Boston Globe | By Adam Vaccaro | July 15, 2017

The MBTA is America’s oldest subway system, and Tim Murphy wants his passengers to know about it.

Murphy, a Green Line operator and history buff, has built a niche by using his trolley’s public address system to offer MBTA and Boston history to riders. He announces his trolley’s arrival into Boylston, for example, by highlighting it as the nation’s oldest subway station, “120 years old this year.” And as the D branch trolley comes above ground, he gets a bit wonky.

“When the first section of what is now the Riverside line opened up, it opened up as the first branch of the Boston and Worcester railway,” he might say, referring to the predecessor of the Boston and Albany Railroad. “That makes our next stop, Brookline Village, 170 years old this year.”

It seems some riders have gotten a kick out of Murphy’s guided tours. Most tweets about the MBTA are typically focused on service announcements and customer complaints, but occasionally, riders chime in to praise a Green Line conductor offering “fun facts” and a “historical tour” through the city.

“The MBTA doesn’t promote the history much on its own, for whatever reason,” Murphy said. “That always perplexed me, so I started doing the announcements.”

Murphy, 38, has worked for the T for four years. He’s always been interested in history, he said, and he began devouring Boston transit history shortly before he began working for the agency. He said he buried himself in books and research partially as a post-traumatic stress coping mechanism, after being on Boylston Street during the 2013 Marathon bombing.

Adam Vaccaro can be reached at adam.vaccaro@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @adamtvaccaro.