![]() | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(August 2014) |
South Station Bus Terminal | |
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![]() Main entrance on Atlantic Avenue, Boston | |
General information | |
Location | 700 Atlantic Avenue Boston, Massachusetts United States of America |
Coordinates | 42°21′00″N71°03′21″W / 42.3500°N 71.0558°W |
Owned by | Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority |
Platforms | 26 bus bays (departure) |
Bus operators | Boston Express [1] C&J Bus Lines [2] Concord Coach [3] DATTCO [4] Greyhound [5] Megabus Peter Pan Bus Lines Plymouth & Brockton [6] |
Connections | ![]() ![]() |
Construction | |
Parking | Yes |
Bicycle facilities | No |
Accessible | Yes |
History | |
Opened | 1995 |
Passengers | |
1,000,000+ [ citation needed ] |
The South Station Bus Terminal, owned by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, is the main gateway for long-distance coach buses in Boston, Massachusetts. It is located at 700 Atlantic Avenue, at the intersection with Beach Street, in the Chinatown/Leather District neighborhoods. [7] [8] The facility is immediately south-southwest of the main MBTA/Amtrak South Station terminal, and is located above the station platforms and tracks.
The building, completed in 1995, serves as a nexus to consolidate several intercity coach bus locations serving Boston into a single central location. This shift facilitated the removal of the main coach bus terminal at the heart of Dewey Square, a shift from the former Greyhound coach Bus terminal at 10 St. James Avenue in the Back Bay area, and the transferral of various curbside Chinatown bus lines into this one facility. Continental Trailways service also previously operated from a terminal in the Back Bay, until sometime in the 1980s.
A second phase of construction, to expand the coach bus terminal, is part of the South Station Tower project. [9]
The bus station building has a mixture of glass and metal on its exterior, with mainly a red-granite stone and metallic-surfaced interior. Situated just south of and separate from the main South Station train terminal, the bus terminal is strikingly vertical in design, with five floors. Entry is via a long escalator, or a large glass-sided elevator with exterior views. The passageway from the upper entrance lobby towards the main hall has a series of large dark-tinted windows overlooking the railway tracks below.
The station contains a variety of amenities for waiting passengers. These include a newsstand and snack cart; free 15-minute public parking on the roof, [10] and restrooms. Like other major transportation facilities, it also contains full service ticket counters, seating areas, and a waiting hall with designated gates leading to individual buses.
Unless otherwise indicated, all destinations are in Massachusetts.
Seabrook, Portsmouth, and Dover
Transportation in Boston includes roadway, subway, regional rail, air, and sea options for passenger and freight transit in Boston, Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) operates the Port of Boston, which includes a container shipping facility in South Boston, and Logan International Airport, in East Boston. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) operates bus, subway, short-distance rail, and water ferry passenger services throughout the city and region. Amtrak operates passenger rail service to and from major Northeastern cities, and a major bus terminal at South Station is served by varied intercity bus companies. The city is bisected by major highways I-90 and I-93, the intersection of which has undergone a major renovation, nicknamed the Big Dig.
The Boston and Maine Railroad was a U.S. Class I railroad in northern New England. Originally chartered in 1835, it became part of what was the Pan Am Railways network in 1983.
Greyhound Lines, Inc. (Greyhound) is a company that operates the largest intercity bus service in North America. Services include Greyhound Mexico, charter bus services, and Amtrak Thruway services. Greyhound operates 1,700 coaches produced mainly by Motor Coach Industries and Prevost serving 230 stations and 1,700 destinations. The company's first route began in Hibbing, Minnesota in 1914 and the company adopted the Greyhound name in 1929. The company is owned by Flix North America, Inc., an affiliate of FlixBus, and is based in Downtown Dallas.
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 International Airport. Located at the intersection of Atlantic Avenue and Summer Street in Dewey Square, Boston, Massachusetts, the historic station building was constructed in 1899 to replace the downtown terminals of several railroads. Today, it serves as a major intermodal domestic transportation hub, with service to the Greater Boston region and the Northeastern and Midwestern United States. It is used by thousands of commuter rail and intercity rail passengers daily. Connections to the rapid transit Red Line and bus rapid transit Silver Line are made through the adjacent subway station.
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The Downeaster is a 145-mile (233 km) passenger train service operated by Amtrak and managed by the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority (NNEPRA), an agency of the state of Maine. Named for the Down East region of Maine, the train operates five daily round trips between North Station in Boston, Massachusetts, and Brunswick, Maine, with ten intermediate stops.
Amtrak Thruway is a system of through-ticketed transportation services to connect passengers with areas not served by Amtrak trains. In most cases these are dedicated motorcoach routes, but can also be non-dedicated intercity bus services, transit buses, vans, taxis, ferry boats and commuter rail trains.
Springfield Union Station is a train and bus station in the Metro Center area of Springfield, Massachusetts. Constructed in 1926, Springfield Union Station is the fifth-busiest Amtrak station in the Commonwealth, and the busiest outside of Greater Boston.
Vermont Transit Lines (VTL) was a bus carrier company serving New England. Founded in 1929 by William Appleyard, it originally linked the communities of Barre and Burlington, Vermont, with stops along the route. VTL grew to add destinations throughout the state, and added routes to Montreal, Quebec; to Boston and Springfield, Massachusetts; and to Maine and New Hampshire.
Trailways of New York is one of the largest privately held transportation companies based in New York State. It employs over 450 people and carries passengers more than 80 million miles annually.
The city of Baltimore, Maryland has had a succession of several terminals for interstate bus travel.
Lowell station, officially the Charles A. Gallagher Transit Terminal, is an intermodal transit station in Lowell, Massachusetts. It is located off Thorndike Street near the end of the Lowell Connector south of downtown Lowell. The station is the northern terminal of the MBTA Commuter Rail Lowell Line, with three garages for park and ride purposes. The Robert B. Kennedy Bus Transfer Center is the hub for Lowell Regional Transit Authority local bus service. The station complex is accessible, with elevators connecting the station building to the rail platform.
Concord Coach Lines, Inc., formerly known as Concord Trailways, and often referred to as Concord Coach, is an inter-city bus company based in Concord, New Hampshire. It serves parts of Maine, New Hampshire and eastern Massachusetts, and has a route to New York City.
The New England Greyhound Lines, an intercity highway-coach carrier, was a Greyhound regional operating company, based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, from 1937 until 1955, when it became a part of the Eastern Division of The Greyhound Corporation (called also the Eastern Greyhound Lines, the first of four huge new divisions.
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The State of Maine was an overnight passenger train between New York City and Portland, Maine, that was operated jointly for more than 50 years by the Boston and Maine Railroad and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. It departed New York's Pennsylvania Station at 9:00 p.m. and arrived at 6:45 a.m. at Portland's Union Station, where connections were available on Maine Central Railroad trains to most Maine locations. It ended service in October 1960, the last direct passenger rail service between New Hampshire or Maine and New York City.
Transportation in New England encompasses the region's rail and highway networks, seaports, and airports. New England has one of the United States' oldest intercity transportation systems, which remain important to the region's economy. It is also home to the continent's first subway system. The densely populated area has many cities and towns connected by rail and road, and the larger cities each have commercial airports with daily flights to destinations outside of the region.
The White Plains TransCenter is an intermodal transit center in White Plains, New York. It serves as a terminal/transfer point for many Bee-Line Buses, as well as intercity buses, and taxicabs. The terminal is located along Ferris Avenue north of Hamilton Street, diagonally across from the White Plains station of Metro-North Railroad, and includes a parking garage located next door to the railroad station, across that street. Ferris Avenue is a one-way street north of Main Street, and is flanked by northbound and southbound buses only lanes between Hamilton Street and Water Street.
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