Buses to replace trolleys 'until further notice' on the Mattapan Line

Im 1985, they never promised for sure that the line would reopen. I went to a public meeting at Northestern just before the line closed and then MBTA GM Jim O'Leary said they were going to wait until the Orange Line was relocated in 1987 and re-evaulate the closure at that time.

"What kills me about the Mattapan line is that the T spent gazillions (not sourced) on rebuilding Ashmont Station from a covered station with convenient layouts for boarding and alighting from one piece of mass transit to another into an open air crazy pit."

I think people may finally be seeing the folly of these overbuilt, wide open T stations, what with Quincy Center Station recently turning into a huge and dangerous ice pit (as reported here) and all. Misguided people complained about he old "bunker" style stations, but they were that way for a reason. People were protected from the elements and were able to get in and out quickly. Wood Island Station, which I regularly use, is a prime example. There is no protection from the elements at all. Oh, but it's open and "airy", which apparently scores points with some people. At least until it rains or snows or is freezing. Not to mention glaring sunlight. I'll take the old bunker style anytime. They may not be much to look at, but they are practical.

GM hasn't built buses since 1987.

The Ashmont station design was influenced heavily by the concerns of people who lived near the station, but not by the larger number of people that transfer at the station. Thus a design that was based more on the look than the practicality of its use. I believe the MBTA's original proposal for Ashmont circa 2002 was to replace the roof and improve the access issues (it was made accesible during an earlier rebuild in 1977) and the neighbors reacted poorly to that.

Not sure - maybe power or connecting to it?

Green Line runs on pantograph. The PCCs have trolly poles.

I remember a couple of decades ago in Newark as the City Subway line was being prepped for conversion from PCC to LRVs. Beside tweaking clearance and turning radius at a couple of points, they had to install pantographs on the PCCs to run on the new catenary instead of the old trolley wires while they were waiting for the LRVs to be delivered.

Need a real maintenance facility, need to boost the power system, need to rebuild a few bridges (some of the bridges have been rebuilt in the last 15 years, but not all of them). As long as it remains cheaper to keep on rebuilding PCC cars, that is what the MBTA will do. The rebuild program that is just starting will be the third one for the cars (previous ones were done in 1977-83 and 1999-2006). Unlike the previous programs, this one will fully replace the control system on the cars with modern solid state equipment instead of re-re-rebuilding the original 1940s motor and control equipment.