Community College (MBTA station)
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Community College station is a rapid transit station 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 ...
Orange Line in Boston, Massachusetts. It is located in the Charlestown neighborhood off Austin Street near New Rutherford Avenue ( MA-99), under the double-decked elevated structure carrying
Interstate 93 Interstate 93 (I-93) is an Interstate Highway in the New England states of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont in the United States. Spanning approximately along a north–south axis, it is one of three primary Interstate Highways ...
to the
Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge The Leonard P. Zakim () Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge (also known as “The Zakim”) is a cable-stayed bridge completed in 2003 across the Charles River in Boston, Massachusetts. It is a replacement for the Charlestown High Bridge, an older trus ...
. The station is named for the adjacent
Bunker Hill Community College Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) is a public community college with multiple campuses in the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1973 in the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, BHCC provides higher education and job training servi ...
. The station opened in April 1975, replacing the and stations of the Charlestown Elevated. It was made
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 ...
around 2005.


Station layout

Community College station is located under the double-decked elevated
Interstate 93 Interstate 93 (I-93) is an Interstate Highway in the New England states of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont in the United States. Spanning approximately along a north–south axis, it is one of three primary Interstate Highways ...
at the southwest edge of
Charlestown, Boston Charlestown is the oldest Neighborhoods in Boston, neighborhood in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. Originally called Mishawum by the Massachusett tribe, it is located on a peninsula north of the Charles River, across from dow ...
, just south of
Bunker Hill Community College Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) is a public community college with multiple campuses in the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1973 in the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, BHCC provides higher education and job training servi ...
(BHCC) and west of New Rutherford Avenue (
Route 99 International * European route E99 Australia * Springbrook Road, Springbrook Road, Queensland Canada * British Columbia Highway 99 * Ontario Highway 99 (former) * Saskatchewan Highway 99 China * G99 Taiwan Ring Expressway, G99 Expressway ...
). East Cambridge and the NorthPoint development are to the southwest, with the
MBTA Commuter Rail Maintenance Facility The MBTA Commuter Rail Maintenance Facility (signed as, and often known by, its former name of Boston Engine Terminal) is the primary train maintenance repair facility for the MBTA Commuter Rail system. It is located in the Inner Belt area of S ...
and the
Inner Belt District The Inner Belt District is a industrial district located in the southeastern portion of Somerville, Massachusetts. Along with nearby Brickbottom, the Inner Belt is a historically industrial zone of Somerville, with factories, warehouses, distri ...
industrial park to the northwest and highway ramps to the southeast. The station has two island platforms and three tracks. Only the west platform is in use; inbound (southbound) tracks use the west track, with outbound trains using the center track. The east platform and track are not used for revenue service. A fare mezzanine is located over the tracks at the south end of the station. The mezzanine is connected to the north sidewalk of the Gilmore Bridge, which carries Austin Street over the Orange Line and the North Station approach tracks. A footbridge also connects the mezzanine directly to BHCC.


History


Previous stations

For much of the 19th century, the four major northside railroads (the Fitchburg,
Boston and Lowell The Boston and Lowell Railroad was a railroad that operated in Massachusetts in the United States. It was one of the first railroads in North America and the first major one in the state. The line later operated as part of the Boston and Maine Ra ...
(B&L), Boston and Maine (B&M), and Eastern) did not share any trackage on the approach to Boston. (Not until North Union Station in 1893 did they share a depot). At that time, Charlestown was separated from East Cambridge by a large cove, Millers River. The Fitchburg crossed the B&M and the Eastern at Prison Point (then the site of a substantial state prison), near the modern location of Community College station. The Fitchburg and B&M had substantial freight depots nearby, and the B&M briefly had a Charlestown station around the 1850s. For some period after the Fitchburg's Boston terminal replaced its Charlestown terminal in 1848, a flag stop was made at the Prison Point Bridge. The Charlestown Elevated section of the Boston Elevated Railway's
Main Line Mainline, ''Main line'', or ''Main Line'' may refer to: Transportation Railway * Main line (railway), the principal artery of a railway system * Main line railway preservation, the practice of operating preserved trains on an operational railw ...
opened in June 1901, with three elevated stations in Charlestown. The
Thompson Square station Thompson Square was a rapid transit station in Charlestown, Massachusetts. It served the Charlestown Elevated, part of the MBTA's Orange Line, from 1902 until 1975. History Thompson Square station opened on May 22, 1902, almost a year after t ...
was located one-third of a mile east of the current station along Austin Street at Main Street, while the
City Square station City Square was a rapid transit station in Charlestown, Massachusetts. It served the Charlestown Elevated, part of the MBTA's Orange Line, from 1901 until 1975. It was closed when the line was rerouted into a tunnel that was constructed as part ...
was located half a mile south along Rutherford Avenue at Chelsea Street. The elevated was unpopular with many local residents, as it was noisy and blocked out sunlight to Main Street. In 1917, the elevated structure was slated to be replaced with a more permanent subway line along the same Main Street routing, but this project was canceled by the US's entry into World War I.


Community College station

In the late 1960s, the MBTA began work on the
Haymarket North Extension The Haymarket North Extension is a section of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's rapid transit Orange Line which currently constitutes the northern section of the line. It runs from North Station through an underground crossing of th ...
project. It included a tunnel segment north from
Haymarket Haymarket may refer to: Places Australia * Haymarket, New South Wales, area of Sydney, Australia Germany * Heumarkt (KVB), transport interchange in Cologne on the site of the Heumarkt (literally: hay market) Russia * Sennaya Square (''Hay Squ ...
through a new underground stop at North Station, then under the Charles River to a portal south of the Gilmore Bridge. From there, the extension was built along the Haverhill Line commuter rail right of way. Community College station was built to replace the two elevated stops nearby in Charlestown. The new route opened to Sullivan Square on April 7, 1975. The Main Line had previously been renamed as the Orange Line in 1967, as part of a systemwide rebranding by the newly formed
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 ...
. Like the Sullivan Square and Wellington stations, Community College was built with a second island platform serving the outbound track plus a third express track. This extra infrastructure was to be used for the Orange Line's planned extension to Reading to replace commuter rail service on the line. (Continuing commuter rail service to
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and Haverhill was to be via the Wildcat Branch). However, the Orange Line extension was cut short to Oak Grove due to local opposition in
Melrose Melrose may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Melrose, Scottish Borders, a town in the Scottish Borders, Scotland ** Melrose Abbey, ruined monastery ** Melrose RFC, rugby club Australia * Melrose, Queensland, a locality in the South Burnet ...
, and no express service ever ran. The second platform is open for outbound passengers at busy Sullivan Square and Wellington, but at less-busy Community College it sits unused. Unlike the four other original stations on the Haymarket North Extension, Community College was not built with a busway. Bus routes in East Cambridge already terminated at Lechmere station to the west, while Charlestown routes and already extended to Haymarket station along historic streetcar routings. Routes and , which had terminated at City Square, were not extended to Community College; route 111 was instead extended to Haymarket, while route 112 was rerouted to . In December 1975, outbound trips on route 92 were rerouted to Rutherford Avenue between Austin Street and School Street to serve BHCC and the station. However, it returned to its previous routing by December 1977. In 1987, the MBTA considered construction of a parking garage at the station. The station was not originally
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 ...
. An elevator to the main platform, reached by a footbridge between the platforms, was constructed as part of the Big Dig. Bidding took place in 2002. Shaft framework was installed for the unused second platform, but no elevator machinery was installed. The renovations were completed around 2005. The entire Orange Line, including Community College station, was closed from August 19 to September 18, 2022, during maintenance work.


References


External links


MBTA - Community CollegeAustin Avenue entrance from Google Maps Street View
{{MBTA Subway Stations, state=collapsed Orange Line (MBTA) stations Railway stations in Boston Railway stations in the United States opened in 1975 Charlestown, Boston Railway stations in Massachusetts at university and college campuses MBTA subway stations located above ground