Savin Hill (MBTA station)

SAVIN HILL
Savin Hill platform and glass headhouse in November 2015
Coordinates	42°18′39″N 71°03′13″W / 42.3109°N 71.0535°W / 42.3109; -71.0535Coordinates: 42°18′39″N 71°03′13″W / 42.3109°N 71.0535°W / 42.3109; -71.0535
Owned by	Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
Line(s)	Red Line
Platforms	1 island platform
Tracks	2
Construction
Parking	20 spaces (2 accessible)
Disabled access	Yes
History
Opened	November 1845 (original station) November 5, 1927 (rapid transit)
Closed	1926 (original station)
Rebuilt	May 9, 2004 - July 31, 2005
Traffic
Passengers (2013 daily)	2,440
Services
Preceding station   MBTA   Following station JFK/UMass toward Alewife Red Line Ashmont Branch Fields Corner toward Ashmont

Savin Hill is a rapid transit station on the Ashmont Branch of the MBTA Red Line, located at 121 Savin Hill Avenue adjacent to Sydney Street in Dorchester, Massachusetts. It serves the nearby neighborhood of Savin Hill and adjacent areas in Dorchester. Opened in 1845 as a commuter rail station, Savin Hill was converted to rapid transit in 1927 and rebuilt in 2004–05 for handicapped accessibility.

The Old Colony Railroad opened from Plymouth to South Boston in November 1845. A station was built at Savin Hill, located just north of the modern location. In December 1872, the Old Colony opened its Shawmut Branch to Milton, which added local service to Savin Hill. Around that time, the station was moved to its modern location just south of Savin Hill Avenue. The new station featured a brick building on the west side of the tracks and a wooden building on the east side (the Old Colony had left-hand running until 1893, so the larger brick building was originally on the inbound side). The station was served only by local trains on the outer tracks, while express trains used the inner tracks.

After just 54 years, commuter rail service on the Shawmut Branch ended in September 1926. The Boston Elevated Railway, which had bought the line, began converting it into the Dorchester Extension, a rapid transit extension of the Cambridge-Dorchester Tunnel line. Savin Hill, located on the Old Colony mainline, was rebuilt as a rapid transit station as part of the extension. The commuter rail platforms and station buildings were removed. Savin Hill reopened on November 5, 1927 along with Columbia and Fields Corner as part of the first phase of the extension.

In 1934, the Boston Elevated Railway requested the addition of a busway on the west side of the station. Construction on the busway and a pedestrian overpass to the platform began in August and finished in December 1934. Fare control was relocated to the platform level; a platform extension to the south was constructed - without interrupting train service - to accommodate this. When the bus routes were diverted away from the station in 1962, the busway was converted to a parking lot.

Savin Hill station was further modified during the remainder of the 20th century with the removal of the waiting room in the 1970s and a longer platform extension in the late 1980s to allow 6-car trains. By the end of the century, however, it still contained the most original structure of any of the pre-war stations on the line. However, like the rest of the stations on the branch, Savin Hill was not handicapped accessible, placing it in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.