Most people probably know of Greenbush as Scituate’s main MBTA station. However, there’s also another station in the village of North Scituate, that’s not as big parking-wise, but still has things to do around it. Let’s look at it.
Station signage!
After taking GATRA GO here (RIP the SLOOP), the first thing I noticed was the parking lot. It was considerably smaller vs. Greenbush’s. Also, there’s actually stuff to do around here! I mean, yeah, it still isn’t a lot, but it’s better than a lonely convenience store and Dunks, with transit-oriented unaffordable housing. In terms of the station itself, it’s essentially a copy-paste of Greenbush. And, as I said earlier, North Scituate is a small village (sadly not the main economic center – that’s Scituate Harbor and the Greenbush Line goes nowhere near there), but the fact it’s walkable at all is good. It does annoy me there’s no density near the station but eh, whatever. It could be worse.
Accessibility!Still a lot of parking!More signage!The village over yonderLooking towards Boston!And towards Greenbush!Red dot matrix signage!A nice little creekGreen space!OH LAWDAnother station signage shot!Winter is upon us…Rounding the curve!
The good: It’s actually located in an inhabited area and isn’t just a sea of parking! There’s even a nice little walkpath!
The bad: There really isn’t any decent land use aside from the small village nearby. No affordable housing either but meh, whatever.
Nearby points of interest: North Scituate looks cool!
Overall, I don’t have too much to say about this station. I mean, it passes and is the bar for what a useful station should be for anyone. It’s overall not that bad.
Woah, a new terminal station entry?! Yep. I took a trip out to Scituate and decided to check the place out, ride GATRA GO (RIP the SLOOP 🙁 ), and do two station entries (this & North Scituate). So, welcome to Greenbush!
Or, “Frank M. Hynes Station at Greenbush”
Greenbush is your standard Old Colony-esque terminal station with a decently-sized parking lot, an on-site yard, and relatively minimal bus connections (or even signs a bus connection exists!). The platform is sheltered, there’s benches, and unusually a red dot matrix sign (rather than the usual yellow on the Kingston and Middleborough Lines – though, the Greenbush Line came a full decade after those). Around the station is not a lot, there’s some convenience stores, a restaurant or two, and transit-oriented housing. However, it is not “affordable”, but rather “luxury” housing. Yikes. Now, in terms of bus connections…..it’s GATRA GO. Again. Historically, it was the SLOOP (Scituate Loop), but that got killed off earlier this year and I never had the chance to ride it. Tragic. However, there is a marina close by!
End of the line!GREENBUSHAt least it’s a full high level platform!Luxury housing?! Is this compliant with the MBTA Communities Act?!TRAINThe layover facility!Welcome to Greenbush!The station from afarBack towards South Station!HOLY SHIT IS THAT A SLOOP LIVERY?! OH MY FUCKING GOD!
The good: It’s sorta close to housing and, despite being a park & ride, is in a somewhat walkable area! And, there used to be a second parking lot that actually got redeveloped into the aforementioned luxury housing! Train service is also slightly more frequent vs. most of the system on weekends! Lastly, the platform is a full high level affair. Sweet!
The bad: No affordable housing nearby! Yeah, I know, it’s not part of the station itself, but I feel like land use matters with cookie cutter-esque station entries! And here, it’s all luxury housing primarily! Or, suburbia. I mean hey, it could be worse, some stations have only a country club in their walkshed…
Nearby points of interest: Some shopping plazas, a golf course, a marina, and luxury housing. There’s actually a little bit going on near here, even if it’s not the town center or Scituate Harbor.
Transit connections: Commuter Rail (Greenbush) GATRA (GATRA GO – RIP the SLOOP)
Overall, as far as park & rides go, it actually isn’t that bad. Granted, land use could be better, and there really oughta be affordable and mixed-use development around here, but it certainly could be worse…
Alrighty, the last entry on the Franklin Line! Let’s see what’s special, if anything, about Dedham Corporate Center (or, Dedham Corp/128, as some signage might refer to it as).
Signage!
Dedham Corporate Center is located on Rustcraft Road, located near the interchange of US-1 and I-95 in Dedham. Adjacent to it is an office park on the Boston-bound side, which also houses a hotel, some medical offices, suburbia, the county DA’s office, and even a Cummins plant. All of the station’s parking is also located here. On the Franklin/Foxboro-bound side, you have a bit more useful to the average person: some transit-oriented housing, a kiss & ride, a slightly lesser amount of suburbia, and even the Legacy Place shopping center and a Costco. General Dynamics is also out here, and the 34E is a stone’s throw away across US-1.
*gets call*
…wait, waht? It’s just “Providence Highway” on the inner side of I-95? Okay then. So, cross the Providence Highway to get to the 34E on Washington Street. I did this, it was not fun. Almost got hit and killed. Would be nice if the 34E deviated into Legacy Place and the station’s kiss & ride. I digress. Legacy Place is your standard lifestyle center, with parking and flanked on all sides by shopping. Not much to say about it. Overall, not the worst station to finish off with. I will say though, the platform does seem a little short for game day sets to platform (they stop here), but it’s serviceable otherwise.
The trainBye!!!The mini-highs and a crossingThat’s a lot of parkingAnother crossing. I think I can see Endicott from here, too…OUTDATED STATION MAPKiss & ride!An MBTA bus, a RIPTA bus, and an unmarked bendy bus drive into a bar…Anyone know what RTA this bus belongs to though?LOOK!Towards Dorchester and downtown!Towards Franklin and Foxboro!A path from the housing complex to Legacy PlaceWAYFINDING!EVEN MORE PARKING…Legacy Place!Showcase Cinemas!SHAKE SHACK?!AND JP LICKS TOO?!Bye, Legacy Place!
The good: It serves an apartment complex, some offices, and Legacy Place! It’s also in a pretty important location for park & ride passengers from I-95 and for those who don’t want to use Endicott or Islington.
The bad: The 34E really oughta deviate here. Lastly, the pedestrian experience going from the station to Legacy Place isn’t the best, to put it lightly. It also oughta have an extended and full-level high platform so the football train can fully platform here. And, I guess, by extension there also oughta be an overpass or tunnel connecting the two sides.
Nearby points of interest: Legacy Place is the big one!
Overall, while it isn’t the best, it sure as hell is better to end the line here than on the last entry in terms of order of publishing. At least Dedham Corp. actually has stuff around it other than a shopping center and has some degree of an actual walkshed that isn’t Oops! All Parking! However, there are some relatively minor changes that would be nice. Overall, not bad though.
I said a stadium AND NOTHING ELSE. Lansdowne serves Brookline Ave. and the LMA, not just Fenway Park. I digress, here’s Foxboro.
Gillette Stadium!Hi, Robert Kraft!
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. 🙁 Damn, Robert Kraft really couldn’t pay for a GATRA bus station and/or better service?
Patriot Place!The stadiumThat’s a lot of parking…The entrance to the stadiumTONS AND TONS OF PARKING (i think this lot was the commuter lot)FUCK YOU, TICKETMASTER!An MBTA lollipop? Out here?!Showcase Cinemas!Wayfinding!That last pic of parking was not of commuter parking. Commuter parking is lot 4C.
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.
Station signage!This actually looks nice.The walkwayThe platform.Shelter and benchesTowards Walpole and …Framingham???The train, looking towards MansfieldThe only place where you can go inbound somewhere other than BostonThis is bad.
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.
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.
Oh golly. I promised on the Miles in Transit Discord server that I’ll try speedrunning GATRA on the basis of losing a bet, or something like that. Well, I kinda forgot about that and never had the time or motivation to. But, since then, we finally have…ONE GATRA entry. Welcome to GATRA GO! Unfortunately…this one was about a year in the making due to a number of mishaps in the making. Here they are:
ATTEMPT #1: I first attempted to review GATRA GO on the same day I visited Forge Park/495. Unfortunately, GATRA GO didn’t want to cooperate and it kept telling me there were no trips between Forge Park and Mansfield. How could this be?! They’re the same damn zone! Just look!
At first glance, you wouldn’t think twice of this! “I can just go from Forge Park to Mansfield!” Well….NOPE! Just look!
WHY
It turns out (thanks random internet person for this insight!) that, there’s actually a historical reason for this weirdness (you’d think it’d be fixed?!) AND not only that, you have to transfer LITERALLY ANYWHERE IN FOXBORO – BEING THE ONLY TOWN WITH A ZONAL OVERLAP. WHY?! So, I was left out in the rather cold November evening, having to dial an Uber to Mansfield Station, as GATRA fucked me over at Forge Park/495. I must also add – THIS REPLACED LITERALLY ALL THE FRANKLIN, NORFOLK, FOXBORO, AND MANSFIELD-AREA FIXED ROUTES! THIS ALSO REPLACED THE SLOOPY SLOOP IN SCITUATE! WHY GATRA?!
So long, civilization…I was one with the quietness of Forge Park in the twilight…Mansfield after hours…
ATTEMPT #2: A week or two later, I was going up to visit Brooke among other things in Boston, it was still very cold (it was December at this point), and I said “fuck it” and decided to get revenge on GATRA GO. Unfortunately, very VERY long wait times said “lol fuck you” and even though I got off my train at 8ish AM, I wouldn’t be picked up until closer to 10, guaranteeing missing a Foxboro train I wanted to connect to. This also meant I’d be stuck in Foxboro for a couple of hours. 🙁
ATTEMPT #3: About 10 months after, I decided to come back with pretty much the entire Franklin Line under my belt and with a much better understanding of how GATRA works, and having much more time on my hands (now that I wasn’t dating Brooke, though we’re still friends, and I wasn’t trying to ride her train either as I didn’t know if I’d still have steam – or make it to Heath St. in time). This set of circumstances worked in my hands, even if I still had to wait…
*checks notes*
40 MINUTES?! Oh brother…
That’s what a bus looks like – but I didn’t get this in FranklinJesus FUCKING Christ…
So, when I got off in Norfolk, I dialed a GATRA GO bus and it took 46 minutes to arrive, coming from the general area of Franklin. Yeah, those wait times are BAD. But, the bus actually DID come eventually. It came, crossed the Franklin Line grade crossing, and pulled into the station parking lot to pick me up. And, oh god…
Onwards!
So, there were four other people, the operator and three passengers. The passengers each introduced themselves (Liv and Maddie, who were vlogging, and their friend Elias. If any of y’all see this, hi!) and we all talked a bit. Everyone else was going to Crumbl at Patriot Place, and I said “eh, why not?” (I was planning on a lunch in downtown Boston or at Five Guys in Foxboro). The two ladies continued vlogging as we got on Pond Street. Really, this was a straight shot more than anything and we made pretty good time, for what it’s worth. Didn’t pick anyone else up along the way though, but it was a rather quick ride. Though, I must wonder though: why are there no fixed routes? I get “low ridership” but ya know, ADVERTISE THEM. RUN THEM AT A CONSISTENT SCHEDULE 7 DAYS A WEEK! I digress. And then, I think I might’ve heard the most Gen Alpha brainrot thing I’ve ever heard from anyone. I’m not even sure if Gen Alpha is old enough to use GATRA GO. But, here we go:
“Sigma Ohio Skibidi.”
Please bleach that one out of my memory. Bleh. Cue the gif of Homer Simpson pouring bleach in his eyes, even. That aside, the ride was pretty comfortable, relaxing even, and there wasn’t even a jiggly wheelchair lift. Good job, GATRA! (or whoever owns the buses for GATRA) Eventually, we made it to Patriot Place and parted ways. And, to Maddie and Liv, I wish y’all the best of luck with vlogging.
Suburbia!Some more stuffA medical facilitySee, Weston?! Norfolk is nice enough to have sidewalks on their streets!Parking lot!U.S. ROUTE ONE?!BIG FREAKIN’ STROADWelcome to Patriot Place!Hi Robert Kraft!!!
The good: It’ll get you literally anywhere in the zone!
The bad: WHY ARE THERE NO FIXED ROUTES?! LEGIT, PATRIOT PLACE CAN AND SHOULD BE A PULSE POINT FOR LOCAL GATRA FIXED ROUTES GOING TO FRANKLIN, FOXBORO, MANSFIELD, AND NORFOLK. SEND A DAMN BUS TO WALPOLE CENTER TO CONNECT WITH THE 34E EVEN. AND FOR THAT MATTER, WHY DID THE SLOOP GET REPLACED WITH THIS?! WHY DOESN’T IT CONNECT TO ANY FIXED ROUTES THAT LINK IT TO THE MBTA IN WEYMOUTH OR HINGHAM?! WHY DOES THE PLYMOUTH ZONE NOT CONNECT TO THE KINGSTON T STATION?! WHY?! WHY DOES THE PEMBROKE ZONE EVEN EXIST AS A SEPARATE ENTITY?! WAIT TIMES ARE ALSO GARBAGE UNLESS YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHEN YOU’LL BE LEAVING AND WHEN YOU’LL BE LEAVING YOUR DESTINATION FOR YOUR RETURN – MOST PEOPLE AREN’T INFLEXIBLE LIKE THAT! THAT’S IF IT EVEN WORKS AT ALL.
Nearby points of interest: Franklin’s town center is cool, as is Patriot Place! You also have Plymouth’s downtown, Scituate & the Greenbush Line, and whatever the hell is in Pembroke.
Overall, WHY?! WHY DID THEY KILL FIXED ROUTES FOR THESE?! JUST WHY?! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Rating: 2.5/10
THIS SHOULD SUPPLEMENT FIXED ROUTES, NOT REPLACE THEM. GATRA GO, MORE LIKE GATRA GO FUCK YOURSELF.
What, you were expecting me to go all the way to the far southern fringes of the Northeast Regional’s service area? Not quite, pal! Instead, Norfolk, Massachusetts is on the to-do list for today. Let’s look at it.
Translucent signage???
Norfolk is a relatively small station serving the town of Norfolk, Massachusetts. It’s a park and ride in a small town with not a lot nearby. There’s a partly-built lifestyle center, however I didn’t look at it much. In terms of stuff near the station proper, you just have a small strip mall, a Dunks, and a church. In terms of the station itself, it’s normal, though you have 2 tracks but one side platform (track 1 isn’t complete!), a mini-high, a red dot matrix sign, and a grade crossing along with benches and wastebaskets. Not a lot exciting here. However, there IS something unusual: the Medway “T” Shuttle stops here. Is it signed? NOPE! Because what’s wayfinding?! At least you can GATRA GO if you need out! (stay tuned…)
F40PH!Towards Forge Park!The platform and a MOW vehicle!I suspect any work had to do with the 2nd track being worked onRed dot matrix signageThose signals are facing the wrong way.Shelter!Small town vibesThe crossing from afarSorry, no train horn! D:
The good: It’s in a small town and has parking for people to drive in!
The bad: The GATRA bus connections could be signed…., also the fact there isn’t a 2nd platform here is just…why?!
Oh, cool, we’re back out on the Franklin Line! And, we’re at the namesake station of the line, Franklin! Let’s look at it, shall we?
Oh that’s a mouthful…Or, just simply “Franklin/Dean”, I guess…
The station is in downtown Franklin, a stone’s throw from Dean College, and because of that the station can very much hold its own in regard to ridership without relying on people driving in from the outer fringes of the Commuter Rail (in the case of the Franklin Line, this happens to be places like Bellingham, Milford, Blackstone, Millville, Mendon, Hopedale, and even Woonsocket and North Smithfield in Rhode Island), which is very much a good thing here because the parking lot is TINY. While the platform is relatively barren and the only shelter being the station building, and it presently is inaccessible, wouldn’t you know it, they’re actually BUILDING A MINI-HIGH?! Unfortunately, though, the way it’s being done precludes any extension of the double tracking in Norfolk towards Forge Park… Yeah, that sucks. But, hey, at least they’re actually making this station accessible! YAY (although ideally they’d have rebuilt the station to have a full-length high level platform). Oh yeah, as a cool factor, the Franklin layover yard is before this station.
An F40 and the under-construction mini-highBye!The mini-high, looking towards the Union St. crossingThe station buildingThat’s it?! Just one track?!Towards Forge Park! (& the overpass of Main St.)PARKINGThe disused station buildingI usually don’t like getting political here, but it’s my site and I can bend the rules as I see fit: GO VOTE, DAMMIT!Overpass shot!Downtown Franklin looks cool. Also, some GATRA GO spotted!Overpass shot towards Forge ParkClassic New England vibesDEAN COLLEGE?!The T globe!I hope the addition of the mini-highs lead to these getting replaced with a newer departure board!
The good: It’s in downtown Franklin! It’s also okay with a modest amount of parking, for what it’s worth. But if you’re using this place, odds are you’re walking. It does have some charm going for it, but that’s also the area at-large.
The bad: It’s inaccessibility is a big one. Also, no shelter aside from the building is bad, however, I hope both will change with the mini-high being built.
Nearby points of interest: Downtown Franklin and Dean College, as signage suggests, are big!
Overall, it’s a decent station for one that’s inaccessible. And, this puts me in a tough position where I feel like it’d get a high score if it was accessible, but it just isn’t. Goddammit…
Alrighty, so we made it to the end of line #7, at……north-central Queens? Huh, guess the subway doesn’t go out as far as I’d expect it to. Ah well. Welcome to Flushing, some might say “the better Chinatown”, but regardless, here we go!
Subway signage!
The subway station is mostly standard, however the only major difference aside from the usual benches, wastebaskets, and (working!) countdown clocks, are that there’s THREE tracks rather than two here. Which, essentially, means “Doors will open on either or both side” is a real possibility here. There’s also a relatively nice-looking mezzanine with OMNY machines. Allegedly, a restroom also exists here but I didn’t see one. Unfortunately, though, the way the station is designed inherently prohibits any extensions of the line – as they’d all require the mezzanine to be razed as between the mezzanine and tracks are some big mean mother bumpers. But, there’s at least bus connections to eastern and northern Queens! Yay! But, that’s not all to this station…
2 minutes?! That’s a fast turnaround!The platformBUS connection. What’s an “N” bus?Faregates!The mezzanine from above!Headhouse!Escalator!FLUSHING!!!!!!!Bus stop!Wait, that’s not an MTA bus…Flushing vibes!This picture is the embodiment of what’s quite possibly my favorite area in NYC based on vibes alone. Also, I spy the LIRR?!
Yes. There’s also an LIRR station here, kinda acting as a super-express of line #7 if you take this towards Grand Central/Penn Station. The station is on an embankment, with elevator for ADA compliance. There’s also ticket machines and shelters, but it really isn’t anything to ring home about. It works well for what it is. Some might say “why would you take it when the subway is there?”, to which I raise the possibility of reverse commuters to Port Washington and Manhasset, and also people who prefer a super-express that stops only at Mets-Willett Point and Woodside before going into Manhattan. Oh yeah, I also almost forgot to note, the departure boards tell you CAR CAPACITY. DAMN, I never seen THAT before on a commuter rail system!
LIRR signage!More Flushing vibesThis elevator failed the piss test.Bye!!!Towards Manhasset and Port Washington!And towards Manhattan!Shelter!
The good: It’s a major destination, has both subway and LIRR access, and is the gateway to eastern Queens and Nassau Co.! The “N”-prefixed routes I raised questions about in a caption? Turns out, those are Nassau Inter-County Express (NICE) buses. Yes, an RTA other than the MTA actually serves this station! DAMN. Furthermore, the Port Washington Line is pretty frequent by commuter rail standards, while line #7 is the most frequent subway line in the system.
The bad: The design prohibits extensions inherently! That’s…..really the only negative I can genuinely think of, aside from the piss-scented elevators at the LIRR station.
Nearby points of interest: Flushing, duh! This is probably the more major Chinatown vs. Manhattan’s Chinatown. There’s also buses to Whitestone, Murray Hill, Bayside, and Nassau Co. from here.
Overall, while the vibes of the station itself are “meh”, if slightly above average, this neighborhood is really vibey, for what it’s worth, and is probably my favorite part of the city. Also, the bus connections are plentiful here.
For the next station, as a change of pace, we’re back in the Boston area (for now!), and with that, I took the next thing out of South Station. In the case of when I took the pics for this, it was a shuttle with a guaranteed connection to a Middleborough train. So, I rode it as far as I could before reaching unvisited territory. Welcome to Bridgewater!
THERE IS A PASSENGER INTERCOM CALL FROM: NUMBER ONE END. OF CAR NUMBER: SEVEN. FIVE. ZERO.Signage!
So, Bridgewater is much like Middleborough in that it’s a singular high-level platform with one track. However, while there is a lot of parking, it actually has a good reason for being plentiful – the station is LITERALLY on the campus of Bridgewater State University! Yes, this is transit-oriented education right here! However, the station itself isn’t anything special, really. You have wastebaskets, signage, benches, and parking. The only noteworthy thing is having the BSU shuttles on days school is in session, picking up near the parking garage nearby. But, aside from that, no bus connections. And, sorry to the person from one of the Discord servers I’m in that lives near here, I have nothing special to say about your local MBTA station. 🙁
Bye!Benches!Towards Boston!And looking towards Middleborough and the Cape!Dorms?Some BSU stuffMore signage!MBTA signIs this a brand guidelines violation (missing T?)Bike racks!Parking!Garage!
The good: It serves BSU! Yeah, that’s about it. It’s a parking sink otherwise.
The bad: Eh, not a lot. Single-track ops hinder throughput a lot.
Oh goody, another station complex! Well, we’re on the southern tip of Manhattan for this one. Unfortunately, this one tends to be a little cursed in the 21st century, in that there’s been several catastrophic disruptions to service here. Well, with that out of the way, let’s get into things.
Pride train!
At the end of line #1 and line W, South Ferry and Whitehall St. (technically two stations, but physically the same station) is the southernmost station in Manhattan, serving the Whitehall St. ferry terminal and the Battery, and the southernmost bits of the Financial District. The stations themselves are pretty modern, with decent amounts of lighting. You also have countdown clocks that actually work, benches, wastebaskets, fare machines, and the usual. There’s also allegedly an in-station connection to each other (I fully believe it exists) but I haven’t seen it anywhere when I was here. Easy to miss? Possibly. Line #1 has big mean mother bumpers at the end of the track (likely because you cannot build tail tracks here – the ocean is 3 feet south!), while line W utilizes a middle pocket track to turn around. On street level, it’s pretty lively overall, with vendors everywhere and modern headhouses that remind me of Hudson Yards – and overall, look nice. And, yes, this is accessible! YAY! There is also a busway here as well, neat!
Signage!THE CLOCKS DO WORK?! WHAT THE FUCK, WHY DO THE ONES AT HUDSON YARDS NOT WORK THEN?!Escalator shot!To the surface!Headhouse!Vendors!A busway!Another headhouse and the Whitehall St. terminal!Signage for lines R & WOops.
Right, getting back to “this station is cursed”. I say that for one reason: there’s been two catastrophic events that killed service here this century already! First off was the 9/11 attacks. Now, we all know what happened with the September 11th incident and the 3000 or so lives lost between here, the Pentagon, and Pennsylvania, and I’m not even going to get into anything about imperialism (this is a transit blog – not “Chelsea’s Political Ramblings”. But if anyone wants to see my political ramblings, let me know!), but between this and the resulting conflicts, there were millions of civilian fatalities. One of the byproducts of the towers falling on that morning was the fact it severed line #1 between Chambers St. and here (Chambers St. was the last turnaround point heading southbound). It also led to service on the Broadway lines to be killed for a while as well, with service beyond being an extension of lines J and M (at the time, line M used the Nassau St. tunnel) into the Montague St. tunnel and towards Bay Ridge and Coney Island. Line #1 would instead be re-routed to New Lots, and these changes would persist for a bit. About a decade later would be Hurricane Sandy. Hurricane Sandy would wreck havoc all over NYC, flooding a decent amount of the city and, unfortunately, South Ferry Station. The salt in the wound here, was that they rebuilt the station in a slightly different location, and that station was completely wrecked. So, with that, they had to reactivate the old station (which was a balloon loop ala Heath St.). This was among the many problems caused by Sandy, among those caused in Queens and Brooklyn. Unfortunately, though, I can’t talk about them as much because there isn’t as much info readily available. But, nevertheless, this station is cursed, and it wouldn’t be opened again until 2017.
Line W turns around here!Whitehall St.-South Ferry!Standard.These clocks don’t work for counting down. WHY?!Looking towards BrooklynAnd uptown towards QueensLine R
The good: It’s a nice station, it’s modern in design, and it’s well-lit! Furthermore, it’s on the southern tip of Manhattan and has an on-foot connection to the Whitehall St. ferry terminal (stay tuned) for Staten Island ferry service. There’s also a busway and it’s accessible!
The bad: I can’t help but think this station is cursed. In all seriousness though, I don’t have a lot against it. Maybe a better-signed transfer to line #1?
Nearby points of interest: The Financial District, the Battery, and the Statue of Liberty!
Transit connections: 7th Ave. Line (1) Broadway Line (R, W) MTA bus (M15, M15 SBS, M20, M55, BM1, BM2, BM3, BM4, QM7, QM8, QM11, QM25, SIM5, SIM15, SIM35) Staten Island Ferry (at Whitehall St. Terminal)
Overall, it’s a nice and useful station, and I’d say it’s a favorite of mine so far on the system. But, not as much as 33rd-Rawson. Yeah, sorry. But it’s still good.
