Well, this is unusual. I don’t think I’ve done anything built specifically to serve a stadium and nothing else. Well, whatever, duty calls I guess.
*sweats nervously at Lansdowne*
I said a stadium AND NOTHING ELSE. Lansdowne serves Brookline Ave. and the LMA, not just Fenway Park. I digress, here’s Foxboro.
So, after getting off GATRA GO, I decided to explore Patriot Place a little bit. It was pretty quiet, though that’s unsurprising given it was only 11AM on a Thursday morning. That aside, the walk to the Commuter Rail was….not the greatest. It, however, turned out I was a massive idiot and there was a perfectly functional walkway. Whoops. Nevertheless, the shopping center is vibey, but not very transit-accessible or transit-friendly. š Damn, Robert Kraft really couldn’t pay for a GATRA bus station and/or better service?
The station itself is accessed by an underpass adjacent to lot 4C (the designated commuter parking lot). A short walkway brings you to a …rather lackluster terminal station. The digital signage doesn’t even work. There’s relatively barebones amenities here. Yes, there’s decent wayfinding, but that’s about it. The path doesn’t even bring you near the mini-high, and the fact it’s even a fucking mini-high AT ALL is really, really, REALLY, REALLY BAD for game day ridership. I can’t help but imagine this is a massive bottleneck on Sundays in particular for Pats home games. Never mind that, what about heavy concert-induced ridership or any ridership invoked by a home Revs game?! Hell, now that I think about it, what about when the Army-Navy games were hosted here last winter?!?!?! WHY IS THERE ONLY ONE PLATFORM TO SERVE TWO LINES ON GAME DAYS?!?!?!?!?!??!?? WOULD IT HURT TO BUILD A SECOND PLATFORM AND HAVE BOSTON TRAINS DWELL ON ONE PLATFORM AND PROVIDENCE TRAINS ON ANOTHER FOR GAME DAYS?! WHERE DO TRAINS LAY OVER DURING GAMES?! I digress. The station itself, disappointingly, is rather bad. I mean, it doesn’t even look like it should pass as accessible. This is considered accessible yet Mishawum isn’t?! Yeah, this station sucks, especially for game day service. Sorry.
The good: It serves a major sporting arena! It’s also technically accessible!
The bad: THE GAP ON THE MINI-HIGH IS TOO DAMN LARGE, YET THIS IS ENOUGH FOR MISHAWUM TO BE INACCESSIBLE?! The station is barren. There’s no level boarding, which presumably leads to it taking forever to get off the train on game days. The transit accessibility is bad. Train headways are also bad on weekdays, with nothing at all on weekends. Never mind that, WHY IS THERE ONLY ONE PLATFORM?! Lastly, you can’t even take GATRA here on game days – as they SUSPEND SERVICE due to traffic concerns. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?! THE PLATFORM ISN’T EVEN LONG ENOUGH FOR A 12 CAR GAME DAY SET!
Nearby points of interest: Good luck going anywhere other than Gillette Stadium or Patriot Place.
Transit connections:
Commuter Rail (Foxboro)
GATRA (GATRA GO)
Overall, this station is genuinely bad. I mean, yeah, it’s accessible on paper, but why? Just, why? For a station that sees heavy ridership skewing towards particular events, it’d REALLY HELP if there was level boarding on all cars rather than the first two. Also, a second platform would do wonders, as would extending the existing platform to accommodate a 12 car game day set.
Rating: 3.5/10
