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Changes at South Station: Some are grand, some make you go: Huh?
By adamg on Sat, 12/28/2024 - 10:26am
Our own Cybah recently snapped some shots underneath the 51-story office/condo building nearing completion above the tracks of South Station.
The new archways are dramatic and the bus depot is enlarged, including a revamped McDonald's with lots of self-service ordering kiosks.
And then the developers seemed to run out of ideas on what to do with a bank of former pay phones and so just covered them with metal sheets, put in a couple of ports and rebranded them as "mobile devices" areas:
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Comments
Old payphones
I love walking around buildings from or renovated in the 80s and 90s with payphone booths galore (I think the Hynes has a ton of these). You can imagine people going in and out with quarters, making calls which are now done as texts for free (well, marginally free after you pay for your phone).
For South Station, the new staircase to the bus station from the concourse area is a big improvement over the previous walk down Atlantic Ave or Platform 1 and then entrance there, it should integrate well. The new bus waiting area looks like a modern airport terminal and yes I mean this as a compliment. We don't get a lot of transportation things right in this city but we've managed to build one of the two best bus terminals in the country (the other being Denver).
The arches also look nice and once open should make for a more pleasant experience coming in and out of South Station. Hopefully that's reasonably soon. Unfortunately, the roof in the station itself probably won't be replaced, so we're stuck with the utilitarian corrugated roofline there which is so poorly-integrated with the rest of the design: it really looks like they ran out of money and said "well, just stick something up there." We don't need to go overboard like at Moynihan or Fulton but something translucent and less ugly would be nice.
Anyway, looking forward to this being open, even if it won't be perfect.
yup
payphones: I remember when South Station had triads of phone booths next to each automatic doors to the train platforms AND the doors next to the bus berths in the bus part of the station. I remember making a few phone calls here and there from those phones.
staircase: Yes this is what I am most looking forward too. The direct connection to the train station and eliminating the walk along track 1 is best. Although I admit now that its all walled off, the wind isn't terrible anymore and its not bad of a walk now. But yes, the escalator and elevator directly to the bus platform level of the bus station is a game changer.
As stated below, the busway looks complete. Even has the outfront signs and other signage. All that is missing is furniture and maybe some coach decals on the berth doors (for the coach lines who will rent those gates). And of course the staircase.
Looking at how done the arches are, and inside the original headhouse part of the station, they are moving things out of the way of the next set of automatic doors. I suspect they will divert passengers to those doors at the same time so they can finalize the third arch over the current walkway. (the new bus station escalator is directly across from that second set of doors). I'd guess within the next few months. Before spring most likely.
But yeah I agree about the 1988 renovated headhouse, its really starting to show its age now. I know that Equity Office who manages the place has kinda given up while they build the tower, but its starting to look a bit run down and dark. One of the downsides to the new tower is that it blocked a good chunk of natural light that went into the headhouse. Now its just dark in there. I hope there's some plans to spruce it up some and add some more lighting.
You can imagine people going
Dimes, kid.
Hello, bus terminal employee
Hello, bus terminal employee here! The payphones are actually a Verizon thing, they decided on their own to take out the payphone banks ago year or two ago and paper it over with the Sheetmetal (the ports and mobile charging station signage predate the expansion by years). Management of the building wants to replace that area with a retail spot but I'm not sure if progress is actually advancing or if it's stalled.
The expansion is mostly done with the exception of fixing up spots here and there but the busway has issues with the top layer being torn up, until a certain company stops spending money on fruitless ways to prove they are somehow not at fault and agrees to fix it then the MBTA won't accept ownership of it (it was supposed to open in October but now is realistically looking to be next summer at best)
Also this must have been taken on Christmas day since I know of no other time of the year that there is no one and nothing there during the daylight hours.
Nice!
Yeah I knew the phone thing was done eons ago. Verizon left the payphone business 10+ years ago but I wasn't sure who added the signs and plugs.
This photo was taken the 26th early afternoon. I was kinda surprised how dead the bus station was for the day after a holiday, except for the berth across the way that was Peter Pan going to NYC. Was so busy they split the bus into two routes, BOS -> Hartford and BOS -> NYC direct.
But other than that, it was dead. Even the bus I rode to Concord had like 15 people on it. Even the train part of the station wasn't very busy for a post-holiday. I guess the rush may be in the morning and then not again until the weekend?
And yeah when I returned on the 27th, the buses have to circle around the new part. It looks pretty complete. Just needs furniture really and maybe punch list items has you state. And of course the staircase which is being worked on at the moment.
The big rush was a week before Christmas
When the semesters end/colleges close down and the students all head home for the holidays.
Yeah the interior is just
Yeah the interior is just punch list stuff and is basically done. The busway is completely not done, the contractor is accused is using the wrong adhesive for the traffic coating and it was not meant to handle the weight of the buses so it was all torn up. So until that issue is resolved the bus expansion can't be opened. It's amazing that this wasn't a government project and yet it's still managed to end up SNAFU
South Station looks great
In light of recent incidents in New York may I suggest that management place fire extinguishers in locations accessible to the riding public.
Phone chargers were already there
I noticed those “mobile phone stations” several years ago while waiting for a bus to Maine. They’ve been like this for quite some time — and I dare you to actually plug a phone into any of those chargers. Most don’t work anyway. The ones that do… are probably installing all sorts of malware! Ideally these would be replaced with literally anything else, but guess not.
Maybe charge a power bank
And then use that to charge the phone... :-)
EDIT: You can also get "USB condoms" that just omit the data lines, but this crude approach will only get you slow charging. Probably someone has made something fancier that can pass through the wattage negotiation protocol, but I haven't researched this to find out...
The Verdict
There used to be banks of pay phones in front of South Station also. Paul Newman can be seen using one i the classic 1982 film "The Verdict", filmed in Boston.
Penn Station in NYC
used to have a whole storefront that was nothing but banks of pay phones. I don't remember whether the operator at that time was AT&T, New York Telephone, or NYNEX.
See, Cybah?
Aren't you glad you came back?
Place ain't the same without you, fella. I hope you had a delightful Christmas.
I wish I could post photos from the tour of the tower
A few months ago I took a tour of the Hynes sales office and walked a few of the floors which were under construction. They have really cool models of the outside. The project includes a private roof terrace that's a few acres in size. A later phase could include a second roof terrace so the offices and residences don't have to share.
Residences start at 4 million I believe. They are targeting folks that hop between New York and Boston, medical students with rich parents, etc...
Residences start @ $1.3M
The price for a junior one bedroom residence at South Station Tower (700ish sq ft.) is listed at $1.3M.
A "regular" one bedroom (850-1000 sq ft.) lists at $1.5M.
Two bedrooms run about $3.5M, three bedrooms roughly $5M. Penthouse collection units (2200+ sq ft.) start at $8.75M.
South Station
What about the bathrooms? Any plans to improve?
They improved those 10-15
They improved those 10-15
They improved those 10-15
They improved those 10-15 years ago. Weren't you paying attention?
Of course it looks nice after I leave…
Oh well, at least something is being done about the station. The connection with the bus station is absolutely key, since there were so many people wandering around aimlessly thinking that the silver line stop was the bus station., I miss working in the leather district
This tower is even uglier than portrayed in the renderings.
It looms even more menacingly over Chinatown and Dewey Square than anticipated.
I wonder if the plans to put in the infernal discriminatory fare gates like at North Station are still in the works?
Screw those fare gates
The MBTA never skimps when it comes to inconveniencing its customers.
Haha!
In this case, you hit it on the nail.