A passageway and stairwell at State Street station has been significantly narrowed for months by wooden barriers.
(Christina Pazzanese for The Boston Globe)
Globe Watch
Behind the barriers at State Street T
A passageway and stairwell at State Street station has been significantly narrowed for months by wooden barriers.
(Christina Pazzanese for The Boston Globe)
With new questions arising this week about the overall safety and service conditions on the MBTA, reader John Kyper asks GlobeWatch about a lingering problem at the State Street station that he says “bedevils’’ him and countless other subway commuters.
“As you are doubtless aware, the northbound and southbound Orange Line platforms at the State Street station are located on different levels, separated by a long passageway. Since I work in City Hall, I often walk practically the entire length of the station, from the City Hall Plaza entrance to the southbound platform, when I am going home. When taking this route, I must descend two levels to the usually congested northbound platform, then walk along the narrow platform to one of three stairways (and an escalator) up to the passageway leading to the southbound platform.’’
“Early in the summer, however, this stairway was closed to the public, presumably because it had deteriorated to the point where it had to be repaired or replaced. This stairway was blocked off by bulky plywood partitions that have narrowed both the adjacent platform and passageway, creating a bottleneck for the many riders traveling through this station. There is no notice why it was closed or when we might expect the stairway to be open again.’’
A Globe reporter visited the State Street station earlier this week and found the wooden barriers did indeed create a troublesome bottleneck between the Forest Hills-bound platform and the rest of the station. Further complicating things, the station elevator is located at the edge of the narrowed walkway, making access quite difficult. The barriers appear to cordon off the rest of the walkway and a stairwell and now serve as a storage area and informal break area for workers. The station itself looked run down, with puddles of standing water, graffiti, and many missing wall tiles.
“For years, we’ve had to put up with the shabby appearance of the Blue Line platforms at State and its connection to the Orange Line - now this,’’ Kyper wrote. ’’ Those of us who ride the T every day - its ‘captive audience,’ so to speak - deserve better!’’
The MBTA responds
State Street station is undergoing renovations right now as part of the Blue Line modernization program, said Lydia Rivera, a T spokeswoman. The wooden barriers are being used to conceal workers who are making the lobbies of 53 State and 60 State St. handicapped accessible, she said. When the project is complete, there will be two new elevator entrances connecting to the station lobbies; ramps between the Orange and Blue line concourses; and new finishes, lighting, communications equipment and historic graphic panels on the walls, she said. The T is hoping work on the outbound platform will be done by next summer, with the entire project slated to be complete by fall 2010. Rivera said the T will place some signs on the wooden panels to better inform riders about the project.
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
