South Station, located at Atlantic Avenue and Summer Street, in Boston, Massachusetts is a major intermodal transportation hub. Its facilities include:

• the northern terminus of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor train service (Acela Express high-speed trains and Regional local trains). There is also a daily Amtrak overnight train to Chicago (the Lake Shore Limited).
• a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) commuter rail terminus.
• a station stop on the Boston subway's Red Line.
• a station stop on Phase 2 of the Silver Line (opened in late 2004, with service extending to Logan Airport in 2005)
• Boston's main inter-city bus terminal.
• local bus service.
• parking garage.
• staffed ticket windows.
• a food court and waiting area.
• public art, including a sculpture built of railroad car couplers and a model of the planet Jupiter, part of the Museum of Science's scale model of the solar system

Note: Several MBTA commuter rail lines plus Amtrak's Downeaster service to Maine originate from North Station, about 1-1/4 miles around the Boston penninsula from South Station. No direct link exists between the two stations although MBTA subway connections exist; see MBTA Commuter Rail and North-South Rail Link .

History

South Station opened January 1, 1899 at a cost of $3.6 million (1899 dollars). It became the busiest station in the country by 1910. What is now the Red Line subway was extended from Park Street to South Station in 1913. The train shed was replaced in a 1930 renovation. While the station handled 125,000 passengers each day during World War II, after the war passenger rail declined in the U.S. In 1959, the Old Colony Railroad , which served the South Shore and Cape Cod, stopped passenger service. The New Haven Railroad went bankrupt in 1961. South Station was sold to the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) in 1965. Portions of the station were demolished and the land was used to build the Boston South Postal Annex and the Stone and Webster building.

In 1978, the BRA sold what was left of the station, now on the National Register of Historic Places, to the MBTA, though the BRA retained air rights over the station. Funding was obtained for a major renovation of the station that was completed in 1989. A total of 13 tracks became available, all with high level platforms and some capable of handling 12 car trains. Piers were installed for the eventual construction of an office building and bus station above the tracks. After some delays, an inter-city bus terminal opened about 1993, replacing one on top of the I-93 Dewey Square Tunnel diagonally across from the station between Summer Street and Congress Street. The new bus terminal has been called “the best bus facility in the country” and has direct ramp connections to I-93 and the Massachusetts Turnpike. The renovations, including the bus terminal, cost $195 million (2001 dollars).

The Red Line subway platforms were extended to allow 6 car trains in 1985 and renovated again in 2005, as part of the Silver Line Phase 2 project.

Ridership

Ridership has grown considerably, in part due to the reopening of Old Colony commuter rail service and the electrification of the Amtrak Northeast Corridor from New Haven to Boston, which allowed high speed Acela service.

South Station Ridership (passengers/year)

Future

Planned system improvements should result in additional passenger traffic. Construction is underway on a commuter rail line to Greenbush . Silver Line Phase 3 would build a tunnel connecting South Station with the Silver Line Phase I BRT service to Dudley Square , Roxbury. Current plans also include commuter rail service to Fall River and New Bedford Massachusetts, and to T.F. Green Airport in Rhode Island. There are still plans to construct an office tower above the track platforms. A relocation of the Boston South Postal Annex might allow additional expansion.

Attractions

• Boston South Postal Annex, with a post office that is almost never closed (there is a passage way to it at the foot of Track 13).
• Boston's financial district including the Federal Reserve Bank Building.
• the Children's Museum.
• Rowes Wharf ferry terminal.
• the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, about a 10 minute walk, or you can take the Silver Line to the World Trade Center stop.

Accessibility

• South Station is wheelchair accessible, but finding the elevator to the subway can be a bit tricky - it's in the corridor behind the information booth.
• Other Amtrak stations on the Northeast Corridor are generally accessible.
• Some MBTA commuter rail stations have no wheelchair access and many of those that do have short elevated platforms that only serve one or two cars, on the outbound end of the train. See MBTA accessibility.

External links

• Amtrak - Boston South Station
• French & Fowler, The Renovation of Boston’s South Station, 2003
• Proposed South Station office tower