Community College station

Community College station is located under the double-decked elevated Interstate 93 at the southwest edge of Charlestown, Boston, just south of Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) and west of New Rutherford Avenue (Route 99). East Cambridge and the NorthPoint development are to the southwest, with the MBTA Commuter Rail Maintenance Facility and the Inner Belt District industrial park to the northwest and highway ramps to the southeast. The station has two island platforms and three tracks. Only the west platform is in use; inbound (southbound) tracks use the west track, with outbound trains using the center track. The east platform and track are not used for revenue service. A fare mezzanine is located over the tracks at the south end of the station. The mezzanine is connected to the north sidewalk of the Gilmore Bridge, which carries Austin Street over the Orange Line and the North Station approach tracks. A footbridge also connects the mezzanine directly to BHCC. ==History==

Previous stations For much of the 19th century, the four major northside railroads (the Fitchburg, Boston and Lowell (B&L), Boston and Maine (B&M), and Eastern) did not share any trackage on the approach to Boston. (Not until North Union Station in 1893 did they share a depot). For some period after the Fitchburg's Boston terminal replaced its Charlestown terminal in 1848, a flag stop was made at the Prison Point Bridge. The Charlestown Elevated section of the Boston Elevated Railway's Main Line opened in June 1901, with three elevated stations in Charlestown. The Thompson Square station was located one-third of a mile east of the current station along Austin Street at Main Street, while the City Square station was located half a mile south along Rutherford Avenue at Chelsea Street. The elevated was unpopular with many local residents, as it was noisy and blocked out sunlight to Main Street. In 1917, the elevated structure was slated to be replaced with a more permanent subway line along the same Main Street routing, but this project was canceled by the US's entry into World War I. Community College station In the late 1960s, the MBTA began work on the Haymarket North Extension project. It included a tunnel segment north from through a new underground stop at North Station, then under the Charles River to a portal south of the Gilmore Bridge. From there, the extension was built along the Haverhill Line commuter rail right of way. Community College station was built to replace the two elevated stops nearby in Charlestown. The new route opened to Sullivan Square on April 7, 1975. Routes and , which had terminated at City Square, were not extended to Community College; route 111 was instead extended to Haymarket, while route 112 was rerouted to . In 1987, the MBTA considered construction of a parking garage at the station. The station was not originally accessible. An elevator to the main platform, reached by a footbridge between the platforms, was constructed as part of the Big Dig. Bidding took place in 2002. Shaft framework was installed for the unused second platform, but no elevator machinery was installed. The renovations were completed around 2005. The entire Orange Line, including Community College station, was closed from August 19 to September 18, 2022, during maintenance work. The brick surface of the entrance plaza was replaced with concrete in May–June 2024 to improve accessibility. ==References==