Red Line (Braintree branch)
Braintree station
Braintree station is the southern terminus of the Red Line, with a huge parking garage for hundreds of cars (under renovation at the time of these photos). The commuter rail station was added much later — service on the Old Colony was only restored in the late 1990s, two decades later, as a Central Artery/Tunnel Project mitigation measure.
Braintree station
Looking south again from between the two passenger tracks, a universal crossover in the distance allows trains from either track access to the Kingston and Middleboro branches, which continue as single-track lines to the left and right, respectively. A small yard at right allows a small number of Red Line trains to be stored overnight — original plans for the South Shore Extension called for the Red Line to go as far south as Weymouth.
Braintree station
North of the platform, the passenger tracks merge down to one, and eventually the freight track merges back in as well. Braintree Junction, about a mile north of here, is a full wye, allowing freight trains from Middleboro to access customers along the Greenbush branch as well as Quincy and Dorchester. Some plans for providing frequent service on the Old Colony call for Greenbush trains to turn south and terminate here, allowing a transfer to the Red Line or to more frequent Middleboro and Kingston trains which would require all slots on the single-track trunk line through Dorchester.
Braintree station
The Braintree garage project included adding additional elevators and altering the path of travel between the garage and the Red Line station. Most passengers here would be unlikely to pat the $6.50 fare for the commuter rail inbound, a hefty premium over $2.40 for the Red Line, so travelers using the commuter rail station are likely transferring.
Braintree station
Fare collection area of the Red Line station. When this station was originally opened, an exit fare was collected here in addition to the entrance fare; when I first came to Boston the exit fare was one token ($0.85) and the entrance fare was two tokens ($1.70) so regular commuters would have paid $3.40 round trip. A fare system revision in the 1990s eliminated the fare differential across the Red Line.
Quincy Adams station
Quincy Adams is another station on the Braintree branch of the Red Line with a huge parking garage. The former Lowe's property across the street, used for extra parking capacity at the time of these photos, will be demolished and replaced by a new Quincy bus garage. Quincy Adams is located just north of Braintree Junction, where the Greenbush Line meets the other two Old Colony lines, but does not have a commuter-rail station.
Quincy Adams station
The existing Quincy bus garage is a century-old streetcar barn and woefully inadequate to its current task. The MBTA acquired this property across Burgin Parkway from Quincy Adams station, a former Lowe's, to construct a new $400 million palace of a bus garage, which will ultimately house 120 battery buses.
Quincy Center station
Quincy Center is another station on the Braintree Branch of the Red Line, and a former terminus of the line for a brief period during the extension's construction. It formerly had a large parking garage, but this was demolished a few years ago to make way for a transit-oriented-development project that has yet to come to fruition. It is also a stop on the Old Colony commuter rail. This photo is looking south from the Red Line platform towards the south end of the commuter-rail platform.