page_title: Green Line B branch
section_title: Growing service
hierarchical_section_title: Green Line B branch / History / Growing service
caption_attribution_description: English: A lone passenger waits on the inbound platform at Leamington Road on a winter day
context_page_description: The B branch, also called the Commonwealth Avenue branch or Boston College branch, is a branch of the MBTA Green Line light rail system which operates on Commonwealth Avenue west of downtown Boston, Massachusetts. One of four branches of the Green Line, the B branch runs from Boston College station down the median of Commonwealth Avenue to Blandford Street. There, it enters Blandford Street portal into Kenmore station, where it merges with the C and D branches. The combined services run into the Boylston Street subway and Tremont Street subway to downtown Boston. As of 2016, B branch service terminates at Park Street. Unlike the other branches, the B branch runs solely through the city limits of Boston.
  The Green Line Rivalry between Boston College and Boston University is named in reference to the B branch, which runs to both universities.
context_section_description: The Commonwealth Avenue Street Railway opened the popular Norumbega Park on June 17, 1897. (That line merged into the Newton and Boston Street Railway (N&B) in 1904 and the Middlesex and Boston Street Railway (M&B) in 1909.) Through service between Norumbega Park and Park Street station, operated by BERy east of Lake Street, begun on January 17, 1903. The Newton Street Railway (also merged into the N&B in 1904) began through service between Park Street and Waltham via the Watertown Line on February 23, 1903. When the Cambridge Tunnel opened in April 1912, the Waltham service was rerouted to Central Square station in Cambridge instead. On May 1, 1912, the M&B began a second through service over the Commonwealth Avenue route – this one running to Newton Highlands. The next month, two men were charged with a planned "conspiracy to blow up the tracks of the Elevated Company in Commonwealth av" using ten sticks of stolen dynamite.
  The Boylston Street subway opened on October 3, 1914, acting as an extension of the Tremont Street subway to just east of Governors Square, with intermediate stops at Copley Square and Massachusetts Avenue. (A third station, Arlington, was not built until 1921.) Lake Street service via Washington Street was cut back to Washington Square except at rush hours. The Newton Highlands through service was cut back to Lake Street, where it connected with BERy streetcar service. Norumbega Park through service continued to use the surface route, as the older M&B streetcars could not match the speed of the newer BERy streetcars in the subway. It took was split at Lake Street on November 1, with a connecting BERy line using the surface route; that was cut to a Kenmore–Park Street route on November 21. 
  On November 21, rush hour Washington Street service was cut back to Reservoir, leaving only Beacon Street cars using the Chestnut Hill Avenue tracks. Beacon Street service was cut to Reservoir on November 6, 1915, with Washington Street service extended back to Lake Street. Beginning on February 6, 1922, all Washington Street service was operated as a Brookline Village–Lake Street shuttle as part of service changes on the Huntington Avenue line. The shuttle was replaced with buses in 1926; the bus route was redirected to Brighton Center in 1928 and eventually became route 65.
  The Commonwealth Avenue line served two major baseball stadiums: Fenway Park (opened 1912) near Governors Square, and Braves Field (opened 1915) in Allston. The BERy opened a prepayment surface station (where riders paid their fares at the stop, rather than on board the streetcar) at Kenmore Street in Governors Square in 1915. The new Braves Field opened on August 18, 1915; it included a loop track between Gaffney Street and Babcock Street with a prepayment station to allow streetcars to directly serve the ballpark. The loop was also used to turn trains for Red Sox games at Fenway Park, and for rush-hour short turns; after November 1945, these short turns also operated during midday and on Saturdays. The loop was heavily used during games; for the 1948 World Series, streetcars ran between Park Street and Braves Field on 45-second headways.
caption: A passenger waiting at Leamington Road, circa 1915–1930
exif: {}