Early 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. A number of stations have served Lynn, including a series of stations near the current location at Central Square as well as a number of other stations around the city. The first depot at the Central Square location, built in 1838, was a small wooden building. Trains were ordered to not stop at Lynn for several days out of concern that the citizens of Lynn would cause additional incidents. Its line ran between its namesake cities; running through
Charlestown on Chelsea Street,
Chelsea and
Revere on Broadway, then along the
Salem Turnpike to Lynn. On November 19, 1888, the Highland Circuit route of the Lynn & Boston became the first electrified trolley line in Massachusetts.
Great Lynn Depot War When the Eastern Railroad prepared to build a new depot in 1865, a great deal of controversy erupted – an event later known as the "Great Lynn Depot War". One faction wanted the replacement station built at the same Central Square location, while another wanted it built at Knight's Crossing, a block southwest at Market Street. The Central Square faction was aided by a bill passed in the Massachusetts legislature on April 29, 1865, which disallowed a railroad from abandoning a station that had been in service more than five years, as well as an 1868 bill that specifically directed the Eastern Railroad to build the replacement station at Central Square. Both the Central Square and Market Street stations were in service by mid-1872, but it was untenable for the railroad to serve two stations just several hundred feet apart. The Market Street station was demolished in 1873 and replaced with a wooden shelter that served only a handful of trains. Service to East Boston had been replaced with direct service to Boston via the
Grand Junction Railroad in 1854, but Lynn–East Boston service was run from 1872 to 1880 to compete with the BRB&L. In 1880, the service was cut to a Revere–East Boston shuttle, which lasted until 1905. The B&M soon erected a temporary station at the site using part of the damaged station.
Bradford Gilbert was consulted for the design of the new station in 1890; after modifications by railroad officials, an 1892 design featured a polygonal clock tower and a large train shed. Construction of the new station ultimately began in early 1894. Designed by B&M architect
Henry B. Fletcher, it was different from the earlier plans. The main building, measuring , was on the north side of the tracks west of Silsbee Street; a eastbound station building was on the south side. They were built of
buff brick and brownstone, with marble flooring and slate roofs. The two
side platforms had -long wooden awnings with slate roofs. The main station building had a -tall square pyramidal clock tower. The new station buildings opened in March 1895 at a total cost exceeding $100,000 (); the old station was demolished soon after. As early as 1901, the city began planning to eliminate the numerous grade crossings in downtown Lynn. With 150 trains per day on the main line and 40 on the Saugus Branch, some streets were blocked for as long as half of daylight hours. After legal issues, construction of an elevated viaduct began in September 1909. However, the
New Haven Railroad briefly gained control of the Boston and Maine at this time, and intended to fully four-track the line through Lynn in conjunction with plans including a possible railroad tunnel under the harbor. The municipality initially intended to force the railroad to depress the four-track line below grade, but later reached an agreement with the railroad to modify the two-track viaduct for four tracks. The
Bay State Street Railway took over operations in 1911 and joined the
Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway in 1919. Trolley service in Lynn lasted until 1938. By the late 1977, the station was a "shambles", with "broken glass, garbage, vulgar graffiti and crumbling cement."
MBTA era By the late 1980s, the nearly-40-year-old station and the older platforms were crumbling. Since the Newburyport/Rockport line was no longer a freight clearance route past the
General Electric plant in West Lynn, a full-length high-level platform was built to replace the 1952 platforms. The wide platform occupied the width of one former island platform plus one former track slot, with the line's two current tracks on each side. The -long platform was located west of the older low platforms, which were still extant on the viaduct. Entrances to the platform were available from the garage and from Central Square. A 1,000-space parking garage with a drop-off lane was built off Market Street; buses continued to use the former busway on Mount Vernon Street at Central Square. Construction was 75% complete by early 1991. The facility ultimately opened on January 21, 1992, at a cost of $50 million. The station was constructed with two elevators and an escalator to platform level. The escalator was no longer functional by 1995; it was later walled off along with one elevator. Along with the pair at
Framingham, the remaining elevator was one of the few on the commuter rail system maintained by the MBTA, rather than by
Amtrak or local agencies. In 2003, the MBTA spent slightly less than $100,000 to rehabilitate the deteriorated garage and to convert the drop-off lane into a full busway with shelters, benches, and signage. In late 2005, the MBTA spent $168,000 for repairs to the garage roof, which frequently leaked during rain. The 1992 station was built with new
concrete ties supporting the tracks connecting to the station, which proved less durable than expected. In September 2008, the MBTA board authorized a $1 million tie replacement and slope stabilization project at the station. In 2015, the Lynn garage had the lowest utilization rate of MBTA garages, partially due to safety concerns and partially because it was built to support future Blue Line demand. In 2011, 20 security cameras were added to the station as a reaction to several assaults in the garage. In August 2016, the MBTA began a $6.1 million improvement project at the station. The work includes drainage improvements, sidewalk and cobblestone replacement, stair and elevator repairs, painting of the garage structure to prevent rust, structural repairs to the garage, expansion joint replacement, and platform repairs. It was expected to be completed by November 2016. Lynn and River Works stations were changed from fare Zone 2 to Zone 1A (allowing subway-fare rides to Boston) from May 22–31, 2020, and July 1, 2020 – June 30, 2021 to provide additional travel options during the COVID-19 pandemic (as many of the
400-series bus routes were reduced in frequency) and to examine the impact of temporary fare changes. The change was found to have diverted just 8 daily riders to commuter rail, and the stations reverted to Zone 2 on July 1, 2021.
2020s renovation The MBTA began planning a major station renovation in 2019; a $3.1 million design contract was awarded in 2021. Design reached 15% by the end of 2021. The $72.5 million project would include a new island platform with elevators at both entrances. The new platform would be somewhat west of the old platform, with a new entrance west of Market Street. On December 20, 2021, the east end of the platform and the Central Square entrance were temporarily closed. Service on the inner portion of the Newburyport/Rockport Line was suspended for several periods in March–September 2022 to accommodate signal work on the line. However, the station closure was delayed to later in 2022 after complaints by local and state officials. The station closed on October 1, 2022. A shuttle bus ran between Lynn and Swampscott, where Zone 2 tickets were temporarily accepted. Demolition of the south half of the platform took place in late 2022 and from August 2023 to January 2024. Demolition of the northern portion will take place in mid-2024. , the new permanent station is not expected to be complete until 2030, a timeline that was criticized by local officials. In June 2024, the MBTA indicated that "The location of the permanent station is currently being re-evaluated to meet the future needs of the MBTA and the City of Lynn." A design firm was selected in 2025.
Blue Line extension Lynn is intended to be the terminus of a future
extension of the MBTA Blue Line, which would bring the line an additional from
Wonderland in Revere to Lynn. This extension has been proposed in various forms for over 90 years. The 1926
Report on Improved Transportation Facilities and 1945–47
Coolidge Commission Report recommended that the East Boston Tunnel line, which had been converted to rapid transit from streetcars in 1924, be extended to
Lynn via the Boston, Revere Beach & Lynn right-of-way. Ever since the 1954 Revere extension was cut short to Wonderland, a further extension to Lynn has been planned. Following on the 1926 and 1945-47 studies, the 1966
Program for Mass Transportation recommended that the Blue Line be extended to Lynn, while the 1969
Recommended Highway and Transit Plan proposed that the extension run as far as
Salem. An extension was not present in the 1972
Final Report of the Boston Transportation Planning Review, but the 1974
Transportation Plan revived the project with possible termini of Lynn, Salem, or even Route 128 in Peabody. Stairways from the Chatham Street to the station site still exist, although no station building remains. The 1896 depot was disassembled in 1912 in preparation for the downtown grade separation. It was moved to
Durham, New Hampshire, where it now serves as the
University of New Hampshire Dairy Bar and
a station stop on Amtrak's
Downeaster service. A
West Lynn station was located at Commercial Street at the junction with the Saugus Branch Railroad, and Green Street was briefly located just east of Central Square. Neither the West Lynn nor Green Street buildings remain. The Boston, Revere Beach & Lynn also served its own Lynn depot (a block away from the Eastern Railroad station) at Market Street near Broad Street, as well its own West Lynn station adjacent to the Eastern Railroad station just east of Commercial Street. Passenger service on the branch ended in May 1958; the branch is now abandoned and being turned into
a rail trail. None of the station buildings survive, though the surviving Cliftondale station in Saugus was identical to the East Saugus station.
River Works station is located in West Lynn on the Newburyport/Rockport Line. Opened on September 9, 1965 as G.E. Works, it is for the sole use of
GE Aviation employees.
Swampscott station, located just outside Lynn in
Swampscott, Massachusetts, also serves passengers from East Lynn. ==References==