Here we are. The last northside Commuter Rail station entry on this blog. Holy fucking shit. (well, unless you include the Downeaster and the proposed Northern Tier Rail stops, and the proposed South Salem CR stop, but the Downeaster isn’t in MBTA jurisdiction beyond here and Northern Tier and South Salem are both concepts of plans presently.) The finish line for visiting every T station is in sight. With that in mind, here’s the final northside Commuter Rail station, HAVERHILL!


Now, I will stipulate, I had to visit Haverhill twice because my first round had me missing something rather important that I completely overlooked. So, I still had to come back. Nevertheless, this still turned out to be the final station. Entering the station from street level, you have signs pointing towards Boston, similarly to Uphams Corner underneath the tracks. There’s a bigass parking lot operated, I’m pretty sure, by MeVa. The station layout is a standard 2x side platform configuration, which leaves a question: what do MBTA trains terminating do? Well, it’s simple actually! There’s a pocket track ahead that MBTA trains pull into and turn around. At least, that’s what Open Railway Map suggests. I actually don’t have an answer. Nevertheless, the station has a standard mini-high setup commonly seen around the system, is served also by Amtrak with the Downeaster, and grade crossings to change sides. I’m not sure if plans exist to reconfigure into full-length platforms, but I kinda hope there are because I feel like that’d help both Amtrak and the MBTA here. Both platforms have the usual shelter, benches, wastebaskets, yellow dot matrix signage, and all that. Though, I feel like a departure board with Amtrak times might help here too. Anyways, not a bad station!













So, that leaves just the bus terminal. I forgot about this one entirely, so how is it? Well…….kinda sad, actually. There’s a building that you can’t even enter unless you work for MeVa, and on a cold and windy day like when I came here, it was BAD. Yikes. Yeah, that ain’t good.




The good: It’s a serviceable train station in downtown Haverhill! It gets both Amtrak and MBTA service! It also has what you’d expect.
The bad: For an Amtrak station, it’s kinda lackluster. There’s no indoor waiting area, no Quik-Trak machine, it only has a mini-high platform, and there’s really no amenities you’d expect at an Amtrak station, especially one in a downtown area. For an MBTA station, it’s average, but c’mon. The nearby bus terminal is also sad too, with a building not open to the public anymore.
Nearby points of interest: Downtown Haverhill and MeVa’s bus network!
Transit connections:
Amtrak (Downeaster)
Commuter Rail (Haverhill)
MeVa (1, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
Overall, it’s actually a little disappointing. But, whatever, there’s always worse, I guess!
Rating: 6/10