Trolleybuses in Greater Boston
The Boston-area trolleybus (or, as known locally, trackless trolley) system formed part of the public transportation network serving Greater Boston in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It opened on April 11, 1936, with a large network operating for the next quarter-century. Measured by fleet size, the Boston-area system was the second-largest trolleybus system in the United States at its peak (end of 1952), with only the Chicago system having more trolleybuses than Boston's 463 (with the Atlanta system being close behind Boston, with 453). After 1963, the only remaining portion was a four-route cluster operating from the Harvard bus tunnel at Harvard station, running through Cambridge, Belmont, and Watertown. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority took over the routes in 1964.
| Boston-area trolleybus system | |
|---|---|
A trolleybus on route 71 leaving the Harvard bus tunnel in 2006 | |
| Operation | |
| Locale | Greater Boston, Massachusetts, United States |
| Open | April 11, 1936 |
| Close | June 30, 2023 |
| Operator(s) | 1936–47: Boston Elevated Railway; 1947–64: Metropolitan Transit Authority; 1964–2023: Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) |
| Infrastructure | |
| Electrification | Parallel overhead lines, 600 V DC |
The system was expanded by the Silver Line (Waterfront), a 2004-opened bus rapid transit network using dual-mode buses which ran as trolleybuses in a tunnel in the Seaport District of Boston before switching to diesel power to serve other destinations. The Harvard lines were converted to diesel hybrid buses in 2022, followed by the Silver Line in 2023.