Yikes ! Just got in and was surprised by the interest on these topics. I'll try to address each question put to me in order.
F-Line - You're asking me for my opinion regarding what was in the mind of the Legislature before I was born, so, at best, all that I can give is a guess. C90, S1 excludes them outright as not being motor vehicles under their definition for "motor vehicles". It also excludes "...railroad and railway cars, vehicles operated by the system known as trolley motor or trackless trolley...,vehicles running only upon rails or tracks...," in this same section. I believe that you touched on the reasons, F, in your first two possible explanations - i.e. that they operate within a fixed range and that they are indeed "trolleys" and not vehicles which are propelled by a self-contained internal combustion engine. As far as never having revised the law, frankly, I don't think that it needs revision because it works. In fact, I would go so far to say that in theory, it works even better now than it did when the statute was introduced, due to the fact that the Commonwealth is now the owner of the vehicles as opposed to a private company (registered as a "Street Railway").
Railbus - C-Rail is correct. Although the T is a government agency, they don't have the power to make law. Even a Transit Police Officer would be unable to charge OUI on a trackless trolley, streetcar, or rapid transit car. Don't confuse this with such an act being given immunity, as it's not. A drunk trackless trolley operator might be arrested and charged with Disturbing the Peace or Disorderly Conduct, and most likely would be terminated by the MBTA after having been brought up on internal charges.
C-Rail - Rest assured, my friend, I kid you not. No Massachusetts Operator's License is required by the Commonwealth (not the MBTA) to operate my favorite vehicles, the trackless trolleys. C90, S10 is the statute that covers mandatory licensing required of persons operating motor vehicles. Once again, because of this "motor vehicle" reference, the tracklesses are exempt. Because of the exemption noted in C90, S1, if a trackless trolley is to be included in a motor vehicle law, it must be specifically stated. An example is C89, S9 (the m/v's at stop and yield signs, traffic control devives statute) At the very end of the C89, S9 section, reads "For the purpose of this section the word "vehicle", shall include a trackless trolley."
3247 - No, I mean the No. 77, which both Brad Clarke's "The Trackless Trolleys of Boston" and the Boston Elevated Railway Company (in their sixth edition "System Route Map") describe as a trackless trolley route running between "Harvard Square - Lechmere Station via Cambridge Street". (The 66 is described as a bus route running between Dudley Station and Allston.)
Teamdriver - What makes you think that any of the MBTA's vehicles are insured ? I don't think that they are. I believe that the T is "self-insured".
~Paul Joyce~
Moderator: Toy Trains, Model Railroading, Outdoor and Live Steam
Paul Joyce passed away in August, 2013. We honor his memory and his devotion at railroad.net.