Valley Road | |||||||||||
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General information | |||||||||||
Location | 291 Eliot Street Milton, Massachusetts | ||||||||||
Coordinates | 42°16′04″N71°04′59″W / 42.267772°N 71.083025°W | ||||||||||
Line(s) | Milton Branch | ||||||||||
Platforms | 2 side platforms | ||||||||||
Tracks | 2 | ||||||||||
Construction | |||||||||||
Accessible | No | ||||||||||
History | |||||||||||
Opened | December 21, 1929 | ||||||||||
Rebuilt | June 24, 2006–December 22, 2007 | ||||||||||
Passengers | |||||||||||
2023 | 10 daily boardings [1] | ||||||||||
Services | |||||||||||
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Valley Road station is a light rail station in Milton, Massachusetts. It serves the MBTA's Mattapan Line, a branch of the Red Line. The station is located off Eliot Street near Valley Road and consists of two side platforms that serve the lines's two tracks. Valley Road is the only station on the Line that is not accessible.
Valley Road opened on December 21, 1929, along with Central Avenue and Mattapan as the second phase of the Ashmont–Mattapan High-Speed Line. [2] Like Capen Street (opened in 1930) and Butler (1931), it had not previously been the site of a railroad station. [3] In 1932, local politicians advocated for the construction of a footbridge across the Neponset River to provide transit access to the Boston Consumptives Hospital from the station. [4] The bridge was not built; until the Harvest River Bridge carrying the Lower Neponset River Trail was built about 0.2 miles (0.32 km) west in 2016, there was no pedestrian crossing of the river between Mattapan Square and Central Avenue. [5]
The whole line closed from June 24, 2006, to December 22, 2007, for a complete renovation. [2] Unlike the other stations, Valley Road was not made accessible; its position below a hillside would have required a complex set of ramps. This was deemed too expensive for the stop, which had the second-lowest ridership of any MBTA rapid transit stop in 2010 at just 44 daily riders. [6] As part of a 2018 amendment to the settlement of Joanne Daniels-Finegold, et al. v. MBTA, the MBTA agreed to study whether and how to make the stop accessible. [7]
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; Valley Road and three other stations would be converted to island platforms. Construction cost for Valley Road station was estimated as $20.8 million – twice that of other intermediate stations on the line –in 2023. [1]
The Mattapan Line is a partially grade-separated light rail line which forms part of the MBTA's Red Line rapid transit line. The line, which runs through Boston and Milton, Massachusetts, opened on August 26, 1929, as a conversion of a former commuter rail line. It exclusively uses PCC streetcars built in the 1940s. Passengers must transfer at Ashmont to access the rest of the Red Line, which uses heavy rail metro rolling stock.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) system is mostly but not fully accessible. Like most American mass transit systems, much of the MBTA subway and commuter rail were built before wheelchair access became a requirement under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The MBTA has renovated most stations to be compliant with the ADA, and all stations built since 1990 are accessible. The MBTA also has a paratransit program, The Ride, which provides accessible vehicles to transport passengers who cannot use the fixed-route system.
Porter station is a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) transit station in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It serves the Red Line rapid transit line, the MBTA Commuter Rail Fitchburg Line, and several MBTA bus lines. Located at Porter Square at the intersection of Massachusetts and Somerville Avenues, the station provides rapid transit access to northern Cambridge and the western portions of Somerville. Porter is 14 minutes from Park Street on the Red Line, and about 10 minutes from North Station on commuter rail trains. Several local MBTA bus routes also stop at the station.
Central station is a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) rapid transit station in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It serves the Red Line and has a street-level terminal for the MBTA bus system. It is located at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue with Western Avenue, Prospect Street, and Magazine Street at Central Square.
JFK/UMass station is a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) intermodal transfer station, located adjacent to the Columbia Point area of Dorchester, Boston, Massachusetts. It is served by the rapid transit Red Line; the Greenbush Line, Kingston/Plymouth Line, and Middleborough/Lakeville Line of the MBTA Commuter Rail system, and three MBTA bus routes. The station is named for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum and the University of Massachusetts Boston, both located nearby on Columbia Point.
Coolidge Corner station is a light rail stop on the MBTA Green Line C branch, located at the intersection of Beacon Street and Harvard Street in the Coolidge Corner neighborhood of Brookline, Massachusetts. With 3,440 daily boardings by a 2011 count, it had more than twice the ridership of any other surface station on the branch.
Museum of Fine Arts is a surface-level light rail stop on the MBTA Green Line E branch, located the median of Huntington Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts, between Museum Road and Ruggles Street. The station is named after the adjacent Museum of Fine Arts, although it also provides access to Northeastern University, Wentworth Institute of Technology, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Museum of Fine Arts station is accessible.
Fenway station is a light rail stop on the MBTA Green Line D branch, located under Park Drive near the Riverway in the Fenway–Kenmore neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It opened along with the rest of the D branch on July 4, 1959, when trolleys replaced Highland branch commuter rail service. The station is fully accessible from Park Drive via the Landmark Center parking lot, as well as from Miner Street. Named after the Fenway neighborhood rather than Fenway Park, it is slightly further from the stadium than Kenmore, though still heavily used during events.
Cleveland Circle station is a Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) Green Line light rail station located in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston, at Cleveland Circle. It is the western terminal of the C branch of the Green Line. Cleveland Circle station is accessible, with raised platforms to accommodate low-floor light rail vehicles.
Eliot station is a light rail station on the MBTA Green Line D branch located just north of Route 9 between the Newton Highlands and Newton Upper Falls villages of Newton, Massachusetts. The station has a parking lot at the end of Lincoln Street, a pedestrian entrance from Meredith Avenue, and pedestrian entrances from both sides of Route 9. A footbridge, built in 1977, crosses Route 9 adjacent to the railroad bridge.
Saint Mary's Street station is a surface light rail stop on the MBTA Green Line C branch, located just west of the intersection of Beacon Street and Park Drive in the northeastern tip of Brookline, Massachusetts. Like all surface stops on the line, Saint Mary's Street has two side platforms serving two tracks. The station is accessible. With just over 1,500 daily boardings by a 2011 count, Saint Mary's Street is the second-busiest stop on the C branch, behind only Coolidge Corner.
Newton Centre station is a light rail station on the MBTA Green Line D branch, located in the Newton Centre village of Newton, Massachusetts. A former commuter rail station, it was converted for light rail use and reopened on July 4, 1959, along with the rest of the line. The 1891-built station and express office are part of the Newton Railroad Stations Historic District, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
Washington Square station is a surface light rail stop on the MBTA Green Line C branch, located in the median of Beacon Street in the Washington Square neighborhood of Brookline, Massachusetts. Washington Square is the 4th-busiest surface stop on the line, with 1,091 daily boardings by a 2011 count. The station has two side platforms serving two tracks.
Brookline Hills station is a light rail station on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) Green Line D branch in the Brookline Hills neighborhood of Brookline, Massachusetts. The station has two side platforms serving the line's two tracks. It was closed from April 2021 to January 2022 as part of adjacent construction on a Brookline High School building, which included renovations to make the station accessible.
Butler station is a light rail station in Boston, Massachusetts. It serves the MBTA Mattapan Line. It is located at Butler Street in the Lower Mills section of the Dorchester neighborhood. It serves a small residential area sandwiched between the Neponset River, Cedar Grove Cemetery, and Dorchester Park. Butler station has no MBTA bus connections. It is accessible via a wooden mini-high ramp on the station's single island platform.
Central Avenue station is a light rail station located off Central Avenue near Eliot Street in Milton, Massachusetts. It serves the Mattapan Line, a branch of the MBTA Red Line. Central Avenue consists of two side platforms which serve the Ashmont–Mattapan High Speed Line's two tracks.
Capen Street station is a light rail station in Milton, Massachusetts. It serves the MBTA Mattapan Line. It is located on Capen Street off Eliot Street; the westernmost of the four MBTA stations in Milton, it consists of two side platforms flanking the eponymous street's grade crossing. The platforms are staggered to allow trains to make the stop at Capen Street before crossing the street itself, as there is no signal at the grade crossing. Capen Street is accessible via wooden ramps on both platforms. Capen Street opened in September 1930 as an infill station on the line.
Boston University Central station is a surface-level light rail station on the MBTA Green Line B branch, located the center median of Commonwealth Avenue west of St. Marys Street in Boston, Massachusetts, surrounded by the Boston University campus. It consists of two side platforms, which serve the B branch's two tracks. The station is accessible, with raised platforms to allow level boarding onto low-floor trams and a high platform on the inbound side to serve high-floor light rail vehicles.
Washington Street station is a surface stop on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA)'s Green Line B branch, located in Brighton, Boston. The station is located in the median of Commonwealth Avenue northeast of Washington Street. Washington Street station consists of two side platforms, which serve the B branch's two tracks. The station is fully accessible.
The Dorchester and Milton Branch Railroad was a railroad in Massachusetts. It ran between Neponset Village in Dorchester, Massachusetts, through the town of Milton to the village of Mattapan. It was opened in 1847 and became part of the Old Colony Railroad system in 1848. The western portion was converted to a streetcar line in 1929, while the eastern portion remained in use for freight until the 1980s.
Media related to Valley Road station at Wikimedia Commons