Today marks the sixtieth anniversary of the day that the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) took over the Boston transit system from the previous Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA). The previous MTA had covered 14 cities and towns, and it was recognized that Greater Boston’s transportation needs were more regional; the MBTA district originally covered 78 cities and towns and now includes over 100.

A lot has changed since then. The Commuter Rail system has lost several branches and expanded others. The Green Line has been entirely replaced north of Haymarket and been extended to Somerville and Medford, while losing one western branch (the A Line to Watertown and truncated service on the E Line from Arborway to Heath Street. On the Red Line, the entire South Shore branch to Braintree was added in phases between 1971 and 1983, while on the northern end, the original terminus at Harvard Square was replaced, and the line extended out to Alewife.

The Orange Line has seen the biggest changes of all. Originally, what became the Orange Line was the Main Line Elevated of the Boston Elevated Railway, the original, private operator of the transit system. The MBTA replaced the Charlestown Elevated with the line to Oak Grove with the Haymarket North project in the mid-seventies, and the Washington Street Elevated with the surface level Southwest Corridor project in 1987.

I first started using the T, as the MBTA prefers to be branded, in 1977. I still remember my first trip from Mattapan to Boston College. The Mattapan Trolley was bumpy and old, the Red Line train was loud (and painted blue), and the Green Line trolley I rode to Boston College was slow and dirty and decrepit, and still in its old MTA livery. The screech of the wheels going around curves scared me.

But, over the four years of commuting to BC, I gained an interest in the system that’s never left. It was a period of change at the T — the governor, Mike Dukakis, used the system himself and invested in it. Park Street station was being renovated, and they were replacing the older PCC trollies with the new Boeing Light Rail Vehicles, which I loved (despite the fact they were incredibly unreliable).

It’s interesting, thinking about the way various relatives referred to the system. Grandma, born in 1897 (only a couple of days before the initial segment of the subway opened), used to refer to it as the “El”, after the Boston Elevated. My parents, who were teenagers and young adults in the fifties, referred to it as the “MTA”. And folks my age or younger call it “The T” or the “MBTA”.

Funding has always been a problem for the MBTA. It seems like they go through cycles where money is really tight, and they have to cut back and defer maintenance. The T got saddled with a lot of Big Dig debt. It also seems like there was a lot of hiring done to give people jobs rather than get the job done. The last general manager seems to have been particularly inept, and the system has had a tough past couple of years. Happily, the current general manager, Philip Eng, seems to know what he’s doing and is gradually righting the ship. Hopefully they’ll figure out the funding so he can continue.