Packards Corner station

42°21′7.51″N 71°7′29″W / 42.3520861°N 71.12472°W / 42.3520861; -71.12472Platforms2 side platformsTracks2Connections MBTA bus: 57Passengers20112,654 (weekday average boardings)^[1] Services

Preceding station	MBTA			Following station
Harvard Avenue toward Boston College		Green Line B branch		Babcock Street toward Government Center

Former services
Preceding station MBTA Following station Union Square toward Watertown Green Line A branch (closed 1969) Alcorn Street toward Park Street

Location

Packards Corner station (announced as Brighton Avenue/Packards Corner) is a light rail stop on the MBTA's Green Line B branch located at Packard's Corner—the intersection of Commonwealth Avenue and Brighton Avenue—in Allston, Boston, Massachusetts. The station is located in a median between the westbound travel lanes and frontage road of Commonwealth Avenue.

History

The Green Line A branch formerly diverged just north of the platforms; its trolleys stopped at separate Packards Corner platforms on Brighton Avenue. The Brighton Avenue streetcar reservation was removed from July 1 to October 5, 1949, and the side platforms for the Watertown Line were replaced with an island platform.^[2] The A branch was closed on June 21, 1969 and replaced with the route 57 bus, though the trackage was retained for non-revenue moves to Watertown Yard.^[3] The line was finally abandoned in 1994; a several-hundred-foot stub track was left until the mid-2000s to temporarily store disabled trains. The switch and the last few feet of track were not disconnected until track work in 2014.

Packards Corner was not made accessible during the initial 2001–03 round of Green Line station renovations. In 2019, the MBTA listed Packards Corner as a "Tier I" accessibility priority.^[4] Track work in 2018–19, which included replacement of platform edges at several stops, triggered requirements for accessibility modifications at those stops.^[5] Design for Packards Corner and four other B Branch stops was 30% complete by December 2022.^[6] As of November 2023^[update], construction is expected to begin at Packards Corner in spring 2024, ahead of other B Branch stations.^[7]

• 
  Watertown Line (future A branch) platforms in 1948
• 
  A Boston College-bound (future "B" Branch) train at Packards Corner in 1965
• 
  Former A branch turnout switch in 2011

References

External links

Media related to Packards Corner station at Wikimedia Commons

• MBTA – Packards Corner
• Station from Brighton Avenue from Google Maps Street View