Ruggles station

Ruggles
Commuter Rail and Orange Line trains at Ruggles in 2021
Location	Ruggles Street at Tremont Streets Roxbury, Boston, Massachusetts
Coordinates	42°20′10″N 71°05′22″W / 42.3362°N 71.0895°W / 42.3362; -71.0895Coordinates: 42°20′10″N 71°05′22″W / 42.3362°N 71.0895°W / 42.3362; -71.0895
Line(s)	Northeast Corridor (Southwest Corridor)
Platforms	1 island platform (Orange Line) 1 side platform, 1 island platform (Northeast Corridor)
Tracks	2 (Orange Line) 3 (Northeast Corridor)
Connections	MBTA bus: 8, 15, 19, 22, 23, 28, 42, 43, 44, 45, 47, CT2, CT3
Construction
Bicycle facilities	12 spaces
Disabled access	Yes
Other information
Fare zone	1A (Commuter Rail)
History
Opened	May 4, 1987 (Orange Line)[1] October 5, 1987 (Commuter Rail)[1]
Passengers
2018	2,640 daily boardings[2] (Commuter Rail)
FY2019	9,199 daily boardings[3] (Orange Line)
Services
Preceding station MBTA Following station Hyde Park toward Forge Park/495 Franklin Line Back Bay toward South Station Forest Hills toward Needham Heights Needham Line Hyde Park toward Wickford Junction or Stoughton Providence/​Stoughton Line Roxbury Crossing toward Forest Hills Orange Line Massachusetts Avenue toward Oak Grove

Ruggles station is an intermodal transfer station in Boston, Massachusetts. It serves MBTA rapid transit, bus, and commuter rail services and is located at the intersection of Ruggles and Tremont streets, where the Roxbury, Fenway-Kenmore and Mission Hill neighborhoods meet. It is surrounded by the campus of Northeastern University.

Ruggles is a station stop for the Orange Line subway, as well as the Providence/Stoughton Line, Franklin Line, and Needham Line of the MBTA Commuter Rail system. Thirteen bus routes stop at Ruggles, including four of the fifteen key MBTA bus routes.

Station layout[]

The station seen from the southeast

The sprawling station is elevated above the Southwest Corridor north of Ruggles Street and west of Columbus Avenue - the former location of the South End Grounds. The main station structure, designed by , is covered by a rectangular "tubular-framed, high-tech" canopy.^[4] The arched concourse crosses at an angle aligned with Forsyth Street, with entrances at both ends. Its open ends were intended to symbolize reconnection between Jamaica Plain and Roxbury, historically divided by the railroad alignment.^[5]

A clockwise busway wraps around the station, with separate entrances and exits on Ruggles Street, plus an entrance from Melnea Cass Boulevard at Columbus Avenue. The north (upper) part of the busway is level with the concourse and used for drop-offs; the south (lower) part has multiple lanes and bus berths for boarding. A Northeastern University architecture studio is located in the station structure under the upper busway, next to the Fosyth Street entrance.^[6]

A total of five tracks run through the station: two for the Orange Line and three for commuter rail (and Amtrak, which does not stop). The Orange Line tracks serve a single island platform on the north side of the railroad cut. The northern two of the mainline tracks serve a second island platform, while the southernmost track has a side platform.^[7][8] The entrances to the two island platforms are located on the west side of the concourse, under the canopy; entrances to the side platform are from the busway and from a walkway from Columbus Avenue. Five elevators connect the concourse level to the two platforms, the busway, and the Forsyth Street entrance.

Artwork[]

Stony Brook Dance in 2021

Two "very different" pieces of public art were installed in the station as part of the Arts on the Line program:^[9][10]

• Stony Brook Dance, by John T. Scott, is an aluminum abstract kinetic sculpture suspended inside the west end of the concourse. Thirty colorful geometric tubes are attached to three stainless steel cables, allowing them to sway in the wind. The work, commissioned in 1986 and completed in 1989, combines imagery of diddley bows and wave physics.^[11][12]
• Geom-a-tree, by Paul Goodnight, Elaine Sayoko Yoneoka, Stephanie Jackson St. Germain, and Emmanuel Genovese, is a ceramic tile and stained glass mural located above the eastern exit from the concourse. Twenty-six feet (7.9 m) wide and 5 feet (1.5 m) tall, it forms a colorful collage of Asian and African-American faces and symbols. The work was installed in 1990–91. Painter Goodnight and ceramics artist Yoneoka met in court while the two were separately pursuing lawsuits regarding illegal destruction of their previous works.^[13][14][15]

The western wall of the station was covered with mural by Sivia López Chavez in 2019. The work – part of a Northeastern University art program – depicts a woman blowing bubbles on a brightly colored backdrop.^[16]

History[]

Ruggles station opened on May 4, 1987 and was built as part of an Orange Line realignment project which relocated the former Washington Street Elevated Orange Line service into the Southwest Corridor. Commuter rail service to the station began on October 5, 1987.^[1] Located where there had not previously been a station, Ruggles was built to serve Northeastern University and the Longwood Medical Area, and to replace Dudley Square station as a major bus terminal for the Orange Line.^[8]

The busway was originally paved with asphalt, which soon eroded from the stopping and starting of buses. In 1988, the MBTA paid $430,000 to repave it with more-durable concrete.^[17] The upper busway was closed for one year ending on February 6, 2006 for a $3.2 million rehabilitation.^[18]

Urban ring proposal[]

Ruggles was a proposed stop on the Urban Ring Project.^[19] The Urban Ring was to be a circumferential bus rapid transit (BRT) Line designed to connect the current radial MBTA rail lines, to reduce overcrowding in the downtown stations, but it was canceled in 2010.^[20] Under draft plans released in 2008, the urban ring would have approached Ruggles from the west on a reserved surface right-of-way on the north side of Ruggles Street. Buses would have used the existing bus loop; the existing side access from Tremont Street would have connected to dedicated bus lanes on Melnea Cass Boulevard.^[21]

Second commuter rail platform[]

The deteriorated and closed northern half of the existing commuter rail platform (left) and the under-construction second commuter rail platform in 2019

A number of smaller projects in the corridor have been approved; among them is adding a second commuter rail platform to serve track 2 at Ruggles, thus allowing all commuter rail trains to stop there. Initially, about 30% of inbound commuter rail trains bypassed the station, as reaching the platform required crossing over to track 1 or track 3. The MBTA began consideration of a second platform in 1993, just six years after Ruggles opened.^[8][22] A preliminary study in 2008 recommended a full-length 800-foot platform located entirely east of the busway bridge.^[23]

The MBTA began holding public meetings in 2012, with the new platform now to be located next to the existing platform. It will be split in two sections connected by a short pedestrian tunnel under the busway bridge; the gap will be short enough to allow all doors on a train to still open onto the platform.^[24] In September 2014, the MBTA received a $20 million TIGER grant for the project, which is estimated to cost $30 million in total. Besides the new platform, work will include lighting and security upgrades, elevator improvements, and rehabilitation of the deteriorated northern half of the existing platform, which is blocked off from use.^[25]

By March 2016, the project was at 90% design and expected to reach 100% design by mid-2016, when it would be advertised for bidding. Construction was set to begin in late 2016 and last through 2018.^[24] In December 2016, the MBTA Fiscal and Management Control Board approved a $1.6 million expansion of the project scope to include reconstruction of the lower busway, elevator replacements, additional station entrances, an additional busway elevator, and other accessibility improvements.^[26] Bidding took place in May and June 2017; on June 26, the Board approved a $19.7 million construction contract (lower than the $22 million projected cost).^[27]

A groundbreaking ceremony for the project, which is expected to cost $38.5 million in total, was held on August 22, 2017.^[28][29] Construction was then planned to last from 2017 to 2019 (later revised to 2020).^[26] Reconstruction of the lower busway began in April 2018.^[30] Replacement of the first two of four station elevators (the Orange Line platform elevator and the Forsyth Street elevator) began on November 12, 2019.^[31][32] The Orange Line elevator was completed on March 1, 2021, with the commuter rail platform elevator then closing for replacement.^[33] The new commuter rail platform opened on April 5, 2021 – in connection with new schedules that had all trains stopping at Ruggles – with the new busway elevator opening the same week.^[34][35] The Forsyth Street elevator reopened on May 11, 2021.^[36] As of May 2021, the remaining two elevators are expected to be completed in August 2021.^[37]

Bus connections[]

Buses in the lower busway in 2016

Ruggles also serves as a major transfer point and terminal for MBTA bus services. Most routes enter a deboarding platform from Ruggles Street and proceed to a below-grade boarding area which exits back onto Ruggles; some routes enter and/or exit on a side connection to Columbus Avenue and Tremont Street.

• 8: Harbor Point–Kenmore station
• 15: Fields Corner station or Kane Square–Ruggles station
• 19: Fields Corner station–Kenmore or Ruggles station
• 22: Ashmont station–Ruggles station via Talbot Ave
• 23: Ashmont station–Ruggles station via Washington Street
• 28: Mattapan station–Ruggles station
• 43: Ruggles station–Park Street station
• 44: Jackson Square station–Ruggles station
• 45: Franklin Park–Ruggles station
• 47: Central Square, Cambridge–Broadway station
• CT2: Sullivan Square station–Ruggles station
• CT3: Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital–Andrew station

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ruggles station.

• MBTA – Ruggles
• MBTA - Ruggles Station Platform Project
• Google Maps Street View: Forsyth Street entrance, Ruggles Street entrance, Columbus Avenue entrance