Wollaston station

Wollaston is a rapid transit station in Quincy, Massachusetts. Located in the Wollaston neighborhood, it serves the MBTA's Red Line. It was opened in September 1971 as the second of three stations in the original South Shore Extension, replacing a mainline rail station which had been located there from 1845 to 1959. Wollaston station was closed from January 8, 2018, to August 16, 2019, for renovations to the station, including flooding mitigation and making it accessible.

Wollaston
Wollaston station in July 2019, shortly before reopening
LocationNewport Avenue and Beale Street
Wollaston, Quincy, Massachusetts
Coordinates42°15′56″N 71°01′10″W
Owned byMBTA
Line(s)Braintree Branch
Platforms1 island platform
Tracks2 (Red Line)
1 (Commuter Rail)
Connections MBTA bus: 210, 211, 212, 217
Construction
Parking550 spaces ($6.00 fee on weekdays)
Bicycle facilities88 spaces in "Pedal and Park" bicycle cage
~20 outside spaces
Disabled accessYes
History
OpenedNovember 1845 (original station)
September 1, 1971 (rapid transit)[1]
ClosedJune 30, 1959 (original station)
RebuiltJanuary 8, 2018–August 16, 2019
Previous namesWollaston Heights (former station)
Traffic
Passengers (2013)4,624 (weekday average boardings)[2]
Services
Preceding station MBTA Following station
North Quincy
toward Alewife
 Red Line Quincy Center
toward Braintree
Former services
Preceding station New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Following station
Norfolk Downs
toward Boston
 South Shore Line Quincy
toward Greenbush

History

Old Colony Railroad
The 1877-built station on an early postcard

The Old Colony Railroad opened through Quincy in November 1845.[3] Several local stations were located in Quincy, including Wollaston station (also known as Wollaston Heights) at Beale Street. In 1877, a large station with a clock tower was built on the west (inbound) side of the tracks.[4] The Old Colony switched from English-style left-hand running to American-style right-hand running in 1893 when it was acquired by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad; the depot was moved to the east side of the tracks in 1895.[3][5][6]

Passenger service on the Old Colony system declined after World War II, and the New Haven decided to abandon the line in the late 1950s. Emergency subsidies kept the lines open during construction of the Southeast Expressway, but all passenger service to Wollaston and the rest of the former Old Colony system was ended on June 30, 1959.[3]

Red Line
The 1971-built station in 2016

Even before 1959, discussion was underway to bring rapid transit to the Old Colony mainline. The 1926 Report on Improved Transportation Facilities and 1945–47 Coolidge Commission Report recommended a branch of the Cambridge-Dorchester Line (later renamed as the Red Line) to parallel the Old Colony mainline to Braintree, taking over service on local stops.[7][8] The newly formed MBTA bought the Old Colony right-of-way from South Boston to South Braintree in 1965.[3] In 1966, the Program for Mass Transportation recommended the extension, and construction of the station began that year. Wollaston opened along with North Quincy and Quincy Center on September 1, 1971.[1]

The main entrance to the station was via the large parking lot off Beale Avenue. An additional entrance is located on Newport Avenue. The station, located on a high grade, is one of a small number of elevated rapid transit stations remaining in the MBTA system. Although the platform was elevated, the station lobby and faregates were actually situated several feet below street level, making the lobby prone to flooding during heavy rainstorms. On July 25, 1988, the lobby was flooded by an afternoon deluge, stranding around 100 riders at the station.[9]

When the station was built, return of commuter service to the right-of-way was considered unlikely and few provisions were made. Only a single non-rapid-transit track for freight service was left on the narrow grade. Commuter service, however, returned on the Old Colony Lines beginning in 1997 and on the Greenbush Line beginning in 2007. Because of the limited width of the elevated grade and right-of-way through densely populated Quincy, adding a second commuter rail track would be extremely difficult. The single-tracked section of the line around Wollaston represents a major bottleneck on the commuter rail system serving the South Shore.

Renovated station
Construction in August 2018

The Red Line's Braintree Extension was built several decades before the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, and not all of the stations were originally handicapped-accessible. All other stations on the Red Line proper – and all except Valley Road on the Ashmont–Mattapan High Speed Line – have been rebuilt or retrofitted for handicapped accessibility. The MBTA planned renovations to Wollaston that would make it handicapped-accessible and solve the flooding problems. Design reached 15% in July 2014, 30% in mid-2015, and 60% in early 2016.[10]

The 30% design planned for accessible headhouses at each end of the station, with pedestrian bridges crossing over the inbound track to connect the headhouses to the platform, but the 60% design revised this to a single larger headhouse.[11] The previous lobby area was to be converted to an accessible passageway between the parking lots and Newport Avenue, with a separate fare payment area and elevator to the platform.[12] 100% design was reached in July 2016.[10] Bidding for the estimated $71.6 million main contract (which included demolition of the closed parking garage at Quincy Center station) took place from April to June 2017; a $67.867 million contract was approved on June 19.[13]

The construction work was originally set to be done from July 2017 to June 2020, and would require the station to be closed for 20 months starting January 8, 2018, with bus shuttles to North Quincy station.[14] The closure was delayed to permit the Wollaston station work to coincide with the start of demolition work at Quincy Center.[15][16] The station was closed on January 8, 2018, with bus shuttles running between North Quincy and Quincy Center stations via Wollaston.[17] The station reopened on August 16, 2019.[18]

Bus connections

Two bus routes stop near the south end of the station at Newport Avenue and Beale Street:

Two additional bus routes stop on Hancock Street several blocks to the east:

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gollark: We COULD just go to great effort to never refer to ubq323 by name.
gollark: Optionally, I guess.
gollark: ++magic reload_ext userdata
gollark: A shoe seller? Fascinating.

References
  1. Belcher, Jonathan. "Changes to Transit Service in the MBTA district" (PDF). NETransit.
  2. "Ridership and Service Statistics" (PDF) (14th ed.). Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. 2014.
  3. Karr, Ronald Dale (1995). The Rail Lines of Southern New England. Branch Line Press. pp. 310–315. ISBN 0942147022.
  4. "Quincy". Topographical Atlas of Massachusetts. Walker Lithograph & Publishing Co. 1891. Retrieved January 24, 2013.
  5. Cheney, Frank (2002). Boston's Red Line: Bridging the Charles from Alewife to Braintree. Arcadia Publishing. p. 111. ISBN 9780738510477.
  6. "Index Plate". Atlas of the City of Quincy. Ernest Branch. 1907. Retrieved January 24, 2013.
  7. Central Transportation Planning Staff (November 15, 1993). "The Transportation Plan for the Boston Region - Volume 2". National Transportation Library. Retrieved January 24, 2013.
  8. Boston Elevated Railway and Boston Department of Public Utilities (1945). "Boston Rapid Transit System & Proposed Extentions [sic] 1945 - Metropolitan Transit Recess Commission Air View". Wardmaps LLC. Retrieved January 24, 2013.
  9. Moskowitz, Eric (November 18, 2012). "Starts and Stops: MBTA receives first of long-delayed rail cars". Boston Globe. Retrieved November 18, 2012.
  10. "Wollaston Station Improvements". Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. Retrieved March 4, 2016.
  11. "MBTA WOLLASTON Station Improvements Public Meeting: June 2, 2015" (PDF). Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. June 2, 2015. Retrieved June 24, 2015.
  12. Kleinfelder, Inc. (January 14, 2016). "MBTA Wollaston Station Improvements Public Meeting" (PDF). Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. Retrieved March 4, 2016.
  13. "Construction Contract A47CN01: Wollaston Station Improvements and Quincy Center Garage Demolition" (PDF). Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. June 19, 2017.
  14. "MBTA Red Line Corridor Improvements: Public Meetings Set". MassDOT Blog (Press release). Massachusetts Department of Transportation. March 31, 2017.
  15. Yee, Erica (September 14, 2017). "Wollaston T station closure delayed until December". Boston Globe. Retrieved October 27, 2017.
  16. "Construction Contract A47CN01: Wollaston Station Improvements and Quincy Center Garage Demolition" (PDF). Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. June 19, 2017.
  17. "MBTA: Wollaston Station Closure Begins January 8" (Press release). Massachusetts Department of Transportation. December 8, 2017.
  18. "Wollaston Station Reopens Friday, August 16" (Press release). Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. August 15, 2019.
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