Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority begins operation.

Massachusetts legislature replaces the Metropolitan Transit Authority with the MBTA. The quasi-government agency is run by a chairman and four other board members, all appointed by the governor. The board is subsequently increased to nine, with one seat reserved for Boston in 2023. It initially serves 78 communities in the Boston area and takes over the commuter rail lines of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad on July 28, 1965, and that of the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway Company in 1968. The MBTA is subsequently subsumed into the Department of Transportation, a state-wide “super agency,” but remains “semi-autonomous” according to Steven Beaucher.