On one of my other post somebody suggested that the T has areas that are not tourist friendly. Where would I be able to find out what these areas are? What about underground versus above ground what is the difference?

"tourist friendly" doesn't necessarily mean unsafe--some stretches of the T go to mostly-residential areas that are of no interest to visitors.

Crime on the T does make the news, although I just read an article the other day that said incidents of crime on the T have recently taken a nosedive.

That said, I usually hear about problems on the Orange Line at Mass Ave station and points outbound, and on the Redline's Ashmont branch at Savin Hill and Shawmut stations.

Take note that there's little reason for a visitor to go to these areas save for the JFK library on the Red line and possibly the arboretum at the end of the Orange Line. Other parts of the Orange and Red line are safe, and I've personally never had a problem on the T at all.

As for above ground vs. under: All of the T lines are underground at the center of town, and most of them emerge as they get farther away (the Red line emerges only to cross the Charles, then it goes back under for the rest of the line!). Above ground, sometimes the speed of the trains is slowed by sharing some intersections with car traffic (as on the Green B, C, and E lines).

Go to MBTA.com and look at map. Orange line south of NE Medical Center and Red line branch south of JFK Museum - not the one thru Quincy/Braintree, but the one that goes southwest.

And these are lines I would avoid after dark/after rush hour. Problems generally occur at stations not actually on the trains, and they are, as Ralphie said, unusual. Most tourists do not use bus lines, but I would not want to be standing anywhere late at night waiting on the street for a bus.

Boston is a relatively safe city and as with many places street criminals want your money not to kill you. The areas mentioned have pockets of drug and gang activity that are small and specific - and your risk there is getting in the way of something.

The northern and western branches of MBTA have some fairly isolated and deserted stations - the kind I would not want to be walking to/from late at night alone. But it would seem to me that would apply to any large city.

I believe Gail stated that you should be wary of stations south of New England Medical on the Orange line, but I'd just like to point out that Back Bay station is the next southern stop and that is a large and busy station (Amtrak stops there) that I've always felt comfortable in.

Mr/Ms Wanderer is correct.

airjop, we were in Boston in September, and I think we hit about every major tourist area; we never felt unsafe in any of the areas we visited, and the people working in the stations were above helpful. A few of the stations were closed when we were there, so they put us on a public bus. We were pretty impressed with how clean and safe everything seemed to be.

"Orange line south of NE Medical Center and Red line branch south of JFK Museum - not the one thru Quincy/Braintree, but the one that goes southwest."

I have lived in both of those places (i.e., a bus ride out of Forest Hills at the end of the Orange Line and the trolley out of Ashmont Station at the southern end of the Red Line), my kids (now ages 20-37) took the T all the time without any problems. Yes, there are incidents but they are rare. My daughter, who is very white and very petite, took the Ashmont line to UMass and back in the evenings.

On the Red Line, there's not much of interest to tourists south of the station that serves UMass and the JFK Library unless you're visiting the historic sites in Quincy Center (which is where I live now, and also safe).

For what it's worth, here's a link to a recent story in the Boston Herald about some incidents on the Red Line. As in all cities, you have to be aware of what's going on around you. http://www.bostonherald.com/news/reg...icleid=1069701