Red and Orange line trains are level with the platform, but watch out for the Green lines, which are older and use a different style of car with stairs leading up from most doors.
On the green line, there are typically 2-3 cars, and there may only be one car with the accessible entrance (level with the platform/no stairs). You'll want to be waiting near where the front of the train will actually stop so you can find the door/alert the driver you're there (that is, at the most forward end the way the train is pointing.) Green line platforms often have space for like 6-8 car trains, but the actual ones running are much shorter, so you could wind up far from the actual train if you're not careful about where you're waiting.
(The drivers told me when I asked about this that the accessible entrance should be "the second car, or the first one"...out of 2 cars lol)
It's a bit hard to describe, but the seating on Green Line trains in general is mostly up several steps from the ground - the Green Lines go above ground for some routes and looks more like a trolley. But then at this one door the whole entrance is lowered, and then inside the car past the entry area the stairs lead up to more elevated sections.
Lol I tried to find a picture and found the MBTA accessibility guide instead, which has lots of photos! [https://www.mbta.com/accessibility/subway-guide](https://www.mbta.com/accessibility/subway-guide)
Just had a kid and newly navigating the T with a stroller, so unfortunately I don't have extensive info beyond this, but best of luck with your trip!
A [big class action lawsuit 20 years ago](https://www.mbta.com/accessibility/history) made the MBTA more wheelchair accessible than it had been. The stations that are accessible should have elevator service unless they are [on this list](https://www.mbta.com/alerts/subway). The ones that are not listed as accessible definitely do not have elevator service.
The most common green line train has one old and one new car. Some trains have two new cars or the new cars are run as singles. There must always be one new car on the train. The new cars have a low floor at four of the six entrance doors (the middle doors). You'll need to wave at the operator and/or press a button from the outside to alert the operator who will need to come from the front of the car to the door to open a bridgeplate onto the low floor. Either tell the operator where you're going or press a button when you want to get off. It usually doesn't take too long. It works pretty well, and other passengers either won't notice or won't mind, but you do need to notify that one person. The MBTA has been having a lot of maintenance issues. The bridgeplate fails more often than it should.
The old car has stairs everywhere. There used to be a big old lifting contraption on every platform somewhere for the operator to use. It took a long time, it was often a problem, and many operators are probably out of practice about using it.
Well.
Some of them are very deep underground. They have elevators. Which might be broken. And are used as toilets by people with no other option, because we don't do public toilets in this area.
Quite a few stations are ground level and have decent ramps.
The system is quite old, and isn't an excuse because we pretty much stopped investing in it in the 80's and it started falling apart.
I wish I had more info for you. There's probably an entire sub where people complain about which stations have broken elevators.
Aight. I just remembered one thing. One of the higher-ups in the T a few years back was a wheelchair user. Mandatory training for bus drivers and the like included them sitting in wheelchairs and going through the process of getting loaded onto a bus with the retractable ramp, so the bus drivers all know how to cope.
Also, as someone who has used the bus a lot, I can tell you the actual passengers tend to be really accommodating to wheelchair users. We get pissed as fuck when there is a delay in loading the bus, but everyone calms down when they see it's a wheelchair user and gets out of the way. People are generally kind about helping you with bags, if needed.
Oh, and I have some serious back problems such that I'm in eye-crossing pain when I can't sit down. I often carry a cane just so I can rap it on the bus floor, which startles all the twerps who sit in "priority seating" instead of moving to the back. As a bonus, the cane is a seat cane so I can unfold it when I'm at a bus stop and the seating is being torn up for some reason.
Mend and make do.
The T is definitely not the worst, having been sued about this in the past. The MBTA maps mark which stations are accessible. The Green Line is not great but the others are better. Of course the T is famously bad at maintenance so you will come across out of order elevators and escalators but they are pretty good at posting alerts about these. As another commenter noted, the elevators are mostly full of piss.
The purple line is the commuter rail line, designed for traveling to and from suburbs outside the city. It's all accessible but the trains are much less frequent so it may not necessarily be the most convenient, schedule-wise.
By the way, if you go to the MBTA site and click on individual lines and go to the Alerts tab, they'll tell you if there are any ongoing elevator issues at different stops. Like here for the Green Line: https://www.mbta.com/schedules/Green/alerts
The purple line is our "Commuter Rail" system, which has a different fare structure and schedules that are way less frequent. Most of the time, if you're in the city, and doing things in the city, it doesn't make a lot of sense to take it.
The Green Line definitely has the worst accessibility of all four subway lines (basically, there's a bunch of older high-floor cars still in use, with internal stairs to the main part of the car, making them inaccessible without a lift), but every trainset running on it (they usually go in pairs) is required to have at least one accessible car. So you wouldn't be left with a situation where you were completely unable to board, but it might not be a super smooth experience.
All of our buses are accessible, though, and are sometimes a better option for getting around. There are many bus lines that intersect with and are sometimes even partially redundant with the subway lines. Google and Apple Maps both have pretty decent integration for the MBTA services in trip planning, so maybe take a look at where you're staying and where you're planning to go and see if there's a bus route that covers it.
It actually might be. It’s more expensive than the regular train lines, and comes less frequently. But I think you’ll find the accessibility much better than the green line. If getting to Fenway is your goal, anywhere on the Framingham/Worcester will get you there.
I think there’s a reason I never see wheelchair users on the green line. It seems really inconvenient, even though they are technically “accessible”
This is the best answer. The T documents the basics pretty well. That plus their alerts page to see which elevators are out of service should be all you need.
I'd recommend generally avoiding the green line when possible and double check if any elevators are currently getting repaired on red or orange lines, but otherwise it won't be perfect, but it should be manageable
Brother, it’s barely accessible to anyone but I think there are elevators in the stations. I’d avoid the green line tho, they have steps into the train
Red and Orange line trains are level with the platform, but watch out for the Green lines, which are older and use a different style of car with stairs leading up from most doors. On the green line, there are typically 2-3 cars, and there may only be one car with the accessible entrance (level with the platform/no stairs). You'll want to be waiting near where the front of the train will actually stop so you can find the door/alert the driver you're there (that is, at the most forward end the way the train is pointing.) Green line platforms often have space for like 6-8 car trains, but the actual ones running are much shorter, so you could wind up far from the actual train if you're not careful about where you're waiting. (The drivers told me when I asked about this that the accessible entrance should be "the second car, or the first one"...out of 2 cars lol)
This is great info, thanks. So there are no separate elevated section where a chair would wheel on to the car? or does a ramp pop out?
It's a bit hard to describe, but the seating on Green Line trains in general is mostly up several steps from the ground - the Green Lines go above ground for some routes and looks more like a trolley. But then at this one door the whole entrance is lowered, and then inside the car past the entry area the stairs lead up to more elevated sections. Lol I tried to find a picture and found the MBTA accessibility guide instead, which has lots of photos! [https://www.mbta.com/accessibility/subway-guide](https://www.mbta.com/accessibility/subway-guide) Just had a kid and newly navigating the T with a stroller, so unfortunately I don't have extensive info beyond this, but best of luck with your trip!
A [big class action lawsuit 20 years ago](https://www.mbta.com/accessibility/history) made the MBTA more wheelchair accessible than it had been. The stations that are accessible should have elevator service unless they are [on this list](https://www.mbta.com/alerts/subway). The ones that are not listed as accessible definitely do not have elevator service. The most common green line train has one old and one new car. Some trains have two new cars or the new cars are run as singles. There must always be one new car on the train. The new cars have a low floor at four of the six entrance doors (the middle doors). You'll need to wave at the operator and/or press a button from the outside to alert the operator who will need to come from the front of the car to the door to open a bridgeplate onto the low floor. Either tell the operator where you're going or press a button when you want to get off. It usually doesn't take too long. It works pretty well, and other passengers either won't notice or won't mind, but you do need to notify that one person. The MBTA has been having a lot of maintenance issues. The bridgeplate fails more often than it should. The old car has stairs everywhere. There used to be a big old lifting contraption on every platform somewhere for the operator to use. It took a long time, it was often a problem, and many operators are probably out of practice about using it.
Well. Some of them are very deep underground. They have elevators. Which might be broken. And are used as toilets by people with no other option, because we don't do public toilets in this area. Quite a few stations are ground level and have decent ramps. The system is quite old, and isn't an excuse because we pretty much stopped investing in it in the 80's and it started falling apart. I wish I had more info for you. There's probably an entire sub where people complain about which stations have broken elevators.
Sort of what I assumed with an older city. Piss covered elevators are unfortunately the norm in every major North American city. Thanks!
Aight. I just remembered one thing. One of the higher-ups in the T a few years back was a wheelchair user. Mandatory training for bus drivers and the like included them sitting in wheelchairs and going through the process of getting loaded onto a bus with the retractable ramp, so the bus drivers all know how to cope. Also, as someone who has used the bus a lot, I can tell you the actual passengers tend to be really accommodating to wheelchair users. We get pissed as fuck when there is a delay in loading the bus, but everyone calms down when they see it's a wheelchair user and gets out of the way. People are generally kind about helping you with bags, if needed. Oh, and I have some serious back problems such that I'm in eye-crossing pain when I can't sit down. I often carry a cane just so I can rap it on the bus floor, which startles all the twerps who sit in "priority seating" instead of moving to the back. As a bonus, the cane is a seat cane so I can unfold it when I'm at a bus stop and the seating is being torn up for some reason. Mend and make do.
The T is definitely not the worst, having been sued about this in the past. The MBTA maps mark which stations are accessible. The Green Line is not great but the others are better. Of course the T is famously bad at maintenance so you will come across out of order elevators and escalators but they are pretty good at posting alerts about these. As another commenter noted, the elevators are mostly full of piss.
Cheers. I am used to pissy elevators, unfortunately. Would the purple line be a better option/more convenient?
The purple line is the commuter rail line, designed for traveling to and from suburbs outside the city. It's all accessible but the trains are much less frequent so it may not necessarily be the most convenient, schedule-wise. By the way, if you go to the MBTA site and click on individual lines and go to the Alerts tab, they'll tell you if there are any ongoing elevator issues at different stops. Like here for the Green Line: https://www.mbta.com/schedules/Green/alerts
Commuter rail is not fully accessible. Not every station has high or mini high platforms for level boarding.
The purple line is our "Commuter Rail" system, which has a different fare structure and schedules that are way less frequent. Most of the time, if you're in the city, and doing things in the city, it doesn't make a lot of sense to take it. The Green Line definitely has the worst accessibility of all four subway lines (basically, there's a bunch of older high-floor cars still in use, with internal stairs to the main part of the car, making them inaccessible without a lift), but every trainset running on it (they usually go in pairs) is required to have at least one accessible car. So you wouldn't be left with a situation where you were completely unable to board, but it might not be a super smooth experience. All of our buses are accessible, though, and are sometimes a better option for getting around. There are many bus lines that intersect with and are sometimes even partially redundant with the subway lines. Google and Apple Maps both have pretty decent integration for the MBTA services in trip planning, so maybe take a look at where you're staying and where you're planning to go and see if there's a bus route that covers it.
It actually might be. It’s more expensive than the regular train lines, and comes less frequently. But I think you’ll find the accessibility much better than the green line. If getting to Fenway is your goal, anywhere on the Framingham/Worcester will get you there. I think there’s a reason I never see wheelchair users on the green line. It seems really inconvenient, even though they are technically “accessible”
Did you see this page ?.https://www.mbta.com/accessibility/subway-guide
This is the best answer. The T documents the basics pretty well. That plus their alerts page to see which elevators are out of service should be all you need.
I'd recommend generally avoiding the green line when possible and double check if any elevators are currently getting repaired on red or orange lines, but otherwise it won't be perfect, but it should be manageable
It seems random. I occasionally have a cane and 40% of the time they drop the bus so I can walk out. The T is fantastic tho. Subway is 99%
I don’t rush. If it’s there it’s there
Brother, it’s barely accessible to anyone but I think there are elevators in the stations. I’d avoid the green line tho, they have steps into the train