North Station (Boston)

North Station, located at Causeway and Nashua Streets, in Boston, Massachusetts is a major transportation hub. Its facilities include:

• terminus for MBTA Commuter Rail northern routes
• a station on the Boston subway's Orange Line and Green Line.
• the southern terminus of Amtrak's Downeaster Maine train service.
• local bus service.
• staffed ticket windows.
• a small food court and waiting area
• parking garage (privately operated)

Note: Several MBTA commuter rail lines plus Amtrak's Northeast Corridor service to New York City and Washington, D.C. do not stop at North Station. They terminate at South Station, about 1–1/4 mile away.

Recently, the MBTA completed construction of its North Station Superstation which placed the Green Line underground, offering Inbound cross-platform transfers from Green to Orange Lines. Out bound Green line trains arrive on the mezzanine level. The project was done primarily to improve transfer between the two lines, but also to tear down the old elevated North Station Green Line stop. As of early 2005, very little remained of the old station and construction began to restore full Green Line service and connect the temporarily closed Science Park and Lechmere stops to the new underground station.

History

Before the union station opened on the spot in 1893, there were four separate stations in the area:

• The Boston and Maine Railroad terminal was just north of Haymarket Square, between Canal Street and Haverhill Street, stretching most of the way to Traverse Street. This approach was later used by the Green Line and Orange Line.

The other three were all on the north side of Causeway Street, with the first two in the area where North Station is now:

• The Boston and Lowell Railroad terminal was on the east side of Nashua Street, stretching east for about a block.
• Next was the Eastern Railroad terminal, across Causeway Street from Friend Street.
• The Fitchburg Railroad station was on the other side of the Boston and Maine Railroad approach, right next to Beverly Street, the approach to the Warren Bridge.

Attractions

• Boston's TD Banknorth Garden (formerly called the FleetCenter), home of the Boston Bruins hockey and Boston Celtics basketball teams
• Sports and ethnic bars and restaurants along Causeway Street
• Boston's North End, a majority-Italian ethnic neighborhood with a wide variety of restaurants, Old North Church, and Paul Revere's house.

Accessibility

• North Station is wheelchair accessible.
• Other Amtrak stations on the Maine route may have low-level platforms, but Amtrak provides level boarding through the use of station-board lifts.
• Only selected MBTA commuter rail stations have wheelchair access and most of those have short elevated platforms on the outbound end that only serve one or two cars. See MBTA accessibility.

References

• Various Sanborn maps