Route 1 is a local bus route in Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, operated by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) as part of MBTA bus service. It operates between Harvard Square and Nubian station, primarily along Massachusetts Avenue. A major crosstown route, it is among the highest-ridership routes in the system, with service every 15 minutes or less during all operating hours.
The West End Street Railway began operating a crosstown through route between Harvard Square and Dudley Square (now Nubian Square) in 1896. Most portions of the route had originated as opened by three companies between 1856 and 1887, while the Harvard Bridge opened to streetcars in 1892. The Boston Elevated Railway (BERy) extended the line to North Cambridge carhouse by 1907 but cut it back to Harvard Square in 1912.
Traffic congestion on Massachusetts Avenue prompted several changes to the route in the 1930s, culminating in a 1936 split into Harvard–Massachusetts and Massachusetts–Dudley routes. The Harvard–Massachusetts route was partially operated with buses in 1939–1942 and 1946–1949. It was converted fully to buses in 1949, then to trolleybuses from 1950 to 1961. Off-peak service on the Massachusetts–Dudley route was converted to buses in 1948; peak service was converted in 1953. The two routes were merged into a Harvard–Dudley route in September 1962. It was designated route 1 later that decade.
Route 1 was temporarily rerouted over the Boston University Bridge from 1983 to 1987 during rebuilding of the Harvard Bridge. It was rerouted in 1987 to serve Boston City Hospital (later Boston Medical Center). The MBTA added crosstown route CT1, a limited-stop service between Central Square and the hospital, in 1994. A number of stops were closed in 2013 to reduce travel times, while several segments of bus lanes were added beginning in 2018. A 2018–19 MBTA review of its bus system found that route 1 suffered from crowding and poor reliability. Route CT1 was merged into route 1 in 2019.
Route
Route 1 runs between Harvard Square in Cambridge and Nubian station in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston. A crosstown route, it does not enter downtown Boston. From Nubian, the route runs northeast on Washington Street, southeast on Melnea Cass Boulevard, and northeast on Albany Street to the Boston Medical Center. It continues northwest on Massachusetts Avenue, passing through the South End and Back Bay neighborhoods before crossing the Charles River on the Harvard Bridge. Entering Cambridge, it passes through the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) campus and Central Square. The route terminates on Massachusetts Avenue at Holyoke Street on the east side of Harvard Square. Nubian-bound buses loop on Dunster Street and Mount Auburn Street, rejoining Massachusetts Avenue at Putnam Square.
Scheduled one-way running times range from about 40 minutes off-peak to 50 minutes at peak, with shorter times during early mornings and late nights. Service operates from about 5:00 am to 1:00 am Monday through Thursday, from about 5:00 am to 2:00 am Fridays and Saturdays, and from about 6:00 am to 1:00 am on Sundays. , headways are 15 minutes or less at all operating hours (except after 1:00 am on Friday and Saturday nights). It operates as a crosstown route, with MBTA subway connections at (Red Line), (Red Line), (Green Line – B, C, and D branches), (Green Line E branch), and (Orange Line), plus Silver Line connections at , , and Nubian.
Route 1 runs as a local route with standard local bus fare. In 2018, the route averaged 12,000 boardings on weekdays, placing it among the highest-ridership routes in the MBTA bus system. Average weekend ridership was 9,600 on Saturdays and 6,700 on Sundays. The route is operated with standard transit buses based at Albany Garage and Cabot Garage in Boston.
History Early history
Most portions of what became route 1 originated as horsecar lines opened by three companies in the 19th century: The Cambridge Railroad was the first horsecar system to open in the Boston area. It opened its first line between Central Square and Beacon Hill via Main Street (part of which is now Massachusetts Avenue), the West Boston Bridge, and Charles Street on March 26, 1856. The next month, extensions opened west to Brattle Square via Harvard Square, and east to downtown Boston. The Metropolitan Railroad opened a horsecar line between Dudley Square (now Nubian Square) and downtown Boston via Washington Street on September 17, 1856. The Highland Street Railway opened a line on Columbus Avenue between Northampton Street in the South End and downtown Boston on June 30, 1877. Both the Highland and the Metropolitan began regular service on the line on July 2. An extension on Northampton Street to the Highland's existing line on Shawmut Avenue opened later that year, allowing through service to Dudley Square. A further extension on August 21, 1882, included Northampton Street between Shawmut Avenue and Washington Street. The Metropolitan opened a horsecar line on West Chester Park between Marlborough Street in Back Bay and Columbus Avenue on October 4, 1879. Service initially ran between Beacon Street and Lenox Street via West Chester Park, Columbus Avenue, Northampton Street, and Tremont Street.
The West End Street Railway purchased and merged all the horse railroads in the Boston area in 1887. On January 3, 1889, the West End opened its first electric line – the Beacon Street line. It used West Chester Park between Beacon Street and Boylston Street; the block between Beacon and Marlborough was new trackage. The eastern portion of the line, including West Chester Park, used conduit electrification until it was converted to conventional overhead lines on July 9, 1889. The Brattle Square–Boston line was electrified on February 16, 1889.
The West End quickly electrified its system and built new lines. Northampton Street between Shawmut Avenue and Washington Street was part of a line electrified on May 10, 1890. The Washington Street line was electrified on November 28, 1891. Northampton Street between Shawmut Avenue and Tremont Street was electrified by December 1891. Northampton Street west of Tremont Street, Columbus Avenue, and West Chester Park between Columbus Avenue and Huntington Avenue were electrified by October 1892. By late 1895, the entire system was electric except the Marlborough Street line.
On August 15, 1892, the West End opened an electric streetcar line over the new Harvard Bridge, including new trackage on Front Street in Cambridge between Lafayette Square and the bridge. Service ran between Harvard Square and downtown Boston. Over the next several years, additional lines from Cambridge and beyond were routed over the bridge. West Chester Park was renamed Massachusetts Avenue on March 1, 1894; Front Street and Main Street (between Lafayette Square and Harvard Square) in Cambridge were similarly renamed later that year. On May 16, 1896, the West End began operating a crosstown through route between Harvard Square and Dudley Square via Massachusetts Avenue, Columbus Avenue, Northampton Street, and Washington Street. Service initially operated every 10 minutes.
Streetcar changes
The first phase of the Tremont Street subway, a streetcar subway in downtown Boston, opened on September 1, 1897. Routes on Boylston Street could enter the subway through the Boylston Street portal to reach Park Street station. Several of the Harvard Bridge routes were rerouted into the subway when it opened; others were rerouted over the following year. On October 1, 1897, the Boston Elevated Railway (BERy) acquired the West End Street Railway. By April 1898, ridership over the bridge had almost doubled. The first part of the Main Line Elevated opened on June 19, 1901, with Dudley Street Terminal as its southern end. Overnight "Owl" service on the line was added on August 8, 1906.
By 1907, the Harvard–Dudley line had been extended north along Massachusetts Avenue from Harvard Square to the North Cambridge carhouse. It shared track with numerous other routes, including 10 routes that used the Harvard Bridge to reach the subway from Cambridge and further points. Construction of the Cambridge Subway under Massachusetts Avenue caused streetcar detours in 1910. Temporary tracks were used on Austin Street (now Bishop Allen Boulevard) between Central Square and Lafayette Square, and on Mount Auburn Street between Harvard Square and Putnam Square. Work between Central Square and Putnam Square was done by shield tunneling, which allowed the surface streetcar tracks on that segment to stay in use.
The Cambridge Subway opened between Harvard station and downtown Boston on March 23, 1912. The through routes from northern and western suburbs were cut back from downtown Boston to Harvard station. The North Cambridge–Dudley line was shortened to a Harvard–Dudley line. It still shared the Harvard Bridge with several other routes, including a Harvard Square–Park Street line and a North Cambridge– line. On September 3, 1912, the BERy added a North Cambridge–Dudley streetcar line that supplemented the Harvard–Dudley line. It ran less frequently than the Harvard–Dudley line, with service every 15 minutes at peak hours and every 30 minutes at other times. That month, the BERy also began testing a double-articulated streetcar on the Harvard–Dudley line. It was constructed from two older streetcars and was intended to provide additional capacity on busy lines.
The Boylston Street subway opened on October 3, 1914, as a westward extension of the Tremont Street subway. It prompted a number of changes to streetcar lines; a line running between Central Square and Park Street via the Harvard Bridge was discontinued. Transfer was available between the other Harvard Bridge lines and the subway at Massachusetts station. Other lines supplemented the Harvard–Dudley line on portions of its route. By November 1914, afternoon peak service between Central Square and Dudley Square operated every 90 seconds (40 streetcars per hour).
By 1917, the Harvard–Dudley line operated every five minutes (12 streetcars per hour) outside of peak hours. The only other all-day line to use the Harvard Bridge operated between River Street (in Cambridge) and Park Street station. That year, the Massachusetts General Court passed legislation allowing the BERy to construct prepayment streetcar transfer areas (where passengers paid upon entering the transfer area, rather than on board the streetcar) at existing subway and elevated stations. On November 29, 1919, the BERy opened a prepayment transfer station at Massachusetts station. It was located slightly east of Massachusetts Avenue; streetcars on the Harvard–Dudley line detoured into the transfer station via Newbury Street and Boylston Street.
On August 23, 1924, the deteriorated Harvard Bridge – which the Harvard–Dudley line used to cross the Charles River – was closed to all traffic. The Harvard–Dudley line was temporarily separated into two sections. One operated in Cambridge between Harvard Square and Memorial Drive; the other operated between Massachusetts station and Dudley Square. Harvard–Dudley streetcar service resumed on November 4, 1924, after repairs to the bridge. By that time, service on the line typically operated with center-entrance streetcars, which were sometimes operated as two-car trains. By 1930, Type Five streetcars were used instead.
Splitting and merging The Harvard–Dudley line was among the last surface streetcar lines to operate near downtown Boston. Traffic congestion on Massachusetts Avenue – one of the region's main roads – increased during the 1920s. This prompted changes to the Harvard–Dudley line in an attempt to make service more reliable. On June 7, 1930, the northwest end of the route was cut back to Central Square. The Harvard–Central segment was served instead by a Harvard–Kendall Square bus route.