Suffolk Downs (MBTA station)

SUFFOLK DOWNS
Suffolk Downs station in February 2012
Location	1230 Bennington Street at Walley Street East Boston, Massachusetts
Coordinates	42°23′25″N 70°59′49″W / 42.3904°N 70.9970°W / 42.3904; -70.9970Coordinates: 42°23′25″N 70°59′49″W / 42.3904°N 70.9970°W / 42.3904; -70.9970
Line(s)	Blue Line
Platforms	2 side platforms
Tracks	2
Construction
Parking	110 spaces ($5.00 fee) 4 accessible spaces
Bicycle facilities	12 spaces
Disabled access	Yes
History
Opened	c. 1905 (BRB&L - Belle Isle) 1935 (BRB&L - Suffolk Downs) April 21, 1952 (rapid transit)
Closed	c. 1925 (BRB&L - Belle Isle) January 27, 1940 (BRB&L - Suffolk Downs) February 14, 1976 (outbound platform)
Rebuilt	January 3, 1984 June 24, 1995
Previous names	Belle Isle (c. 1905 - c. 1925)
Traffic
Passengers (2013)	1,125 (weekday average boardings)
Services
Preceding station   MBTA   Following station Orient Heights toward Bowdoin Blue Line Beachmont toward Wonderland

Suffolk Downs is a rapid transit station on the MBTA Blue Line located off Bennington Street on the east side of Orient Heights in East Boston, Massachusetts. It serves the Orient Heights neighborhood as well as its namesake, the now-defunct Suffolk Downs racetrack.

Originally a Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad station called Belle Isle and Suffolk Downs from the early 1900s to 1940, it reopened in 1952 as a rapid transit station on the Revere Extension of the East Boston Tunnel line (now the Blue Line).

With just 1125 daily boardings in 2013, Suffolk Downs is the least-used rapid transit station on the MBTA system. It is fully handicapped accessible.

The narrow gauge Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad (BRB&L) opened from East Boston to Lynn through Breed's Hill (not yet part of East Boston) on July 29, 1875; there was initially no station at the modern site. A stop named Belle Isle opened at Waldemar Avenue around 1905. Just 2,000 feet (610 m) from Orient Heights station, it closed around 1925 and suffered a number of fires in 1925 and 1926 caused by sparks from locomotives.

By 1928 the line was electrified, with pre-pay stations - more a rapid transit line than a conventional railroad. The station was reopened and renamed Suffolk Downs when the horse-racing track opened in 1935. Due to the Great Depression, the BRB&L shut down on January 27, 1940.

In 1941, the Boston Elevated Railway bought the BRB&L right of way from Day Square to Revere Beach for use as a high-speed trolley line similar to the Ashmont-Mattapan High Speed Line; these plans were delayed by the onset of World War II. However, the 1926 Report on Improved Transportation Facilities and 1945–47 Coolidge Commission Report recommended that the East Boston Tunnel line, which had been converted to rapid transit from streetcars in 1924, be extended to Lynn via the BBRB&L route rather than using it for a trolley line.