Route 128
 Providence, RI | Northeast Regional | Back Bay, MA  |
| Acela Express |
The Route 128, MA is the Amtrak station for suburban Boston located as the name says on its inner-crescent loop road (not a full one, the Atlantic Ocean gets in the way). The original station opened in 1953 by the New Haven Railroad as a Park & Ride Station for the then new Route 128 Expressway. It was later rebuilt in 1965 and again between 1998 and 2000 when the present station was built including a four-level parking garage replacing the surface lot, plus the addition of high-level platforms. Every Amtrak Northeast Regional and Acela Express train to or from Boston stops at the station, it is that popular. Although a few rush hour MBTA Commuter Rail trains do skip the station.
The stop has two high level for the two-track electrified main line. These platforms begin just under the overpass of Route 128/I-95/US-1 and run south. The platforms are nearly fully canopied for where trains stop although the extreme southern ends are open to the elements. The canopies are white held up by blue painted posts. There are quite a few silver shelters with windscreens on multiple sides and a bench inside to provide shelter to passengers waiting for trains on the platforms.
The platforms both have an equal amount of Amtrak colored and Commuter Rail colored signage that is a bit unusual looking. The secondary name is not used by Amtrak but Amtrak also calls the station Westwood, MA. Most users just say 'Route 128' and nothing else.
The platforms contain a modern Amtrak train information system that will say Boarding when a train is on approach to the station to get passengers to go out to their respective platform and Last Call when the train has actually arrived in the station.
To leave the station there is a multi-level station house built directly into the side of the four-level parking garage. This multi-level station house on the first level contains the main Amtrak waiting area - The Amtrak Lobby - with simple silver benches, a ticket office and a Dunkin Donuts (that says Westwood runs on Duken, the name of the town the station is actually in). On one side automatic doors lead out to a ramp and steps up to the adjacent Outbound, Washington DC-bound platform. The opposite side contains direct entrances to level one of the parking garage, that includes the black text for Exit – University Avenue. The garage also includes an Amtrak/MBTA Pick-up & Drop off on its first level. Inside the station building adjacent a bank of two escalators leads up to the upper story of the station house at the same level and with a direct entrance to level 3 of the garage. There are also two banks of elevators, plus stairs that connect all 4 levels of the parking garage.
Level 3 of the station building (with doors leading directly out to level 3 of the garage) is the level with the pedestrian bridge to the Boston-bound platform. This level is designed for waiting MBTA Commuter Rail passengers - The MBTA Commuter Rail Lobby on signs - since these passengers are normally going to Boston instead of points south. All Boston-bound Amtrak trains are discharge only at Route 128, and were receive passengers only in the opposite direction until very recently although as of about 2020 you can now buy tickets from Boston to Route 128 on Amtrak. This level contains additional seating in a circular rotunda with a skylight. This rotunda has a bunch of Amtrak-style (white text on a blue background) signage indicates that there are MBTA Self-Service Ticketing Machines and a place for Parking tickets that doesn’t having any parking pay stations. There is other signage for a MBTA Commuter Rail Ticket Office on this level that I couldn’t find on a 2024 visit.
To reach the Boston-bound, Inbound platform a fully enclosed with blue walls and glass windows pedestrian bridge leads out of level 3 from the depot. There is first an additional combined staircase/up escalators across from an elevator access to the bridge from the Outbound platform. This bridge then continues across the tracks before leading to a single elevator plus a combined staircase/up escalator down to the Boston-bound platform.
The station’s 4 level parking garage contains two entrances the entrance from Blue Hill Drive includes a sidewalk with access to some strip mall development (including a Courtyard by Marriott hotel) just south of the station, along with a few office parks. This entrance includes access to the Passenger Pick-up and Drop-off area. There is a second entrance only for vehicles parking from University Avenue where it is already the beginning of a trumpet interchange to the Northbound Lanes of Route 128/I-95, Blue Hill Drive becomes ramps to the Southbound Lanes of Route 128/I-95.
Photos 1-7 taken on 25 August, 2005; 8-67: June 19, 2024;
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Last Updated: September 15, 2024
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Canton Jct.