Butler (MBTA station)

BUTLER
An inbound trolley departing Butler in August 2016
Location	Butler Street and Branchfield Street Boston, Massachusetts
Coordinates	42°16′20″N 71°03′45″W / 42.272253°N 71.062453°W / 42.272253; -71.062453Coordinates: 42°16′20″N 71°03′45″W / 42.272253°N 71.062453°W / 42.272253; -71.062453
Owned by	MBTA
Line(s)	Red Line– Ashmont–Mattapan High Speed Line
Platforms	1 island platform
Tracks	2
Construction
Parking	40 spaces ($4.00 fee)
Disabled access	Yes
History
Opened	October 7, 1931
Rebuilt	June 24, 2006 - December 22, 2007
Traffic
Passengers (2010)	143 (weekday inbound average)
Services
Preceding station   MBTA   Following station Cedar Grove toward Ashmont Red Line Mattapan High Speed Line Milton toward Mattapan

Butler is a light rail station on the MBTA Ashmont–Mattapan High Speed Line, located at Butler Street in the Lower Mills section of the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It serves a small residential area sandwiched between the Neponset River, Cedar Grove Cemetery, and Dorchester Park. Butler station has no MBTA Bus connections. It is handicapped accessible via a wooden mini-high ramp on the station's single island platform.

In December 1847, the Dorchester and Milton Branch Railroad opened from Neponset to Mattapan and was immediately leased by the Old Colony Railroad as its Milton Branch (Neponset Branch). The Old Colony built its Shawmut Branch Railroad from Harrison Square to Milton in December 1872, joining the Milton Branch east of Butler. The area that is now the small Butler Street neighborhood was still empty land in the 1870s, but was developed by the late 1880s. The Old Colony Railroad became part of the New Haven Railroad system in 1893.

The lines never had a station at Butler Street due to its proximity to Milton proper, though a freight house for Milton was built at the Butler Street crossing in the 1910s.

Passenger service on the Shawmut Branch ended on September 6, 1926 to allow the Boston Elevated Railway to construct its rapid transit Dorchester Extension to Ashmont. Construction on a high-speed trolley line from Ashmont to Mattapan began in early 1929, and the line opened as far as Milton on August 26, 1929. The high-speed trolley line entered the center of the Milton Branch right of way on a flyover, and ran to Milton flanked by the Milton Branch tracks. Commuter rail service ended when the trolley line reached Milton, over the protests of Milton residents who wanted limited service kept while the trolley line was extended to Mattapan. After four more months of construction, the full trolley line was opened to Mattapan on December 21, 1929.