Savin Hill station is a rapid transit station in
Boston, Massachusetts. It serves the Ashmont branch of 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
Red Line. It is located at 121 Savin Hill Avenue adjacent to Sydney Street in the
Savin Hill
Savin Hill is a section of Dorchester, the largest neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
Named after the geographic feature it covers and surrounds, Savin Hill is about one square mile in area, and has a population of about 1 ...
area of the
Dorchester neighborhood. Opened in 1845 as a commuter rail station, Savin Hill was converted to rapid transit in 1927 and rebuilt in 2004–05 for accessibility. Averaging 2,199 daily boardings by a FY 2019 count, Savin Hill is the least-used station on the Red Line.
History
Old Colony Railroad
The
Old Colony Railroad
The Old Colony Railroad (OC) was a major railroad system, mainly covering southeastern Massachusetts and parts of Rhode Island, which operated from 1845 to 1893. Old Colony trains ran from Boston to points such as Plymouth, Fall River, ...
opened from Plymouth to South Boston in November 1845.
A station was built at Savin Hill, located just north of the modern location. In December 1872, the Old Colony opened its Shawmut Branch to
Milton
Milton may refer to:
Names
* Milton (surname), a surname (and list of people with that surname)
** John Milton (1608–1674), English poet
* Milton (given name)
** Milton Friedman (1912–2006), Nobel laureate in Economics, author of '' Free t ...
, which added local service to Savin Hill.
Around that time, the station was moved to its modern location just south of Savin Hill Avenue. The new station featured a brick building on the west side of the tracks and a wooden building on the east side (the Old Colony had left-hand running until 1895, so the larger brick building was originally on the inbound side). The station was served only by local trains on the outer tracks, while express trains used the inner tracks.
Conversion to rapid transit
Commuter rail service on the Shawmut Branch ended in September 1926.
The
Boston Elevated Railway
The Boston Elevated Railway (BERy) was a streetcar and rapid transit railroad operated on, above, and below, the streets of Boston, Massachusetts and surrounding communities. Founded in 1894, it eventually acquired the West End Street Railwa ...
, which had bought the line, began converting it into the Dorchester Extension, a rapid transit extension of the Cambridge-Dorchester Tunnel line. Savin Hill, located on the Old Colony mainline, was rebuilt as a rapid transit station as part of the extension. The commuter rail platforms and station buildings were removed, though a temporary station was used until November 4, 1927.
Savin Hill reopened on November 5, 1927 along with
Columbia and
Fields Corner
Fields Corner is a historic commercial district in Dorchester, the largest neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ; ...
as part of the first phase of the extension.
In 1934, the Boston Elevated Railway requested the addition of a busway on the west side of the station. Construction on the busway and a pedestrian overpass to the platform began in August and finished in December 1934. Fare control was relocated to the platform level; a platform extension to the south was constructed - without interrupting train service - to accommodate this. When the bus routes were diverted away from the station in 1962, the busway was converted to a parking lot.
Savin Hill station was further modified during the remainder of the 20th century with the removal of the waiting room in the 1970s and a longer platform extension in the late 1980s to allow 6-car trains. By the end of the century, however, it still contained the most original structure of any of the pre-war stations on the line.
However, like the rest of the stations on the branch, Savin Hill was not
accessible
Accessibility is the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both "direct access" (i.e ...
, placing it in violation of the
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 or ADA () is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. It affords similar protections against discrimination to Americans with disabilities as the Civil Rights Act of 19 ...
.
2004–05 reconstruction
The MBTA broke ground for the Red Line Rehabilitation Project – a $67 million reconstruction of Shawmut, Fields Corner, and Savin Hill stations – in October 2003.
Construction began in March 2004. The 1927-built station was closed on May 9, 2004, and was completely razed to make way for the new ADA-compliant station which involved adding elevators for full
accessibility
Accessibility is the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both "direct access" (i. ...
.
A bus shuttle was run from JFK/UMass station during the 14-month closure, which ended with the opening of the new station on July 31, 2005.
The closure was originally scheduled to last 10 months, but was delayed by inclement weather and slow procurement of structural steel. Most of the station was complete by April 2005; however, it could not be reopened until the accessible elevators and escalators were completed. Original plans to include
public art
Public art is art in any Media (arts), media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and phy ...
as part of the
Arts on the Line
Arts on the Line was a program devised to bring art into the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) subway stations in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Arts on the Line was the first program of its kind in the United States and became th ...
program were removed in budget cuts; only historical
interpretive panels were installed.
Station layout
![Savin Hill tracks](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/Savin_Hill_tracks.JPG)
Trains on the Braintree branch of the Red Line and the Old Colony and Greenbush commuter rail lines run past Savin Hill on parallel tracks without stopping. Nearby JFK/UMass, a busy transfer station, received a Braintree branch platform in 1988 and a commuter rail platform in 2001.
However, Savin Hill primarily serves the local neighborhood and is therefore served by only Ashmont branch trains.
In January 2012, the state's Central Transportation Planning staff released a conceptual plan for widening the
Southeast Expressway which would involve rearranging Savin Hill station. In this scenario, a second commuter rail track would be added and both placed in a shallow cut-and-cover tunnel under the southbound lanes, while the Braintree branch tracks would be placed in a deeper tunnel. The Ashmont branch tracks and station would remain in place.
Bus connections
Savin Hill is not directly served by any
MBTA bus
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) operates List of MBTA bus routes, 170 bus routes in the Greater Boston area. The MBTA has a policy objective to provide transit service within walking distance (defined as ) for all residents ...
routes. However, route runs on Dorchester Avenue about one-tenth of a mile from the station. This route is the successor to streetcar service which once ran on Dorchester Avenue from
South Station
South Station, officially The Governor Michael S. Dukakis Transportation Center at South Station, is the largest railroad station and intercity bus terminal in Greater Boston and New England's second-largest transportation center after Logan In ...
to River Street in Milton. The next station to the south,
Fields Corner
Fields Corner is a historic commercial district in Dorchester, the largest neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ; ...
, is a major bus transfer station.
Until the 1960s, four bus routes including the 18 terminated at Savin Hill. However, the M.T.A. desired to build a parking lot at the Savin Hill busway location. In September and December 1962, the 13 and 14 routes were rerouted away from Savin Hill to keep buses off local streets, while the 12 and 18 were combined into the modern 18 route.
References
External links
MBTA – Savin HillSavin Hill Avenue entrance from Google Maps Street ViewSydney Street entrance from Google Maps Street View
{{MBTA Subway Stations
Dorchester, Boston
Red Line (MBTA) stations
Railway stations in Boston
Railway stations in the United States opened in 1927
Stations along Old Colony Railroad lines
MBTA subway stations located above ground