Wollaston (MBTA Station) - History

History

The Old Colony Railroad opened through Quincy in November 1845. Several local stations were located in Quincy, including Wollaston station (also known as Wollaston Heights) at Beale Street. In 1877, a large station with a clock tower was built on the west (inbound) side of the tracks. The Old Colony switched from English-style left-hand running to American-style right-hand running in 1893 when it was acquired by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad; the depot was moved to the east side of the tracks in 1895.

Passenger service on the Old Colony system declined after World War II, and the New Haven decided to abandon the line in the late 1950s. Emergency subsidies kept the lines open during construction of the Southeast Expressway, but all passenger service to Wollaston and the rest of the former Old Colony system ended on June 30, 1959.

Even before 1959, discussion was underway to bring rapid transit to the Old Colony mainline. The 1926 Report on Improved Transportation Facilities and 1945-47 Coolidge Commission Report recommended that the East Boston Tunnel line, which had been converted to rapid transit from streetcars in 1924, be extended to Lynn via the Boston, Revere Beach & Lynn right-of-way. The newly formed MBTA bought the Old Colony right-of-way from South Boston to South Braintree in 1965. In 1966, the Program for Mass Transportation recommended the extension, and construction of the station began that year. Wollaston opened along with North Quincy and Quincy Center on September 1, 1971.

The main entrance to the station is via the large parking lot off Beale Avenue. An additional entrance is located on Newport Avenue. The station, located on a high grade, is one of a small number of elevated rapid transit stations remaining in the MBTA system. (The only others are Science Park, Malden Center, Charles/MGH, Beachmont, and Fields Corner.) Boston once had several elevated lines, but the Atlantic Avenue Elevated, Charlestown Elevated, Washington Street Elevated, and Causeway Elevated were all torn down in favor of subway and surface-level lines. Although the platform is elevated, the station lobby and turnstiles are actually situated several feet below street level, making the lobby prone to flooding during heavy rainstorms. On July 25, 1988, the lobby was flooded by an afternoon deluge, stranding around 100 riders at the station.

The Red Line's Braintree was built several decades before the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, and not all of the stations were originally handicapped-accessible. All other stations on the Red Line proper - and all except Valley Road on the Ashmont-Mattapan High Speed Line - have been rebuilt or retrofitted for handicapped accessibility. The MBTA is currently planning renovations to Wollaston which will make it handicapped-accessible and solve the flooding problems.

When the station was built, commuter service returning to the line was considered unlikely, and few provisions were mere. Only a single non-rapid-transit track was left on the narrow grade for freight service. However, commuter service returned on the Old Colony Lines beginning in 1997 and the Greenbush Line beginning in 2007. Due to the limited width of the elevated grade and the right-of-way through densely populated Quincy, adding a second track would be extremely difficult. The single-tracked section of the line around Wollaston represents a major bottleneck on the commuter rail system.