archBOSTON ARCHIVE

[BlinkieOB]

On the commuter rail this morning, there were notes from Dan Grabauskas on every seat about a coming expansion of the waiting area at North Station. This is something that is so severely needed it isn't even funny. I always kind of guessed we would have to wait until one of the North Station Towers went up for this to happen, but apparently they are going to start on a project in June and aim to be done in November. It sounded like the plan was actually to expand out towards the tracks.

Here is a story from the Metro on it, too:
http://boston.metro.us/metro/local/article/Coming_soon_More_room_at_North_Station/2242.html

I noticed a poster at North Station with some details and a floorplan, but I didn't have time to stop and look. Maybe I'll try to take a picture on my way through this afternoon.

[BlinkieOB]

and from the Globe...

Expansion of North Station to be done by November
April 26, 2006

BOSTON --North Station, which serves five commuter rail lines and Amtrak's Downeaster service to New Hampshire and Maine, will be expanded, a project that will be paid for by the owners and operators of the TD Banknorth Garden and completed by November, officials said.

The 20,000-square-foot, multi-million-dollar project will more than double the concourse's size, and MBTA officials hope it will relieve long-standing gripes from passengers about crowding.

"It's a great deal for us," Daniel A. Grabauskas, general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, said Tuesday. "We're delivering what the customer wants, as quickly as we can, and finally giving our northside passengers the same welcome to Boston that our (South Station) passengers get."

On an average weekday, 187 commuter rail trips bring nearly 50,000 passengers in and out of North Station.

The expansion is being financed entirely by the Delaware North Companies-Boston, which sits atop North Station. An official with Delaware North declined to say how much the project will cost, but told The Boston Globe it would not be more than $10 million.

The planned changes will significantly enlarge the waiting area and add tables, chairs and benches in a climate-controlled space. Food vendors and services will be added, and a large, overhead board would display schedule and track information. The design also will include crowd-control measures to separate Garden patrons from outgoing commuters, Grabauskas said.

Delaware North will maintain and clean the station, the MBTA will get a chance for new advertising revenue. The two plan to split revenue from new vendors.

[TheBostonian]

"officials said they began talking to officials at the Delaware North Companies-Boston about six months ago after it became clear that development on the original Boston Garden site adjacent to Causeway Street was not going to happen. The T had planned to use that site, now a parking lot, to expand North Station."

Which development isn't happening?

[BlinkieOB]

[LeTaureau]

I think what is meant is that T officials planned to expand North Station onto the parking lot site. But since that is not going to happen, they are going to expand the concourse out over the tracks. The parking lot is instead slated for private development.

[chumbolly]

I really hope that when the parking lot is developed, a central entrance for the station is included. The side-entrances to the station feel very temporary, and they're certainly undistinguished.

[user_22]

Well, at this stage, something is better than nothing, but only 10 million dollars for the expansion? I suspect it will mainly be functional box over the tracks with nothing architecturally remarkable whatsoever. I can't imagine the moron who designed the "glorified hallway" in the first place, what was he/she thinking?

[BlinkieOB]

[Ron Newman]

He was thinking that a waiting room would be built on the ground floor of the Old Garden lot, and therefore people would only be briefly passing through this hallway on the way to their trains.

Seemed like a reasonable assumption at the time.

[dudeursistershot]

[BlinkieOB]

Well, it isn't going to be an addition onto the building at all. From outside, you won't be able to tell anything has changed. The tracks currently run about halfway into the depth of the building, with the platforms starting underneath the garden and extending out past the building. It sounds like this plan will just reclaim some of the platform space that is already under the building and turn it into an expanded waiting area.

[BlinkieOB]

A sign displayed in North Station today. Sorry for the poor quality. I literally paused for 2 seconds and continued on so I didn't miss my train.



The yellow marks the existing waiting area and the red/pink marks the expansion. There are also expanded bathrooms shwon on the left.

[TheBostonian]

Why is this funded entirely by the Garden? Is it simply that it is in their financial interest to have a better North Station? Is there a catch, some sort of hidden cost to the MBTA? If this indeed comes at no cost to the MBTA then T management deserves praise for this arrangement and it should be repeated as much as possible for other improvements.

[ckb]

[justin]

Meaning no grand entrance to North Station from Causeway St.? What about the underground connection to the T station?

justin

[ckb]

[Roxxma]

[statler]

[Roxxma]

[Ron Newman]

NYC Penn Station, as much as most of us may hate it, is overflowing with commerce. (So are Grand Central and Port Authority Bus Terminal.)