It's Day Three of the Boston "T" Party. Today we shall ride the entire Red Line, including its most exciting feature, the Mattapan Trolley. We will be going our separate ways by midday, after a farewell lunch at South Station.
This quick trip is a return trip over the Plymouth/Kingston Old Colony commuter line. This train originated in Kingston. I chose this trip to be via commuter rail since those who stayed in Braintree will have their luggage with them.
The trip will be the same as that on Friday evening on Train #051, only in the inbound direction. Keep an eye out for Red Line Braintree trains as our tracks keep on criss-crossing over and under it. Also in the mix are the Southeast Expressway, and later the Ashmont branch of the Red Line.
A good guide to this route, from the perspective of the parallel Red Line, is in Part B1.
Once at South Station, we can have breakfast at the food court, and can dispose of our luggage for the day.
This trip will run on the "A" branch of the Red Line, and take us to the Mattapan trolley. We've been here before on the Braintree branch. After the portal, we will take the right fork this time. This is part of the original Red Line that went from Dorchester to Harvard. At the JFK/U-Mass station, we stop at the westernmost center platform. Braintree trains stop at the next platform to the left, and Old Colony commuter trains use the single side platform on the eastern side of the station.
At the Savin Hill station, we are still in the corridor that also includes the Braintree subway branch, the commuter line and the Southeast Expressway. But only the Ashmont trains stop here.
Beyond Savin Hill, the Ashmont branch finally diverges from everything else. The next station, well in the center of the Dorchester neighborhood, is Fields Corner. Here, you can see where connecting buses enter the subway station under a trainshed to provide cross-platform transfers. The line curves to the west, and then to the south once more. We go back into a subway.
The Shawmut station has side platforms, and is completely underground. We then come into the Ashmont station, which is unique in that it sits partially in the subway and partially at ground level. The station is like Fields Corner, except the shed is much bigger. For here, there are also lanes that carry the Mattapan trolley in each direction.
Transfers from the Red Line to buses within the structure are free, as are transfers to the Mattapan trolley. The trolley actually runs on a greater headway than the subway, so there should not be much of a wait. Be careful crossing the trolley tracks.