Back Bay — Local services in Boston

The Boston and Worcester Railroad opened from downtown Boston to Newton in 1834, and to Worcester within the next several years. The Boston and Providence Railroad opened from Park Square to East Providence later that year. The two lines crossed on causeways in the Back Bay, then still used as a mill pond. Around 1880, the Boston and Albany Railroad (descendant of the B&W) opened its Columbus Avenue station to serve new developments on the filled bay. In 1897, the New Haven Railroad (which owned the Boston and Providence and leased the Old Colony Railroad), the New York and New England Railroad, and the Boston and Albany formed the Boston Terminal Company to consolidate their four terminals into a new union station. Simultaneous with the construction of the resulting South Station in 1899, the New Haven also built its first Back Bay Station just east of Dartmouth Street to compete with the B&A's Columbus Avenue station. Back Bay station opened on September 19, 1899 – the same day that Providence Division trains began using South Station. The next year, the B&A replaced Columbus Avenue station with the westbound-only Trinity Place and eastbound-only Huntington Avenue stations. The current Back Bay Station opened on May 4, 1987, as part of the Orange Line's Southwest Corridor project and was dedicated by Governor Michael Dukakis. It replaced the 1899-built and 1929-rebuilt ex-New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad station of the same name, of which some remnants can still be found at the eastern end of the present station facilities, including a carved stone embedded in the brick wall on the east side of Columbus Avenue. The reopened station had South End as a secondary name, approved in 1985 as part of a series of station name changes. The 1987 reconstruction added a waiting area with a 9-foot bronze statue dedicated to civil rights and labor movement pioneer A. Philip Randolph. The area includes various posters with historical photographs and interview excerpts regarding Randolph's career in organizing the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and work with the Civil Rights Movement. In 1990, a northbound commuter train running along the Providence/Stoughton Line was involved in a collision with a northbound Night Owl train. The accident, which occurred at the west end of Back Bay, injured 453 people, although there were no fatalities. On September 22, 2006, the MBTA began allowing free inbound travel from Back Bay to South Station. This change was to allow travel from Back Bay hotels to the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center and Logan International Airport (using the Silver Line from South Station) without the need to transfer to the Red Line. Until replaced with the CharlieCard Store at Downtown Crossing on August 13, 2012, an MBTA customer service booth for special pass users was located at Back Bay station. The entire Orange Line, including the Orange Line platforms at Back Bay station, was closed from August 19 to September 18, 2022, during maintenance work. Amtrak and MBTA Commuter Rail service to the station was...

(CR) Back Bay is nice, but also terrible at the same time. The waiting area/lobby is nice, but once you get down to the platforms, the station suffers from bad air quality, dim lighting and more. Three platforms accomodate five tracks at the station. Tracks 1 and 3 share a platform, Tracks 5 and 7 share a platform, while Track 2 has it's own. Framingham/Worcester trains, as well as the Lake Shore Limited to/from Chicago will come in on Tracks 5 or 7, while all other Commuter Rail/Amtrak trains come in on Tracks 1-3 (Inbound generally on 2 or 3, Outbound on 1 or 3). Screens throughout the station (both in the lobby and on platforms) show upcoming arrivals, as well as announcements when trains are arriving. Track changes are clearly noted by announcements, and on screens. A screen is also available on the waiting area for Tracks 1-3 listing every stop possible to get to via Commuter Rail trains from here, and when the next train to there is. Boarding MBTA trains off-peak requires using the southern two cars, which are always located right next to the platform entrance for Tracks 1-3, though boarding the southern two cars on Tracks 5-7 requires a bit of a walk. The station is almost entirely underground, which means rain is never an issue, but also causes poor air quality from the diesel engines of...

I think that people who don't like back bay station don't realize how good they've got things. Here, in an actually convenient location, is a station that has incredible Orange line service (every three minutes during rush hour most days), several commuter rail lines (commuter rail is a big city luxury that mid-city Boston residents take for granted an awful lot) and several bus lines. For that matter, Back Bay is an awesome place to simply get off and walk, is usually at least as clean as other public locations in the North East, and is easily accessible, well lit, and even has public bathrooms that aren't complete hell holes.

Sure, Boston could learn a few things from Chicago about how to do major commuter stations right (I still can't get over the button push rotating toilet seat covers, can we have some here?), and maybe two DD's is a little much (couldn't walk across the station for your cheap coffee and day old doughnut?) and the Orange Line could surely have used some new cars about 10 years ago (hopefully current plans will get us some in 5 years) but Back Bay is really one of the few things Boston has mostly gotten...