Courthouse was a hidden gem of sorts. The station was absolutely beautiful, yet it had the second-worst ridership on the entire system. (I can now say that it’s graduated to third-worst! Hooray!) World Trade Center is pretty much in the same boat. It’s really beautiful, and has the fifth-worst ridership on the subway system. It’s an improvement, I suppose.

The station itself is enclosed, but it’s actually not underground. It’s still below grade, though, and so after it Silver Line buses have to rise up to D Street. Now, I really hate how buses don’t have control over the traffic light at that intersection, but I’m not going to fault the station for it. It’s more just poor planning for the route on the MBTA’s part.

The first entrance to the station. All photo credits for this post, by the way, go to my friend, Chloé Gilligan.

But anyway, the station. The first entrance is on a bridge which conveniently leads to both the big World Trade Center on one side and the massive Boston Convention and Exhibition Center on the other. The bridge also offers some fantastic skyline views. There’s a commemorative statue outside the entrance, as well as a wavy rooftop. It’s pretty modern and welcoming.

And the second entrance, taken from the median of Congress Street (we didn’t jaywalk to it or anything…)

Both entrances are conveniently accessed by the same elevator shaft. The second one is on Congress Street, and is more to provide access to the area around the station (the other one is mainly for the two Centers). It’s another modern entrance, though a bit more standard than the other one. Still, good stuff.

Looking down into the mezzanine. Unfortunately there aren’t any pictures of the mezzanine proper.

The fare-paying area was again nice and modern but pretty standard. It was a lot bigger than what’s probably needed, but you can’t complain about that. And once you get through the fare gates, you see the greatest MBTA art installation this side of the Kendall Band. It lines the entire wall of the mezzanine, and at first glance it just looks like a long picture of fish. But when you walk along it, the fish move. It was absolutely fantastic. Not to mention there’s another wave design above the fish, giving the whole mezzanine an underwater feel.

From there, it’s extremely easy to get down to the platform. Two sets of stairs, one inbound and one outbound. The platform is really nice, too. As I mentioned before, the station is partially above ground. so a lot of natural light gets in there. Even at night, there are big tall lights along the walls which probably keep the station lit up. Man, this and Courthouse are some of the best stations the MBTA has to offer. But don’t talk about the ridership…

An overview of the platform with two buses at the station, one of which has a purple destination board!

Station: World Trade Center

Ridership: Oh, no. Can we not? Let’s just end the review here, 10/10, thanks for reading. Sigh. Yeah, this station fares slightly better than Courthouse, with almost 1600 riders per weekday over the latter’s 1300. But that’s still really bad, World Trade Center, so don’t look so smug. I’d imagine most ridership here comes on event days at the WTC or BCEC, though there are also some apartments and a hotel near here.

Pros: Just like Courthouse, this station is absolutely beautiful. I think I might even like it more than its western companion, just because of those fish. Courthouse was awesome and all, but it didn’t really have any art, per se. WTC has the fish as well as the whole underwater theme, which makes it very unique.

Cons: Yeah, yeah, the ridership, blah, blah, blah.

Nearby and Noteworthy: The constant development in the Seaport District is astounding. Every time I visit a new building has sprung up. A lot of them are residential, though, and not especially noteworthy. This station is basically in a no-man’s land between Fan Pier (served by Courthouse) and Liberty Wharf (served by Silver Line Way). Still, there’s the WTC and BCEC, so on event days at either this is the station to use.

Final Verdict: 8/10
Courthouse got a 7, pretty much for the sole reason that it’s beautiful. Well, I actually like World Trade Center a little more than Courthouse in terms of beauty, plus it gets marginally better ridership. For that, I’ll throw in an extra point. 8/10!

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