Tufts Medical Center station

File:Outbound SL5 Bus at Tufts Medical Center station, August 2024.jpg

The station was constructed under a city block that had been previously cleared for the South Cove urban renewal effort. This gives it several important differences from {{bts|Chinatown}}, {{bts|Downtown Crossing}}, and {{bts|State}} along Washington Street to the north, which were all threaded among existing underground structures. Because it was easier to dig deeply on the empty plot, Tufts Medical Center station has a subsurface fare mezzanine, rather than having faregates located immediately adjacent to the platforms. The platform areas are much wider and taller than the older stations, and the inbound and outbound platforms are directly opposite each other, rather than offset.

The station was not constructed directly under Washington Street; it is angled towards Tremont Street to the west, as the line then curves towards {{bts|Back Bay}}. Unlike the older stations, there is a single headhouse on the west side of Washington Street rather than smaller entrances on both sides of the street. This entrance is located under an overhang of a Tufts Medical Center building. There is a secondary entrance without elevator access, located on Tremont Street at Oak Street. Adding elevators to the South Cove entrance was considered by the MBTA in 2017.{{cite web |url=http://www.mbta.com/uploadedfiles/Riding_the_T/Accessible_Services/Accessible_Services_List/SWA%20Initiatives_December%202016%20Update_12.5.16.pdf |title=MBTA System-Wide Accessibility Initiatives: December 2016 Update |publisher=Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Department of System-Wide Accessibility |first=Laura |last=Brelsford |date=December 5, 2016 |page=10 |access-date=January 24, 2017 |archive-date=February 2, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202015230/http://www.mbta.com/uploadedfiles/Riding_the_T/Accessible_Services/Accessible_Services_List/SWA%20Initiatives_December%202016%20Update_12.5.16.pdf |url-status=dead }}

Tufts Medical Center serves both routes ({{MBTABus|SL4}} and {{MBTABus|SL5}}) of the Washington Street section of the Silver Line, which operates between downtown and {{bts|Nubian}}. Silver Line buses stop at the primary station entrance on Washington Street. The station is also served by MBTA bus routes {{MBTA bus links|Tufts Medical Center|yes}}.{{MBTA bus links/mapcite}}

Artwork was added to the station as part of the Arts on the Line program. Four abstract works, titled Caravan, are displayed beside each of the two escalators to the train platforms, They consist of painted aluminum shapes designed by Richard Gubernick, who also has artwork displayed in LaSalle station in Buffalo, New York.{{cite web |url=https://cdn.mbta.com/sites/default/files/Art/orange-line-art-120817.pdf |title=On the Orange Line |publisher=Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority}}{{cite web |url=https://www.richardgubernick.com/bio |title=BIO |first=Richard |last=Gubernick}} At each station between Forest Hills and Tufts Medical Center, two granite columns near the outside entrance have been inscribed with text. Those at Tufts are "Mr. Yee is in the Garden" by Maria Gordett and "The Great World Transformed" by Gish Jen.

File:South Cove Tunnel construction, March 1971.jpg

In 1914, the Boston Transit Commission considered constructing a station at Bennet Street where the Washington Street Tunnel rose to the surface to meet the Washington Street Elevated. The proposal was rejected due to the steep grade and the proximity to Boylston station.{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/firsttwentyfourt1914bost |title=Twentieth Annual Report of the Boston Transit Commission for the Year Ending June 30, 1914 |year=1914 |chapter=Appendix E: Report on Station at Bennet Street |pages=[https://archive.org/details/firsttwentyfourt1914bost/page/67 67]-70 |author=Boston Transit Commission |via=Internet Archive |publisher=City of Boston}}

In September 1968, the MBTA began construction of the shell of a station - then called South Cove - and the South Cove Tunnel during what were to be the early stages of the abandoned Interstate 695 project, in anticipation of the future relocation of the Washington Street Elevated. The relocated Orange Line was to run in the median of the extended I-95 in the Southwest Corridor, then replace service on the Needham Line to Needham. Due to a lack of available federal funds, the MBTA financed the $13.3 million project with local bond funds. The tunnel (which reached to Marginal Street) and the station shell were completed in 1972.{{cite book |title=Application of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority for a Mass Transportation Capital Improvement Grant for a South Cove Tunnel under the Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964, As Amended and/or the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1973 |publisher=Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority |date=February 20, 1975}}{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/65380687/the-boston-globe/ |title=Notice of Public Hearing |newspaper=Boston Globe |date=January 31, 1975 |page=28 |via=Newspapers.com}} {{open access}} However, I-695 was cancelled due to local opposition in 1971; the Elevated remained in service, and the South Cove Tunnel and station sat unused.

After the plans for I-95 to be extended into downtown fell through in 1973, the state began looking to use the Southwest Corridor for a combined Orange Line and commuter rail corridor. In 1975, the MBTA applied for $29 million in federal grants to extend the South Cove Tunnel to just past Arlington Street and to finish the interior of South Cove station. Construction began in earnest on the Southwest Corridor in 1979. In 1985, as part of a series of station name changes, the MBTA board voted to name the station New England Medical Center, with South Cove retained as a secondary name.{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/54291295/the-boston-globe/ |title=T board votes to change the names of some stations |newspaper=Boston Globe |date=July 27, 1985 |first=Douglas S. |last=Crocket |page=26 |via=Newspapers.com}} {{open access}} The station opened on May 4, 1987, along with eight other stations from Back Bay to Forest Hills.

Silver Line service on Washington Street between Nubian and Downtown Crossing started on July 20, 2002, replacing the former route 49 bus. Additional service to South Station (now signed SL4) began on October 15, 2009. The station was renamed to Tufts Medical Center on March 19, 2010, after the New England Medical Center similarly changed its name.{{NETransit}}{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48780297/the-boston-globe/ |title=MBTA prepares to do some serious name-dropping |newspaper=Boston Globe |first=Jeffery |last=Krasner |date=April 26, 2008 |pages=A15, A16 |via=Newspapers.com}} ([https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48780247/the-boston-globe/ second page]) {{open access}} The entire Orange Line, including Tufts Medical Center station, was closed from August 19 to September 18, 2022, during maintenance work.{{cite web |url=https://cdn.mbta.com/sites/default/files/2022-08/2022-08-12-ol-gl-closures-a-riders-guide-to-planning-ahead.pdf |title=A Rider's Guide to Planning Ahead: Upcoming Orange & Green Line Service Suspensions |date=August 2022 |publisher=Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority}}

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• [https://www.mbta.com/stops/place-tumnl MBTA - Tufts Medical Center]
• Google Maps Street View: [https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3496218,-71.0638165,3a,75y,285.51h,83.99t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s31i4jra-tQh0zjjjt843ww!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 Washington Street headhouse], [https://www.google.com/maps/@42.348772,-71.0655002,3a,46.5y,80.92h,86.01t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sMaEcIICFI7CJecuGGSryUg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 Tremont Street headhouse]

{{MBTA Subway Stations}}

Category:Orange Line (MBTA) stations

Category:Railway stations located underground in Boston

Category:Railway stations in the United States opened in 1987

Category:Silver Line (MBTA) stations

Category:Chinatown, Boston

Category:Bus stations in Boston