Pawtucket/Central Falls
The new Pawtucket/Central Falls Station opened January 23, 2023 as a replacement station serving these two cities which the Northeast. The station replacemed a previous station that closed in 1981 (when all Commuter Rail Service ended in Rhode Island when the state decided not to fund it) that was literally on the border of the two cities. This previous station was slightly north of the current station and had a deteriorated and condemned station house with simple platforms accessed by stairs when it closed in 1981. The South Attleboro Station just over the border in Massachusetts but servicing the same market opened in 1990 to avoid service having to get stuck in Rhode Island budgeting decisions.
The new station opened on January 23, 2023 on the former the Providence and Worcester Railroad yard. The station is fully located within the confines of the City of Pawtucket Pawtucket but the exit to the north side of the station is signed for the City of Central Falls since its border is just a few blocks away.
The station is in a slightly depressed open cut. The stop has two high-level side platforms for both of the two electrified Northeast Corridor tracks, just to the north is a third unelectrified track that is a basically a freight train lead track used by the Providence & Wooster Railroad that branches off of the Northeast Corridor within Central Falls to head north to Wooster. This freight lead track makes the Providence-bound platform basically an island platform for access purposes although there is no platform for the freight lead with the platform resembling a side platform at track level.
The station has two very distinctive entrances connected by a fully enclosed with glass and red painted beams footbridge. The northern end and start of this footbridge is from a small Kiss and Ride Loop just off of where Barton Street curves and Becomes Weeden Street. This is the ‘Central Falls’ side of the station although technically within the city of Pawtucket. From here a ramp with glass leads up from street level and provides the only entrance to the footbridge and the entire station from this drop-off loop.
The middle exit from the footbridge is two fully roofed including glass windscreens surrounding staircases and two elevators in black colored elevator shafts (go redundant elevators! They should be a requirement for new transit stations) down to the Providence and Wickford Junction-bound platform. This platform is bare for other passenger amenities and exposed to the elements except under the footbridge, with just simple modern silver lampposts.
The footbridge continues before arriving at a staircase straight ahead with a long fully enclosed single-switch-backing ramp down to the edge of the sidewalk that is the Pawtucket/Central Falls Transit Center. This Transit Center contains a single passenger boarding area with a tactile yellow warning strip and a number of bus bays. Bus connections includes a stop on the R-Line Bus Rapid Transit Line to Downtown Providence. A building for the station within the Transit Center was originally proposed but valued engineered out of the original station design although it will probably be added at the station in the future. There is a decorative silver lettering on a red sign for the Transfer Center. These bus bays are entirely accessed via Pine Street that has a turn-around loop and Kiss and Ride Area just north of the Transit Center.
The Boston-bound platform has a short 112 foot long canopy (held up by red structural beams), but is otherwise exposed to the elements. Access to the Boston-bound platform, except for a single staircase that connects with the single staircase that leads off the footbridge is entirely via ramps (which is why there is no direct staircase from the footbridge). An exposed ramp at the southern end of the platform leads up to the end of the bus bays, a covered ramp – the canopy is shared with the platform – is beneath the footbridge. This ramp arrives at the middle of bus bays area right near the end of the ramp and stairs down from the footbridge. A final third and fourth ramp lead up a short distance from the northern end of the platform area before meeting up with a secondary sidewalk at ground-level that leads to the pick-up and drop off loop or down to the edge of the station’s bus bays.
The station does have a small (and overflowing because of the closer and now service reductions at South Attleboro) 211 space free park and ride lot. This lot is located just south of the station’s bus loop off of Pine Street and Goff Avenue, with all connections via sidewalks on either side of the station’s bus loop.
As a modern MBTA station platforms are both equipped with signs listing the next 3 trains, there are also smaller "Train Approaching...Stand Behind Yellow line" beeper style sings (that have similar messages to the original signs but are modern orange LED displays) to provide passenger warnings for high speed Acela Express Trains zooming through the station
Photos 1-54: June 20, 2024;
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Last Updated: September 15, 2024
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Providence