page_title: Tremont Street subway
section_title: Disused southern tunnel branch
hierarchical_section_title: Tremont Street subway / History / Disused southern tunnel branch
caption_attribution_description: English: Section of the Tremont Street Subway (since abandoned) between Boylston and Pleasant Street. This view is under Tremont Street at Van Rensslaer Place (now Allen's Alley), facing north towards Boylston. Inbound track is on the right.Original caption: BELLMOUTH NEAR VAN RENSSLAER PLACE, TREMONT STREET (FACING NORTH).
context_page_description: The Tremont Street subway in Boston's MBTA subway system is the oldest subway tunnel in North America and the third oldest still in use worldwide to exclusively use electric traction, opening on September 1, 1897. It was originally built, under the supervision of Howard A. Carson as chief engineer, to get streetcar lines off the traffic-clogged streets, instead of as a true rapid transit line. It now forms the central part of the Green Line, connecting Boylston Street to Park Street and Government Center stations.
context_section_description: The subway in 1897 consisted of a main line under Tremont Street that terminated at Park Street, and two forks to the south.  One fork has remained the extant part of the line, which veered westward along Boylston Street, toward the main-line Arlington station, as well as towards Back Bay.  The other fork continued south under Tremont Street to the Pleasant Street incline (the tunnel to which is depicted in the top right photo).  This portal was used by streetcars that went southwest to Egleston via the South End, along Tremont Street (route 43), or southeast to City Point in South Boston via Broadway (route 9). Streetcar service through the southern portal ended in 1962; for the last several months, service consisted of a shuttle between the portal and Boylston station.  The tunnel still exists, dead-ended at the now-buried portal, which has been converted to a public park. However,the disused tunnel may become part of a new streetcar line that would partly replace access to rapid transit for southern Metro Boston neighborhoods, that had been severed from MBTA rapid transit service in 1987 with the demolishing of the Washington Street Elevated southern section of the Orange Line, which had a station at Egleston as originally built. This proposed new streetcar service could go as far south as the Red Line's Mattapan station, with a northern turnaround terminus at Government Center, according to a 2012-dated proposal.
caption: The now-unused southern portion of the Tremont Street subway, looking north towards Boylston – the outbound track's lower elevation takes it under the Boylston Street subway's sharply curved outbound tracks.
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