Wellesley Farms didn’t score particularly highly with me. Will the next station, Wellesley Hills, be an improvement? Let’s find out.

The station…from above.

There are two ways to get into this station. The first one is a staircase from Cliff Road, and it does its job fine. The other entrance is via the station’s parking lot, which has 51 spaces, and once again, residents of Wellesley get a significant discount. There are some newspaper boxes, bike racks, and a payphone at the parking lot entrance.

Down on the platform.

Well, the outbound platform is a sign, an ad, and a wastebasket. Nice. Crossing over via a weird boardwalk, we get to the inbound platform, which has everything on the outbound, plus…a bench! Okay, there’s also a station building that has a café in it, and that’s pretty awesome.

What have we here?

Oho, what’s this? A bus stop? Well, I do usually talk about bus connections in my reviews, so let’s see what kind of complex infrastructure the MWRTA 8 has here. The Woodland-bound stop is fine, but the Natick-bound stop is…problematic. AS IN THERE ARE PARKING SPACES IN ITS WAY! They really couldn’t eliminate just one or two to allow a tiny minibus to pull in on its awful terrible deviation-filled ridiculous route???????? I hate the 8, and I hate this stop!

Choo choo!

Station: Wellesley Hills

Ridership: This is the second-busiest Wellesley station, but it only beats Wellesley Farms by four people! Yes, this stop gets 562 inbound riders per weekday, compared to 558 at Wellesley Farms.

Pros: The building is nice, and I love that it has a café in it. The weird boardwalk makes it easy to cross over the tracks, and the station is well-integrated with the neighborhood around it.

Cons: This is a drab and pretty awful station. The outbound side gets nary a bench for people to wait on, so tough luck there, but it’s not like the inbound side is much better! I can imagine a ton of people huddling under the tiny shelter provided by the building during rainy morning rush periods. Of course, the station isn’t wheelchair accessible because of the low-level platform. Also, that bus stop…geez, that’s an awful bus stop.

Nearby and Noteworthy: There are some nice businesses along Washington Street. It’s nowhere near as awesome as the commercial center of Wellesley Square, but it’s something.

Final Verdict: 4/10
I’m not a fan of this one either. It doesn’t provide enough amenities considering the number of passengers it gets, and it just feels bleak. And of course, we have a strong contender for “worst bus stop ever,” from the good ol’ MWRTA!

Latest MBTA News: Service Updates