Monthly Meetings

One of the Association’s most popular activities is our monthly meetings, which are currently being held virtually via Zoom. Meetings begin at 7:30PM, typically on the first Saturday of every month. A short business meeting (including a detailed current events segment on MBTA news) is followed by an entertainment program, consisting of past and present transit operations from around the Northeast, the nation, and the world. Entertainment usually begins at approximately 8PM and generally lasts about two hours.

All active BSRA Members on our email list will receive a link to join the meeting within 24 hours before start time. If you’re a member and not on our email list, you can sign up for it here.

If you’re NOT a current BSRA member, and interested in attending our meetings, you can request one-time access by emailing us — or join the BSRA today for easy monthly access, among other benefits!

In the unlikely event we need to cancel a meeting, a notice will be posted on the home page of this website, on our Facebook and Twitter feeds, and sent to those on our email list by 4PM the day of the meeting.

We are always looking for presenters at future meetings! If you are interested, please contact us. We generally seek presentations of historic or recent-event subjects, especially those involving cities in the Northeast.

Upcoming Meetings

Download as a PDF

July 10, 2021
South Coast Rail Project Update
Jean C. Fox, MassDOT Director of Public Engagement for South Coast Rail, will present an update of MassDOT’s project for extending MBTA Commuter Rail to communities in southeastern Massachusetts that currently have no service. Ms. Fox will present an overview of the region, proposed stations, a summary of project benefits, and an update on the ongoing construction work. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity for questions and answers. This meeting will be on the second Saturday of the month to avoid conflict with the Fourth of July holiday.

August 7, 2021
The Trams of Prague, plus Phoenix, Portland, Seattle and San Francisco
Peter Ehrlich, noted transit historian, retired San Francisco Muni motorman, and author of the book San Francisco’s F-Line, will do a digital slide presentation on the Trams of Prague. He’ll also present slides from recent visits to Phoenix, Portland and Seattle, and, of course, San Francisco’s return of the F-Line, which occurred on May 15.

September 11, 2021
Car Barns of Boston Elevated in West Roxbury, Brookline, and Brighton
Leo Sullivan returns to present more Boston Street Railway Shops and Car Barns through the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, This will include pictures, plans, and narrative, and includes many locations that are still active or that were active within the last 50 years. This meeting will be on the second Saturday to avoid conflict with the Labor Day holiday.

October 2, 2021
Donald Nevin’s Trackless Trolley Potpourri
Donald Nevin will show 1970s-vintage trackless trolley operations in Dayton, Seattle, Vancouver, Philadelphia, Cambridge (Mass.), and Hamilton (Ontario).

November 6, 2021
Boston, New York, Poland, and Ukraine
Eric Oszustowicz will present a brief look at Boston-area photographs taken by the late Richard and Joseph Braun during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Then it is on to the photography of Eric Oszustowicz: Boston views between 1985 and 1999; behind the scenes views of the New York subway system; views of the Metro North Commuter Railroad; transit views in the Polish cities of Warsaw and Krakow; and transit views in the Ukrainian cities of Odessa, Kharkiv, Dnipro, and Kamianske.

Additional Meeting Dates (Entertainment TBD):
December 4, 2021; January 8, February 5, March 5, April 2, and May 7, 2022.

Past Meeting Entertainment Reports

We have offered a wide variety of entertainment through the years, and provide detailed reports of past meetings at the link below.
View Entertainment Reports

Items for Sale at Our Meetings

We typically offer a selection of books and other items for sale as part of our effort to offset the cost of room rent and meeting expenses. As such, we typically do not permit outside vendors to sell items at our meetings.

Click to View Full Policy on Outside Vendors
BSRA POLICY ON SALES BY OUTSIDE VENDORS AT OUR MEETINGS

Outside vendors will not be permitted to sell items at the BSRA’s monthly meetings; only official sales by the BSRA itself will be allowed. This policy applies to sales of all categories of items, including (but not limited to) books, magazines, videos, photos, slides, memorabilia, collectibles, and event tickets.

In rare cases, exceptions to this policy may be made on a one-time basis, but any such exception will require at least two weeks’ advance notice in writing from the vendor to the BSRA, and must be approved by majority vote of a committee consisting of the BSRA President, Vice President, and Treasurer. (In the absence of either the Vice President or Treasurer, the Publications Director may serve as an alternate.) Once the committee has approved the request of a given vendor to sell at a given meeting, notice of that approval will be issued to the vendor in writing by the BSRA President or his designee.

If an exception is made pursuant to the above paragraph, and if the vendor is selling tangible items that would be subject to Massachusetts Sales Tax, then the vendor must be registered with the Sales and Use Tax Division of the Massachusetts Department of Revenue. A copy of the vendor’s Form ST-1 must be included with his/her written application to sell at a BSRA meeting, and the vendor must also have a physical copy of the Form ST-1 with him/her at the meeting where the sales are conducted.

Approved by the BSRA Directors at their meeting on August 14, 2014