Orange Line
Downtown Crossing northbound
Looking north toward the Franklin St. end of the northbound platform
Downtown Crossing northbound
Looking south toward the Summer St. end of the platform. This station used to be called "Summer", with the adjacent southbound platform station "Winter" and the Red Line station "Washington" — each platform named after its respective cross-street.
Downtown Crossing northbound
The station is a confusing warren of passages, some inside fare control and some outside.
Downtown Crossing northbound
Downtown Crossing northbound
Main northbound fare array and exit to the Summer St. Concourse. Filene's Basement had a direct entrance from the concourse, and I think the Roche Bros. supermarket still does. (I didn't leave the fare-paid area on this visit.)
Downtown Crossing northbound
Stairs to the cross-under for access to the southbound platform (and also a fare-paid connection to Park Street and the Green Line, although it's not signed here)
Downtown Crossing northbound
Looking south through the tunnel you can see the southbound platform, which is entirely offset from the northbound side due to the narrowness of Washington Street, under which the subway runs. This was all built as cut-and-cover, as was common in 1911, and consequently there is no mezzanine.
Downtown Crossing northbound
These "armrests", widely decried by advocates as hostile architecture, were a recent addition to these much older wooden benches. The MBTA claims that they are required for accessibility (and updated their access design guidelines to say so).
Downtown Crossing northbound
This trip was taken during the public engagement period for the bus network redesign, which was ultimately approved by the board in November, 2022.
Downtown Crossing northbound
Because there is no room in the Washington St. right-of-way for an pre-payment concourse, the Franklin St. entrance has a separate fare array.
Downtown Crossing northbound
Looking north up the tunnel. State station, the next stop, is offset vertically as well as horizontally.
Haymarket station fare array
The Green and Orange Lines run parallel between Haymarket and North Station, but the connection is so inconvenient that Green Line passengers are better off using surface streets to enter the Green Line station directly. The Orange Line station is located below the Haymarket Center, a combination tunnel ventilation building, state office building, parking structure, and public market hall.
Forest Hills station
A southbound train of #14 cars terminates at Forest Hills. It will shortly turn around and depart for Oak Grove, but you can tell from the destination sign at left that the driver hasn't switched ends yet.
Forest Hills station
Forest Hills station
And now it's gone... next northbound train is boarding on the opposite track (but the signs don't tell us when it's scheduled to depart)
Forest Hills station
See the illuminated "NEXT TRAIN" sign with an arrow, hanging over the staircase
Forest Hills station
Looking north from the end of track 1 at the terminal crossover
Forest Hills station
Big axial fans to ventilate the platform area should a train pull into the station while on fire (a sadly common occurrence with the old #12 cars)
Forest Hills station
The north headhouse has only stairs and an elevator, no escalators.
Forest Hills station
Southwest Corridor Park
Southbound train approaching Forest Hills
This train is on track 5, so it's heading to Needham
Forest Hills station
Northbound Orange Line train taking the terminal crossover to the northbound track
Forest Hills station
Photo was taken in the middle of a drought, so all of the grass was brown and dried up. Looking back at the new north headhouse; part of the original headhouse, across the street, can be seen behind it
Forest Hills station
Looking north along the Southwest Corridor; tracks are (L–R) OL2, OL1, 5, 3, 1, 2. As at Back Bay, the mainline tracks follow the New Haven Railroad's numbering system.
Forest Hills station
The main, original, south headhouse is located across Arborway, a busy highway that you probably wouldn't want to cross if you didn't have to. There used to be an overpass here, blocking the view; the pedestrian tunnel to the north headhouse was built ad s part of the street reconstruction that also demolished the overpass.
Forest Hills station
A new apartment complex called "Velo JP" sits opposite the station at the corner of Washington St. and Arborway.
Forest Hills station
Even after reconstruction, Arborway is not a pleasant street to cross.
Arborway bus garage
Looking up Washington St. towards the Arborway bus garage, which is located on the former site of the Arborway carhouse, where various streetcar routes in Jamaica Plain, Roxbury, and Dorchester once terminated. Before the Southwest Corridor project, the Washington St. Elevated ran past the carhouse to its own terminus and streetcar interchange station, east of the current station.
Forest Hills station
Washington St. mysteriously turns into Hyde Park Ave. when you get south of the station. Washington St. picks up on the west side of the tracks (which are in an open cut) but the two segments are not actually connected. (The railroad used to be on a viaduct here.)
Forest Hills station
The station has two busways, identified as "upper" and "lower". The upper busway is on the far side of the station building, but at grade with the station.
Forest Hills station
Looking across the Arborway at the new north headhouse, where the huge Casey Overpass used to be. Where I'm standing was originally built with a trolley loop for the Green Line E branch, but the E Line was "temporarily" suspended through Jamaica Plain when the Southwest Corridor opened and never resumed. In the late 1990s the remainder of the embedded track was removed during street repaving, but the trolley loop remained and was used by the 39 bus.
Forest Hills station
It was a bit of a walk from the old trolley loop to the north entrance of the (then only) headhouse.
Forest Hills station
This "pedal & park" is supposedly the very first one built by the MBTA.
Forest Hills station
Walking around the west side of the station toward the upper busway
Forest Hills station
Inside the station, my first reaction was "cruciform" but the aerial photos don't quite bear that out.
Forest Hills station
There is a great deal of natural light inside, if only at ground level (track level not so much).
Forest Hills station
These digital service status displays were part of a recent project to improve in-station customer information.
Forest Hills station
That's a bit of an uncomfortably narrow stair down to the platform. Since this station historically only serves Needham Line trains, that wasn't considered an issue in 1987.
Forest Hills station
It's ... dark on this platform. (It's actually not as dark as this photo makes it seem, because the human eye is more adaptable than the camera.
Forest Hills station
Zooming in on the same picture, you can see the turnout that allows track 3 to access the Needham Line.
