Packards Corner station (announced as Brighton Avenue/Packards Corner) is a
light rail stop on the
MBTA
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (abbreviated MBTA and known colloquially as "the T") is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. The MBTA transit network in ...
's
Green Line B branch located at
Packard's Corner
Packard's Corner is located in Boston, Massachusetts at the intersection of Commonwealth Avenue and Brighton Avenue. Packard's Corner is serviced by the Packards Corner stop on the B branch of the MBTA's Green Line, a light rail line that r ...
- the intersection of
Commonwealth Avenue and Brighton Avenue - in
Allston
Allston is an officially recognized neighborhood within the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was named after the American painter and poet Washington Allston. It comprises the land covered by the zip code 02134. For the most part ...
,
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
. The station is located in a median between the westbound travel lanes and frontage road of Commonwealth Avenue.
History
The
Green Line A branch
The A branch or Watertown Line was a streetcar line in the Boston, Massachusetts, area, operating as a branch of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Green Line. The line ran from Watertown through Newton Corner, Brighton, and Allst ...
formerly diverged just north of the platforms; its trolleys stopped at separate Packards Corner platforms on Brighton Avenue. The Brighton Avenue streetcar reservation was removed from July 1 to October 5, 1949, and the side platforms for the Watertown Line were replaced with an
island platform
An island platform (also center platform, centre platform) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway interchange. Island platforms are popular on ...
.
The A branch was closed on June 21, 1969 and replaced with the route bus, though the trackage was retained for non-revenue moves to
Watertown Yard
Watertown Carhouse is a bus maintenance facility and former streetcar carhouse located in the southern section of Watertown, Massachusetts, across the Charles River from Watertown Square. As Watertown Yard, the site also serves as a bus depot se ...
.
The line was finally abandoned in 1994; a several-hundred-foot stub track was left until the mid-2000s to temporarily store disabled trains. The switch and the last few feet of track were not disconnected until track work in 2014.
Packards Corner was not made accessible during the initial 2001–03 round of Green Line station renovations. In 2019, the MBTA listed Packards Corner as a "Tier I" accessibility priority. Track work in 2018–19, which included replacement of platform edges at several stops, triggered requirements for accessibility modifications at those stops. By December 2022, design for Packards Corner and four other B Branch stops was 30% complete, with construction expected to last from fall 2023 to mid-2024.
References
External links
MBTA – Packards CornerStation from Brighton Avenue from Google Maps Street View
Green Line (MBTA) stations
Railway stations in Boston
MBTA subway stations located above ground
{{MBTA-stub