Prudential (MBTA station)

PRUDENTIAL

Outbound platform at Prudential station
Location Huntington Avenue near Belvidere Street
Back Bay, Boston
Coordinates 42°20′44″N 71°04′54″W / 42.34556°N 71.08167°W / 42.34556; -71.08167Coordinates: 42°20′44″N 71°04′54″W / 42.34556°N 71.08167°W / 42.34556; -71.08167
Owned by MBTA
Line(s)
  Green Line "E" branch
Platforms 2 side platforms
Tracks 2
Construction
Disabled access Yes
History
Opened February 16, 1941[1]
Previous names Mechanics
Traffic
Passengers (2013) 3,643 (weekday average boardings)[2]
Services
Preceding station   MBTA   Following station
toward Heath Street
Green Line
toward Lechmere

Prudential is an underground light rail station on the MBTA Green Line "E" branch, located below Huntington Avenue next to the Prudential Tower complex near Belvidere Street in Boston, Massachusetts. Prudential station is fully handicapped accessible, featuring low raised platforms and elevator service to the Huntington Arcade of the Shops at Prudential Center at the base of the Prudential Tower.

History

Streetcars on Huntington Avenue at Mechanics Hall in 1920
Mechanics station shortly before opening

The first tracks on Huntington Avenue east of Brigham Circle were laid at least as far as Massachusetts Avenue around 1883.[3] By the time the line was electrified in 1894, tracks were in place on Huntington Avenue all the way to Copley Square. Surface cars were rerouted into the Public Garden Portal when the Tremont Street Subway opened in 1897. By 1903, a service from Park Street to Arborway - the "E" Branch as it would run for eight decades - was fully in place.[3] Service was shifted to the Boylston Street Portal in 1914.

By the 1930s, auto traffic through Copley Square and Boylston Street (which, unlike Huntington Avenue, lacked dedicated medians for trolleys) caused major delays to streetcars. Mechanics station (named for nearby Mechanics Hall) and Symphony station were opened on February 16, 1941, as the two new stations of the Huntington Avenue Subway project.[1] The project was constructed by the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression and allowed streetcars from Huntington Avenue to go underground through Copley Square, cutting 15 minutes off trip times.[3]

Mechanics station was renamed Prudential on December 3, 1964 upon completion of the Prudential Tower.[1]

For many years, Prudential and Symphony were MBTA standard fare control stations like other underground stations in the system. However, as a cost-cutting measure they were changed to be the only two underground stops on the Green Line where riders paid upon boarding the train, rather than when entering the station. This was changed again in June 2006, when the MBTA installed the Charlie Card / Charlie Ticket electronic fare collection system at Prudential and Symphony, allowing fares to be paid at the station entrances as with other underground stations on the system.

Station layout

G Street level Exit/Entrance
P
Platform level		 Side platform, doors will open on the right
Outbound ← "E" Branch toward Heath (Symphony)
Inbound → "E" Branch toward Lechmere (Copley) →
Side platform, doors will open on the right

Bus connections

Prudential is served by two local MBTA Bus routes:

References

  1. 1 2 3 Belcher, Jonathan (23 March 2013). "Changes to Transit Service in the MBTA district" (PDF). NETransit. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  2. ↑ "Ridership and Service Statistics" (PDF) (14 ed.). Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. 2014. Retrieved 26 June 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 Greer, Michael (6 December 2002). "Streetcars in Jamaica Plain: A History". Jamaica Plain Gazette. Jamaica Plain Historical Society. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
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