Hey, it’s an Old Colony station that actually has something noteworthy about it! It’s just too bad that one noteworthy thing is also terrible…but we’ll get to that. Here’s Halifax!
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| Coming into the station. |
It starts out pretty boring, though. The station is, of course, located in the complete middle of nowhere, although the tracks don’t go anywhere near Halifax’s center, so I’ll give it a pass. A long road leads to the station’s entrance and parking lot, with 402 spaces. There is also a bike rack near the entrance, with 8 spaces.
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| Looking down the platforms. |
The platforms are completely standard for the Old Colony. They’re high-level, with shelters, advertisements, screens, benches, and wastebaskets. The platform stretches into the woods for a while, with mostly signs and benches, although there is an extra shelter on one of the sides. Which side is it? Hang on…
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| The extra shelter. |
There’s no signage saying where the trains go! All passengers get is “Platform #1” and “Platform #2.” Maybe this is common knowledge and I just didn’t know it, but I had to use this page to figure out that “Platform 1” means outbound and “Platform 2” means inbound. Although strangely, our train to Boston boarded on Platform 2. Soooooo…now I’m confused…?
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| Hey, you’re on the wrong side! |
You are spot on in pointing out the confusing lack of signage! Inbounds and outbound actually both use platform 1 about 98% of the time. The rush hour passengers know this of course. There have been many off peak trips that had people over on platform 2. Understanding the confusing lack of signage, our crews wait for them to cross over once our train clears the crossing. Although people are usually sprinting frantically, its still a couple minute delay.
I’m pretty sure that at least at this point in time Platform 2 is just a siding, and probably an emergency one at that since I don’t think trains are ever scheduled to meet here. I’m thinking that it may have had more use when Plymouth Direct trains were a thing (i.e. trains that served only Plymouth station and terminated there rather than reversing back to Kingston afterwards), since being on that track already would eliminate the need to navigate through Seaside Interlocking. But this is mere speculation… Plymouth service was unfortunately discontinued before I had the chance to ride out there and experience the reverse moves for myself.