Central Avenue station is a light rail station located off Central Avenue near Eliot Street in Milton, Massachusetts. It serves the Ashmont–Mattapan High Speed Line, a 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 ...

Red Line. Central Avenue consists of two

side platform A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platforms ...

s which serve the Ashmont–Mattapan High Speed Line's two tracks.

History

The

Dorchester and Milton Branch Railroad The Dorchester and Milton Branch Railroad was a railroad in Massachusetts. It was incorporated in 1846 as a branch off the Old Colony Railroad main line from Boston to Plymouth. The 3.3 mile road was completed on December 1, 1847, from Neponset ...

opened across northern Milton on December 1, 1847, and became part of the Old Colony Railroad system the next year. In 1876–77, a bridge over the

Neponset River The Neponset River is a river in eastern Massachusetts in the United States. Its headwaters are at the Neponset Reservoir in Foxborough, near Gillette Stadium. From there, the Neponset meanders generally northeast for about to its mouth at ...

was built to connect Central Avenue in Milton with River Street in Dorchester. The Old Colony added a flag stop with a waiting shelter at Central Avenue in 1877. It became a regular station on June 19, 1882, with a wooden station building added. Passenger service on the Milton Branch ended on August 24, 1929, for conversion of the line to rapid transit. The first segment of the Mattapan Line, a "high-speed" streetcar line, opened between and two days later. The second segment, between Milton and with an intermediate stop at Central Avenue, opened on December 21, 1929. East of Shawmut Junction, the Milton Branch remained in use for freight service. Freight tracks flanked the streetcar tracks west of Shawmut Junction; the north track ran as far as Central Avenue to serve the nearby Baker Chocolate factory. The line was closed for renovations from June 24, 2006, to December 22, 2007. During the closure, all stations on the line were modernized and (except for Valley Road) made accessible. Central Avenue station received new platforms and canopies, with wooden ramps for

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. ...

. The MBTA plans to convert the line to modern light rail equipment. All stations would have raised platforms for level boarding on the new vehicles; the inbound platform at Central Avenue would be moved to the east side of the grade crossings. Construction cost for Central Avenue station was estimated as $9.5 million in 2023.

References

External links

MBTA – Central Avenue
Red Line (MBTA) stations Railway stations in Norfolk County, Massachusetts Railway stations in the United States opened in 1929 Milton, Massachusetts {{Massachusetts-railstation-stub