Bowdoin
Bowdoin is the terminus of the Blue line and is accessed via a single entrance in a small concrete brutalist style headhouse perched into a plaza in the small Cardinal Cushing Park along Cambridge Street. This entrance as a staircase and up escalator that lead to a small fare control area. The main entrance to the platforms is via a short ramp down to the junction of the two curving platforms that form a wedged shaped island platform that are part of the former streetcar loop Blue Line trains use to reverse to this day. There is also a short secondary staircase up to the fare control area from the Exit Platform only. This narrow loop is one of the main reasons Blue Line trains are only 48 feet long compared to 60 foot long trains on the Orange and Red Lines. The platforms are different lengths, all 6 cars of a 6 car train can platform on the terminating westbound platform. Only 4 cars of a 6 car train can platform on the originating outbound platform and this stop is the only place where push to open door buttons on the sides of Blue Line trains are ever used to facilitate not opening doors into an empty tunnel. The platforms have simple yellow tiled walls and lots of tiled pillars all from the station's 1968 rebuilding. After the completion of a full rebuilding of the Wollaston Station, Bowdoin Station is the last stop both the Blue Line and the entire network of 3 MBTA Subway Lines to not be wheelchair Accessible.
The station has been proposed for elimination for years since the stop is less than a 1/4 mile away from Government Center and also has a sharp curve and not all doors of a 6 car train can open on the platform where trains enter service. The station in the 1980s was briefly closed during budget cuts and later became a weekdays only subway station (open only until 6:30pm on Weekdays and closed on weekends). Tt was stated to be renovated out of existence by the reopening of a western entrance during the renovations of Government Center. The stop received service full-time for the first time since the early 1980s on March 22, 2014 when Government Center closed for a full rebuilding into an ADA accessible station. Due to budget cuts it was decided to not reopen the west entrance to Government Center during this rebuilding. So Bowdoin has remained open after March 21, 2016 when the now fully accessible Government Center station re-opened. The Government Center renovation made Bowdoin the last not ADA accessible station on the Blue Line. The stop also remained open after Government Center reopened at all hours of operation for the Blue Line operates, which remains the service pattern as of 2021, with the MBTA no longer having any part time subway stations.
Photos 1-12 taken on June 27, 2011; 13-29: August 2, 2021; 30-43: June 20, 2024
