MTA

The Boston Mass Transit Authority (MTA) was the primary public transportation authority for the Boston Metropolitan area, operating well up to 2077. Their primary modes of infrastructure were Boston's subway network, as well as buses and a monorail network that ran under highways, sharing stations with the conventional subway trains. As evidenced by the lack of conventional subway carriages amid the many wrecked monorail trains, the original subway system appears to have been phased out in favor of a full monorail system.

Background
Prior to 2077, the Boston MTA operated several train lines within Downtown Boston, extending to Cambridge, Malden, Back Bay, Scollay Square and other portions of the city. These lines included the Red, Blue, Orange and Green lines, and used similar rolling stock. An unidentified monorail line was operated by the system as well, evidenced by the broken monorail suspended from the bottom of an elevated highway and the monorail at the Mass Bay Medical Center. These subway/monorail lines operated up until mid-2077 when they were closed due to shortages and rationing. Other than that, they were tasked with operating Boston's ground surface transport network, with a fleet of buses at the ready.

Stations
Transit stations for the MTA can be found around the Commonwealth. Unlike the subway stations of the Capital Wasteland's DC Metro, none of these are interconnected, and function as singular underground spaces, due to blockages caused by wrecked trains and rubble. At least one Blue Line station has been converted into a bar, the Third Rail, located within the former Scollay Square Station in Goodneighbor. Another station, Park Street, was closed by the MTA and excavated into Vault 114, where Vault-Tec would use the existing station infrastructure to build the vault to save costs. Most other stations also lie in disrepair, with the remains of trains and wreckage blocking the tunnels, and feral ghouls and super mutants, as well as raiders, taking residence in the concourses and platforms.

Red Line
The Red Line connected travelers from Cambridge through Boston Common and into South Boston. The line interchanges with the Green Line at Park Street station.

Orange Line
The Orange Line traveled from Roxbury to Malden, passing through Boston's Theater District in the process. It is the longest subway line operated by the MTA, traveling across several districts and connecting the southern outskirts of Boston to Malden, a city north of Boston.

Blue Line
The Blue Line ran from the Boston Airport in East Boston to Postal Square in the Financial District. Scollay Square station and Post Office station are extremely close to each other.

Green Line
The Green Line connected The Fens to the North End, stretching across the entirety of downtown Boston. The line interchanges with the Red Line at Park Street station. The line passed under the Boston Public Library and Boston Common.

Monorail
The city's monorail system ran on a rail suspended under the city's elevated freeway system. The track runs from Quincy through the Theater District and Financial District, extending through Charlestown before abruptly ending at an interchange east of Lexington. A second track runs by Outpost Zimonja at the northern edges of the Commonwealth, heading southwest through the same Lexington interchange and eventually into the Glowing Sea. No stations can be found along the second track, though the wreck of a monorail can be found south of ArcJet Systems.

The monorail initiative was said to be funded by Boston crime families, such as those led by Edward Winter and Sal Barsconi. Winter's response to a newspaper article by the Boston Bugle, "Heaven's Highway - Devil's Doing", about the ties of organized crime to the project was to threaten the reporter who wrote the article and order the murder of Safety Inspector Alice Lansky.

Trains
Unlike the train cars of the DC Metro, the train cars of the MTA can still be entered, where the player character can sometimes find loot alongside the skeletal remains of previous passengers. These trains have a streamlined tube-body shape with cab cars on both ends. Unlike the train cars of the DC Metro, the Boston MTA cars had no single pulling locomotive, utilizing electric motors on each car instead. The suspended monorail trains operated by the MTA also have the added advantage of running in both existing subway tunnels and beneath Boston's elevated Interstate Highway network.

Behind the scenes

 * The Boston MTA is a reference to Boston's actual public transport agency, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, or MBTA, which operates Boston's subway, light rail, and commuter rail network.
 * In reality, the MBTA was originally known as the MTA, from 1947 to 1964. It is not known what event after the series' point of divergence led to the change not being made in the Fallout world.
 * The Red, Blue, Green and Orange lines are the actual lines of the Boston Rapid Transit network, although the Green Line, in reality, is a streetcar/light rail system.