Owned by MBTA Connections MBTA Bus: 15, 41, 191 Fare zone 1A Opened 5 October 1987 Rebuilt 23 January 2007 Tracks 2 | Line(s) Fairmount Line Disabled access Yes Address Boston, MA 02125, USA Connection MBTA Bus Platforms in use 2 | |
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Location 691 Dudley Street
Dorchester, Massachusetts Similar Four Corners/Geneva Ave, Morton Street, Talbot Ave, Plimptonville, Forge Park/495 | ||
Uphams Corner is a commuter rail station on the MBTA Commuter Rail Fairmount Line, located on Dudley Street in the Uphams Corner area of the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It was reopened in 1979 after the line had been closed for 35 years. The station is fully handicapped accessible with two full-length high-level platforms and ramps to the street, which were added during a construction project that finished in 2007. The Uphams Corner business district is within easy walking distance.
Contents
Original station
Service on the Fairmount Line (as the Dorchester Branch of the Norfolk County Railroad and later the New York and New England Railroad and New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad) began in 1855, although it was frequently out of service until 1867. The service included a stop at Stoughton Street near Uphams Corner; a Cottage Street station was also briefly located a block to the north. The station was renamed Dudley Street in the 1880s after the street was renamed between the railroad and Uphams Corner.
In the 1900s, the station was rebuilt, with buildings on both sides of the tracks connected by a pedestrian tunnel. Between 1925 and 1933, the station was again renamed as Uphams Corner, possibly to avoid confusion with Dudley Street Terminal Undercut by streetcars, buses, and the Elevated for decades, service on the line ended in 1944.
MBTA station
The Dorchester Branch (also known as the Midland Route) was reopened as a bypass on November 3, 1979 during Southwest Corridor construction, including stops at Uphams Corner, Morton Street, and Fairmount. Uphams Corner was originally built at minimal cost, with small low-level platforms and staircases to Dudley Street. Intended to be only in service for several years, the station was not handicapped accessible.
Uphams Corner and Morton Street were dropped on January 30, 1981 as part of systemwide cuts. Service over the route was intended to be temporary; however, it was popular with residents of the communities the line passed through. When the Southwest Corridor reopened on October 5, 1987, the Fairmount shuttle service was retained, with Uphams Corner and Morton Street reopened.
The station was rebuilt in 2005-2007 as part of the larger Fairmount Line Improvements project, which also included four new stations along the line. A groundbreaking was held on April 14, 2005. The rebuilding included new full-length high-level platforms, ramps to Dudley Street, canopies, and new lighting and signage. The new, fully handicapped-accessible station was officially reopened on January 23, 2007.
In the mid-2010s, Uphams Corner station became locally known for high rates of heroin use at the lightly used and largely unpatrolled station.
Bus connections
Nearby Uphams Corner has long been a transfer point between streetcar and bus lines. Two regular bus routes serve the station directly via Dudley Street:
Additionally, the 191 - Mattapan - Haymarket via Ashmont, Fields Corner and Dudley route (a single early-morning round trip for fare collectors) stops at the station, as do a pair of rerouted afternoon route 16 trips for school service. (All other route 16 trips, as well as all route 17 trips, instead stop several blocks to the east of the station at Uphams Corner itself.)