Acronyms You'll Commonly (or Occasionally) See

Arlington

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Dec 10, 2011
Messages
5,599
Reaction score
2,696
Because it came up. Acronyms are a natural way that "insiders" talk, but in the spirit of "Don't Bite the Newbies" I propose that, where possible we use the AP style What Would AP Do (WWAD) of write then abbrev at first instance (and then go with the acronym from there. I'd invite others to post one they've seen or have questions on here.

Off the top of my head, we see a lot of:

Neighborhoods
JP Jamaica Plain
BB Back Bay
USq Union Square
HSq Harvard Square
CBD Central Business District (any city)
DTX Downtown Crossing
FiDi Financial District

Transit Stations
SS South Station
SSX South Station Expansion
NS North Station
NSX North Station Expansion
BB Back Bay

Roads
ABP Alewife Brook Parkway
BHA Blue Hill
MVP Mystic Valley Parkway
SFR Soldiers Field Road

Amtrak Station Codes vs Airport City Codes
BBY Back Bay
BOS Boston South Station
BON Boston North Station
RTE (Route 128 )
HHL Haverhill
TFG T F Green Airport (airport code PVD, Amtrak not official)
PVD Providence Station
WOB Amtrak ATC Anderson Woburn (Anderson Transportation Center)
FRA Framingham
WOR Worcester (Airport ORH)
SPG Springfield

NEC Northeast Corridor (BOS, BBY, RTE, PVD, NLC, BRP, STM, NYP
NYP New York Penn Station (as opposed to NYG New York Grand Central)
PHL either 30th St (Amtrak) or Airport
BAL Train Station
BWI Airport&Station
NCR New Carrollton (DC's "RTE")
WAS Washington Union


Needham Line (Inspiring this post)
NJ Needham Junction
NC Needham Center
NH Needham Heights

Transit Lines
GL Green LIne
-X for extensions GLX Green Line Extension (Lechmere to Tufts/USq
-T for 2020ish tranformations
OL Orange Line
RL Red LIne
BL Blue Line


CR Commuter Rail
NP/RP Newburyport Rockport
SCR South Coast Rail
CF Cape Flyer
OC Old Colony

MBTA Bus typically styled by number "The 80"
Silver Line + Route #
SL1, SL2
SLG = Silver LIne Gateway (northside

UR Urban Ring
RUR Regional Urban Rail (French equivalent concept = RER)
NSRL North South Rail LInk

ZONING
PUD Planned Unit Development
TIF Tax Increment Financing (I forget what Mass calls this )

Biking
MAML middle aged men in Lycra (those who dress and ride like experienced cyclists)
 
Last edited:
MPM = a rail construction Multi Purpose Machine, such as the Herzog MPM that everyone loved to watch during the Green Line Construction 2018 to 2021.
 
ER = Eastern Route (Boston & Maine RR between North Station and Portland, (currently cut at Newburyport)

pax = passenger/passengers

cx = cancellation
Txfr = transfer
 

Back
Top