Symphony (MBTA station)

SYMPHONY
Outbound platform at Symphony station
Location	Massachusetts Avenue at Huntington Avenue Boston, Massachusetts
Coordinates	42°20′34″N 71°05′06″W / 42.34278°N 71.08500°W / 42.34278; -71.08500Coordinates: 42°20′34″N 71°05′06″W / 42.34278°N 71.08500°W / 42.34278; -71.08500
Owned by	MBTA
Line(s)	Green Line "E" branch
Platforms	2 side platforms
Tracks	2
History
Opened	February 16, 1941
Traffic
Passengers (2013)	1,711 (weekday average boardings)
Services
Preceding station   MBTA   Following station Northeastern University toward Heath Street Green Line "E" Branch Prudential toward Lechmere

Symphony is an underground light rail stop in Boston, Massachusetts on the "E" branch of the MBTA Green Line. It is located at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Huntington Avenue. Symphony is the outermost underground station on the "E" branch; after leaving Symphony, outbound trolleys emerge onto the surface and continue down the median of Huntington Avenue. Symphony station is named after the nearby Symphony Hall.

This station is not wheelchair accessible. Planned but currently unfunded renovations would make the station fully accessible.

The station opened February 16, 1941 as part of the Huntington Avenue Tunnel, which was a Works Progress Administration project that eliminated streetcars from Boylston Street and Copley Square in order to ease congestion. The tunnel ran from just west of Copley to just east of Opera Place, with intermediate stations near the major performance halls at Mechanics and Symphony.

Symphony station was built with its two halves separated by the Huntington Avenue underpass, constructed at the same time. A sub-passage connected the two platforms; it was sealed off in the early 1960s when the MTA converted the station to no longer need employees present. Each platform had two entrance/exit stairways on opposite sides of Massachusetts Avenue, each of which split into a pair of stairways to street level.

In August 1978, the MBTA board authorized $91,750 for new glass entrance shelters for the station. Around that time, as part of the construction of the Symphony Plaza Towers, the stairways serving the inbound side were realigned, with each stairway from the station connecting to a single angled surface stairway rather than the original two.