After taking the 41, we had two options: take the 39 down to Forest Hills, or make the 10 minute walk to Green Street. I figured I’d have plenty more chances to go to the former, whereas the latter is no longer served by any buses. So after a walk through a nice residential neighborhood, we ended up at Green Street Station.
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| The station’s headhouse. |
The station’s entrance is, unsurprisingly, on Green Street. Outside there are a few sheltered bike spaces, as well as an essay and poem about the neighborhood on a plaque. The headhouse is pretty nice, made of brick and glass.
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| The mezzanine. |
The station’s mezzanine is very big and spacious. There’s a big area even before the fare gates with a few benches and fare machines. Speaking of the fare gates, five of ’em is definitely more than needed here, which is great. Also, there’s weird art spread throughout the station – you have to look around to notice it, but it’s basically colored shapes suspended from various places. Pretty cool stuff.
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| The platform, looking down the middle. |
After the fare gates, the station becomes pretty much the exact same thing as Roxbury Crossing (and the other Southwest Corridor stations in general). There’s a staircase, an upward escalator, and an elevator that all lead down to the platform. And aside from a cool light fixture at the northern end of the platform, it’s the same thing as Roxbury Crossing. You can still hear – but not see – Commuter Rail and Amtrak trains going by (it happened here with an Acela), there are still pointless shelters in an already sheltered area of the platform, and the place is still tranquil, even more so than Roxbury Crossing. So even though we had to wait 10 minutes, it wasn’t that bad in the almost empty station.
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| A train coming in. |
Station: Green Street
Ridership: This station’s tranquility can probably be credited to the fact that it has the lowest ridership on the entire Orange Line, with about 3,600 riders per weekday. Most of these riders are probably locals from the surrounding area – large houses to the west, and smaller apartments to the east.
Pros: This is a really nice, quiet station. I love little neighborhood stations like this, with mostly small side streets around them. It’s busier than, say, Shawmut, but certainly still has that quiet element to it. The station is clean, and I like the art installations throughout.
Cons: Of course, this station suffers from the same problem as the rest of the Southwest Corridor: bland, 80’s architecture. And once again, those weird bench shelters are pointless.
Nearby and Noteworthy: There are some businesses to the immediate east of the station, including a café right across the street. And about a half mile to the west is Jamaica Plain Center, with lots of retail and a few bus connections (Green Street itself has none, though the 42 is three blocks to the east).
Final Verdict: 8/10
Having seen two Southwest Corridor stations, I think I like this one more. I can’t say I’m too sure why I’m more of a Green Street fan over Roxbury Crossing, but perhaps it’s because of how relaxed it is. It feels even more tranquil than the latter, though they’re about the same in most other regards.
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My favorite part is the orange signs that say "GREEN". No, sign you're not green, you're orange! Stop lying!
Haha! Yes! It's true! That's fantastic.
The station is actually called Green but the maps list it as Green Street. The old Green St station on Washington St was named Green St but the old maps listed it as Green.
LOL. Kudos for knowing that!
what about the poetry?
There are stone columns with poetry and short stories on them all the way through the Southwest Corridor Park from Back Bay Station to Forest Hills (I just looked it up and it’s 18 total). On a nice day you can walk the length of the park and read all of them. They were installed back in 1987 when the then-new Orange Line stations all opened.
A shame you didn't mention the small art exhibition space to the southeast side of the lobby, in what I think was intended to be retail space when the station was built! It's only open a few days a week but they've usually got something interesting from local artists going on there.
I really don’t like how the station is signed as “Green”. It’s part of a weird MBTA habit to take titles or specific locations off of station names (Butler, Prudential, State, etc.) that causes some station names to make no sense. “Green” station is the worst, since the signs are actually orange!
Interestingly enough, the announcements say it is green Street, however state street is just mentioned as state.
Also, i agree that the station should be signed as green street.
I also prefer the new orange line trains over the old ones, but they should have kept the wood paneling.
I think the idea behind the little shelters on the already-sheltered Orange Line platforms is that you can use them to get out of the wind, which does sometimes roar through the canyons made by the track corridors.
Btw, I just realized I’ve been working my way through here for a couple months now without mentioning how awesome this blog is. It’s really fun reading somebody else’s perceptions of these stations, and learning new facts about them as I go. This was a really great undertaking.