Ashmont station (signed as Ashmont/Peabody Sq.) is a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) intermodal transit station located at Peabody Square in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the southern terminus of the Ashmont branch of the rapid transit Red Line, the northern terminus of the connecting light rail Ashmont–Mattapan High-Speed Line, and a major terminal for MBTA bus service. Ashmont has two side platforms serving the below-grade Red Line and a single side platform on an elevated balloon loop for the Mattapan Line. The station is fully accessible for all modes.
Station design
Ashmont station has two below-street-level side platforms for the Red Line, which runs northwest–southeast through the station. The outbound platform, only used by terminating trains, is outside the paid area. Fare mezzanines are located above both ends of the platforms. Elevators connect both mezzanines to the inbound platforms; an elevator in the center of the outbound platform connects to a walkway to the south mezzanine. The Mattapan Line runs on an elevated balloon loop at the south end of the station, with a single side platform connected to the south mezzanine outside fare control.
A two-lane busway runs along the west side of the station at street level. The main entrance from Peabody Square leads to the north fare mezzanine; entrance to the south fare mezzanine is from the busway, with a sidewalk to Dorchester Avenue. A secondary entrance from Radford Lane leads directly to the south end of the inbound platform, and a secondary exit leads from the south end of the outbound platform to Beale Street.
Ashmont is a major terminal for the MBTA bus system, with nine local routes – – serving the station busway. The Brockton Area Transit Authority (BAT) operates its route 12 to Ashmont – one of the only non-MBTA routes running to an MBTA rapid transit station.
History
The first Ashmont station was a simple building along the original Shawmut Branch of the Old Colony Railroad, which opened in 1872. Service on the branch ended in 1926 as the Boston Elevated Railway constructed its Dorchester Extension. Ashmont and stations opened on September 1, 1928, with Ashmont the terminal station. Like , Ashmont was designed for convenient transfer between rapid transit trains and surface streetcars. It had two island platforms with rapid transit on the inner tracks and streetcars on the outer tracks, allowing cross-platform transfers in both directions. Several streetcar lines were replaced with buses shortly after the station opened, using a surface-level busway on the west side of the station.
In 1929, the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway began operating bus service to Ashmont; unlike Fields Corner and , it was never served by Eastern Mass streetcars. The Eastern Mass eventually operated three bus routes out of Ashmont, all of which became MBTA bus routes in 1971: to Brockton (now route ), to Quincy via Granite Avenue (), and to Quincy via Adams Street (). The remaining surface streetcar lines running to Ashmont were gradually replaced by buses, with the final two routes (now routes and ) replaced by trolleybuses in 1949. The grade-separated Mattapan Line continued streetcar operation. From 1948 to 1968, Hudson Bus Lines operated service from Ashmont to several South Shore locations.
The station was modernized in 1976. The station was made nominally accessible, though the 1990 passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act created stricter standards. In 1981, the platforms were extended for six-car trains, which were introduced in 1988.
Reconstruction
The MBTA issued a $4.3 million design contract for renovations of Ashmont, Shawmut, and Fields Corner stations on May 3, 2001; the Ashmont portion was $1.3 million. The agency issued a request for proposals for transit-oriented development on an adjacent MBTA-owned parcel on January 22, 2002, and began negotiations with a developer that June. The developer signed an 85-year lease and paid $1.4 million up front to the MBTA. The Ashmont station renovation was originally to be smaller in scope than the major projects planned at the other Ashmont branch stations. The developer and the local community expressed their desires for a larger renovation, but the MBTA proceeded with design work.