Salem (MBTA station)

History

After the railroads from Boston to Lowell, Worcester, and Providence were chartered in 1830 and 1831, railroads to other surrounding cities including Newburyport and Portsmouth were proposed.

The Eastern Railroad was chartered on April 14, 1836. Work began at East Boston in late 1836; construction was slowed by the Panic of 1837 and did not reach Salem until 1838.

Service from Salem to East Boston began on August 27, 1838, with fares half that of competing stagecoaches. A wooden train shed was built at Salem; since it was not certain whether the line would be extended, the shed was closed at the north end. Passenger accommodations were initially limited to a ticket office and waiting room in a nearby warehouse. A wooden station similar to those at Lynn and East Boston was soon constructed near Norman Street, with bells imported from Spanish churches. The two-story station had three pairs of columns mimicking a Greek temple, a common style for the earliest stations in the northeast United States. Within days of opening, the line was already seeing commuter traffic from Salem, and it has been a heavily used commuter stop since.

With the railroad receiving more traffic than expected, a branch line from Salem to Marblehead opened on December 10, 1839, replacing a stagecoach connection from Marblehead station on the mainline. Salem was the terminus of the Eastern Railroad until December 18, 1839, when the extension to Ipswich opened as the first phase of the line's completion to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The extension to Ipswich included a 718 feet (219 m) tunnel under Washington Street in Salem - one of the nation's first railroad tunnels.

On June 16, 1846, the stockholders authorized the sale of $450,000 of new stock to fund various branch lines plus new depots at Salem and Lynn. Gridley James Fox Bryant designed a massive stone structure, one of his first major commissions. Eastern president D.A. Neal requested the style after being inspired by a similar station - possibly English, possibly the 1844-built Leipzig Thüringer Bahnhof - during a European trip. The Washington Street side of the new station had two towers, resembling those of a medieval castle, flanking a granite archway which spanned three tracks. The wooden trainshed was constructed to the south, partially on piers over the South River (which was not filled until the 1880s). A massive sea wall was built to protect the station from flooding. The station opened on December 1, 1847. In 1851, Nathaniel Hawthorne described the station in The House of the Seven Gables:

...they now found themselves passing beneath the arched entrance of a large structure of gray stone. Within, there was a spacious breadth, and an airy height from floor to roof, now partially filled with smoke and steam, which eddied voluminously upward, and formed a mimic cloud-region over their heads.

The first 5 miles (8.0 km) of the Essex Railroad from Salem west to Danvers opened on January 19, 1847, with a wye connecting to the Eastern Railroad at the north end of the tunnel, and the remainder to North Andover in 1848. The South Reading Branch Railroad and the Salem and Lowell Railroad (a subsidiary of the Lawrence and Lowell Railroad) opened in 1850 and used the Essex's tracks to Salem. The South Reading Branch was built to compete with the Eastern for Boston-Salem traffic; it connected to the rival Boston and Maine Railroad at South Reading (Wakefield Junction). The Salem & Lowell and the South Reading Branch shared a station at the north end of the tunnel rather than using the Eastern's station, even after the Eastern acquired the South Reading Branch in 1851.

With direct connections to most of the major cities of northeastern Massachusetts by 1850, Salem became a major railroad junction. By the 1870s, a roundhouse, coaling tower, and water tank were located inside the wye to serve the three lines from the west. The roundhouse was later rebuilt with more stalls and access from the south to serve commuter trains.

On April 7, 1882, a fire resulting from an explosion of a can of fusees destroyed the wooden trainshed, although the granite facade and towers were intact. A wooden replacement was built around the burnt section. On December 2, 1884, the Eastern was acquired by the B&M. For several decades until the 1930s, Salem was the turnback point for a limited number of short turn trains.

It had become a local landmark by the time it was demolished in 1954. demolished in the mid-20th century; however, a signal tower near the north end of the tunnel remains. The granite block foundation of the roundhouse was covered over to make the parking lot rather than fully removed.

In 1958, the B&M extended the Salem tunnel to the south, and soon after built a station in the southern approach span. However, the station lacked modern elements like parking capacity and elevators to make the below-ground-level platforms handicapped accessible. In 1987, the MBTA abandoned the station and built the present station at the north end of the tunnel. The 1959 station building remains at 89 Margin Street; it has been converted into a private school. The platforms remain extant in the tunnel approach, as do rusted pieces of staircases from Mill Street and a pedestrian overpass behind the station building.

The section of the wye leading to the Essex Branch Railroad has been paved over, but the north side of the wye still carries occasional freight trains operated by Pan Am Railways. These trains run to Peabody along the former Essex Railroad, then to South Peabody along the short remains of the South Reading Branch.

Garage

Until July 2013, parking was available in a 340-space surface lot adjacent to the platform, which filled before the end of morning rush hour. In 2003, the MBTA began studying construction of a parking garage to alleviate this. In 2004, Salem was ranked as one of three highest-priority parking expansions on the system.

As part of environmental mitigation for increased urban auto traffic enabled by the Big Dig, the state was required to add 1,000 parking spaces to MBTA stations by the end of 2011. Garages at Salem and Beverly Depot were originally to fill this requirement, but when it became clear that neither would be finished in 2011, additional parking at Wonderland, Woodland, Savin Hill, the Quincy ferry terminal, and a surface lot at Beverly Depot were used to satisfy it. However, planning continued for a garage and new platform at Salem. Funding was provided by the Federal Transit Administration ($3.6M), the Massachusetts Department of Capital Asset Management ($3M to reserve 150 spaces for the Essex County Courthouse), the City of Salem, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the MBTA. Planners initially considered a garage of up to 750 spaces; after various changes, the five-story garage was built with 714 spaces.

Major planning was completed in 2012, with community input leading to the addition of brick facades to match local architecture, as well as an indoor waiting room. On August 24, 2012, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs granted the MBTA an exemption to the mandatory Environmental Impact Assessment, as the project was to be built entirely over an existing parking lot and was thus unlikely to have negative environmental effects. Besides the garage, the project included the construction of a standard 9-car-length (800-foot-long) high-level platform for faster, handicapped-accessible level boarding, as well as rehabilitation of the historic Salem interlocking tower nearby. The project was originally to cost $37 million, but increased to $44.5 million due to changes mandated by new earthquake codes, the brick facades, and a roof for the pedestrian walkway.

In early 2012, engineers found the remains of the roundhouse using ground penetrating radar while examining the site in preparation for the new parking garage. In November 2012, the MBTA closed part of the existing parking lot to excavate the remains, as required by the state Historical Commission. The Historical Commission unearthed the roundhouse foundation in early December 2012. A $32.5 million construction contract was awarded on December 8, 2012. Construction on the garage and station began in June 2013 and to finish in October 2014. The parking lot closed on July 20, 2013 for construction; a free lot opened later at the nearby former Universal Steel. A groundbreaking ceremony was held on September 13, 2013.

After several months of foundation work, construction of the garage itself began in May 2014. The garage and the first section of the high-level platform opened on October 24, 2014. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on November 17, 2014. Remaining work on the project - including the north half of the platform, the bus loop, passenger drop-off areas, traffic lights, and bike paths - lasted into the first half of 2015. In January 2015, a "Pedal and Park" secure bike cage with racks for at least 100 bikes opened. This was the first such installation at an MBTA station without rapid transit service.

By September 2015, the Salem garage was averaging 413 cars on weekdays. The Bridge Street lot reopened on October 16, 2015.

The high-level platform was replaced in segments in May and June 2016, as some parts been built with a higher cross slope than the ADA allows. The rework was done at the contractor's expense, as the MBTA's plans specified the correct lower slope. The waiting room has a tendency to flood during severe rains, a problem which the MBTA and the contractor began fixing in 2016 by adding a glass panel and new caulking.

Pedestrian access

Although parking demand at Salem is high, approximately half of riders walk or bike to the station from nearby neighborhoods. Existing access via the footbridge at Washington Street is inconvenient for many of these passengers, particularly those coming from areas northwest of the station via North Street and southwest via Bridge Street. Reaching the station from these areas or an off-street lot along Bridge Street often involves crossing at an unsignalised crosswalk with poor visibility around a curve. Unofficial trails paralleling the two streets from the parking lot entrance are used by many pedestrians, but these routes are not handicapped accessible and involve trespassing on private land and/or the lightly used freight tracks. In April 2013, the City released a study that recommended constructing sidewalks and gated track crossings along these desire lines to enhance pedestrian access. However, an official pedestrian route following the unofficial path north of the platform to the nearby Jefferson at Salem Station development was ruled out in March 2013 due to safety concerns. The route would have crossed the mainline tracks, where there may be as little as three minutes between trains at rush hour.

Branch line

The MBTA has contemplated adding a branch line from Salem through Peabody, terminating near the Northshore Mall or the Danversport area of Danvers. While the right of way to Peabody would be shared with existing freight service, the routes beyond that involve restoring tracks on the Salem and Lawrence Railroad or the Essex Railroad, both of which have been unused for decades. The MBTA's 2004 planning document classified the branch line as a "Medium Term" proposal, defined as an 11- to 20-year time frame for implementation. In comparison, the new parking garage and rehabilitation of the current station are classed "Short Term" and were completed in 2014.

The branch line is currently shelved due to the agency's financial problems, but it still exists as a future possibility. The former branch portal from the 1958 tunnel is still intact and would be reused if the line reopened. An easement for a single track was left when the new garage was built.

Bus connections

Salem is the terminus for seven MBTA Bus routes serving North Shore communities. A dedicated bus lane and a bus layover area to serve the routes were constructed along with the garage in 2014.