Ashmont station

ASHMONT / PEABODY SQ.
Ashmont in September 2012 after the completion of renovations
Location	1900 Dorchester Avenue at 200 Ashmont Street Dorchester, Massachusetts
Coordinates	42°17′03″N 71°03′50″W / 42.2843°N 71.0638°W / 42.2843; -71.0638Coordinates: 42°17′03″N 71°03′50″W / 42.2843°N 71.0638°W / 42.2843; -71.0638
Owned by	Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
Line(s)	Red Line– Ashmont   Red Line– Mattapan
Platforms	2 side platforms (Red Line) 1 side platform (Ashmont-Mattapan Line)
Tracks	2 (Red Line) 1 (Ashmont-Mattapan Line)
Construction
Parking	100 spaces
Bicycle facilities	"Pedal and Park" bicycle cage
Disabled access	Yes
History
Opened	September 1, 1928 (Red Line) August 26, 1929 (Ashmont-Mattapan High-Speed Line)
Rebuilt	October 21, 2011
Traffic
Passengers (2013 weekday average boardings)	2,036 (Ashmont-Mattapan Line) 9,293 (Red Line)
Services
Preceding station   MBTA   Following station Shawmut toward Alewife Red Line Ashmont Branch Terminus Terminus Red Line Mattapan High Speed Line Cedar Grove toward Mattapan

Ashmont station (signed as Ashmont/Peabody Sq.) is an intermodal transit station in Boston, Massachusetts. Located at Peabody Square in the Dorchester neighborhood, serves the MBTA's Red Line rapid transit line, the Ashmont–Mattapan High Speed Line, and the MBTA Bus system. It is the southern terminus of the Red Line's Dorchester Branch (Ashmont Branch), and the northern terminus of the Ashmont–Mattapan line. Ashmont station is fully handicapped accessible for all modes.

The first Ashmont Station was a simple building along the original Shawmut Branch of the Old Colony Railroad, which opened in 1872. That was when steam locomotives powered the passenger trains that continued into Boston with a stop at Fields Corner. The current intermediate Shawmut Station was not created as a train stop until the Shawmut Branch of the steam railroad (by then under the New Haven Railroad) was adapted to electrified subway service in the late 1920s and placed underground as it approached Ashmont Station.

When first built in 1928, no buses served the station; all lines ran streetcars. Specifically, the following Boston Elevated Railway streetcar lines operated to Ashmont (using post-1942 numbers), unloading on the east side and loading on the two west tracks on the west side:

Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway cars to Brockton also used the station.

Two streetcar lines serving the area west of Ashmont were bustituted soon after opening, later becoming the 25 and 26 buses. They were rerouted to Ashmont for faster access to downtown. A new busway was built on the west side of the station in 1929; this has since been connected to the old streetcar ramps. The first section of the Mattapan High Speed Line (originally 28) also opened in 1929, serving the easternmost track on the west side.