning, mainly meant for subway fare collectors. They were introduced by the M. T. A. in 1960, route 195 is a special low-service route not open to the general public nor shown on MBTA maps. It connects downtown Boston with the shelter at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital
9.
Union Station (Worcester, Massachusetts)
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Union Station is located at Washington Square in downtown Worcester, Massachusetts. It also services Peter Pan, Greyhound, and MAX intercity bus routes, as a union station, it also served the Providence and Worcester Railroad, the Norwich and Worcester Railroad, the Worcester, Nashua and Rochester Railroad and the Boston, Barre and Gardner Railroad. Passenger service to Union Station ended by 1974, and the station fell into disrepair. Subsequently, Union Station was acquired by the Worcester Redevelopment Authority, the renovated station opened in July 2000. An intercity and local bus terminal, with five bus ports, was added at a cost of $5.2 million, Union Station is wheelchair accessible and has a full length high level platform. There are proposals to more frequent passenger service west to Springfield. The station is the northern terminus of the proposed Boston Surface Railroad. Greyhound Bus Lines and Peter Pan Bus Lines operate intercity bus service from Worcester along major highways, MAX Express operates intercity bus service between Union Station and Northampton via Fitchburg and Amherst. Included in the design are a new bus pavilion with a public waiting area, restroom facilities, ticket vending machines. The cost was $14 million, with $10 million coming from the Federal Government, the new hub opened in May,2013
MBTA Bus: 505, 558
