Old Colony Railroad The
Old Colony Railroad opened through Quincy in November 1845.
South Quincy was a
flag stop for South Braintree trains by 1848. By 1857, a station was located just north of Water Street in southern Quincy. The station was known as
Quincy Adams (after President
John Quincy Adams, who was
born nearby) by late 1866. It was officially renamed in December 1867. A stone station building was constructed in 1869; it was identical to the still-extant station at Avon, which was built around the same time. It was located on the west side of the tracks just south of Water Street. (The Old Colony had
left-hand running until 1895, so the building was positioned to serve trains inbound to Boston.) The Water Street
grade crossing was eliminated in 1936 by the construction of a road bridge. The work was funded by the
Works Progress Administration and cost $380,000 (). State-funded construction of platform canopies and other improvements related to the crossing elimination took place in August through November 1937. The 1926
Report on Improved Transportation Facilities and 1945–47
Coolidge Commission Report recommended the
Cambridge–Dorchester line receive a branch to Braintree along the Old Colony right-of-way. Quincy Adams station closed along with the rest of the Old Colony system on June 30, 1959, and was later demolished. The station (renamed Quincy Adams) opened on September 10, 1983 as an
infill station on the Braintree Branch, which had been extended to Braintree on March 22, 1980. The station was completed by early 1983, but its opening was delayed until direct ramps between Burgin Parkway and the highways at the
Braintree Split were opened. The station ultimately cost $32 million to build. It has been
accessible since at least 1989. From their openings until 2007, a double entry fare and single
exit fare were charged at Quincy Adams and Braintree when leaving the subway, as a proxy for distance-based fares. The extra fares was discontinued as part of a fare increase and service change on January 1, 2007. Similar charges existed until 1980 for the inner stations on the Braintree Branch.
Renovations Until 2012, access to the garage had only been from ramps off
Interstate 93 and
Route 3, with the Burgin Parkway entrance leading only to a 160-space surface lot. In July 2012, after the closure of the garage at
Quincy Center due to structural issues, the 130-space lower level of the garage was made accessible from Burgin Parkway as well. Although built to last 50 years, the $28 million garage at Quincy Adams began suffering concrete damage due to water leakage and ill-fitting structural elements. In 2015, the MBTA began a $4.4 million project to address urgent structural issues with the two garages, though full repair or replacement was still needed. The garage was fully renovated from May 2018 through December 2021 at a cost of $35 million; the station and garage were originally planned to remain open during the whole project. The garage was closed from October 5, 2020, to April 20, 2021, when it partially reopened. A separate $10.5 million project, which began in August 2018, involved the replacement of the two existing garage elevators and single platform elevator plus the addition of a redundant platform elevator. One garage elevator was completed in late 2020, followed by the new platform elevator in 2021. The second garage elevator was completed in early 2022, followed by the replacement of the existing platform elevator in October 2023.
Independence Avenue entrance Until December 2018, the only pedestrian access to the station was via the
park and ride garage off Burgin Parkway. The MBTA opened a pedestrian entrance on the east side of the station leading to Independence Avenue in 1981. However, the streets surrounding that entrance were frequently used for parking by riders seeking to avoid paying for the parking garage. In the late 1980s, the entrance was closed, leaving neighborhood residents without station access. Some neighborhood residents climbed over the gate to use the station. The entrance was a point of contention between the cities of Quincy and Braintree; in February 2014, officials from the two towns proposed that a lock system be created where only nearby residents could enter from Independence Avenue. The garage improvements included repairs to the pathway from Independence Avenue, but the MBTA claimed that the entrance was a "city issue" and did not plan to reopen it as part of the project. In April 2018, the city announced that the gate would be opened by September of that year. The gate was ultimately opened on December 3, 2018.
Bus service The station was built with a busway (bus transfer facility) for
MBTA bus routes, with entry from Centre Street and exit to Burgin Parkway, but it has remained underutilized throughout the history of the station. The busway has never served as a terminal for any regular MBTA bus route, and only route uses it. The Quincy Adams service was considered successful; full-time service contracted by
Massport began on September 29, 1986, as the first route of what would become the
Logan Express network. In 1990, the terminal was moved from Quincy Adams to a parking lot near Braintree. • Two special MBTA routes were run from Quincy Adams and to the
Museum of Fine Arts during a
Monet exhibition at the museum, which ran from February 7 to April 29, 1990. • Beginning in August 1999, Interstate Coach operated
reverse commute bus service from Boston to a business park in
Canton, with intermediate stops at and Quincy Adams. The service was operated by
Bloom Bus Lines after it acquired Interstate in August 2003, but discontinued in July 2004. • Beginning with the
1994 season, the MBTA subsidized private-carrier service from , Alewife, Riverside, and Quincy Adams to
Foxboro Stadium for
New England Patriots home games. Service from the latter three stations lasted until the
2000 season. ==Notes==