South Station Bus Terminal

The South Station Bus Terminal, owned by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, is the main gateway for long-distance coach buses in Boston, Massachusetts. It is located at 700 Atlantic Avenue, at the intersection with Beach Street, in the Chinatown/Leather District neighborhoods. The facility is immediately south-southwest of the main MBTA/Amtrak South Station terminal, and is located above the station platforms and tracks.

Design

The bus station building has a mixture of glass and metal on its exterior, with mainly a red-granite stone and metallic-surfaced interior. Situated just south of and separate from the main South Station train terminal, the bus terminal is strikingly vertical in design, with five floors. Entry is via a long escalator, or a large glass-sided elevator with exterior views. The passageway from the upper entrance lobby towards the main hall has a series of large dark-tinted windows overlooking the railway tracks below.

The station contains a variety of amenities for waiting passengers. These include a newsstand and snack cart; free 15-minute public parking on the roof, and restrooms. Like other major transportation facilities, it also contains full service ticket counters, seating areas, and a waiting hall with designated gates leading to individual buses.

*Floor 1: main entrance, walkway to South Station Rail Terminal
*Floor 2: Security, MBTA Transit Police
*Floor 3: bus platforms and boarding gates, concourse, food and concessions, restrooms,
*Floor 4: offices, conference room
*Floor 5: 15-minute free parking (parking entrance from Kneeland Street)

Bus companies

, the terminal is used by ten companies:
*Boston Express: services to Nashua and North Londonderry, New Hampshire
*C&J Bus Lines: service to Dover, New Hampshire
*Concord Coach Lines: services to Portland, Midcoast, and inland Maine; services to Concord and northern New Hampshire
* Dartmouth Coach: service to Hanover, New Hampshire (Dartmouth College)
* DATTCO: seasonal service to Newport, Rhode Island
*FlixBus: service to New York City
*Greyhound Lines: services to New York City via Providence, Rhode Island, and via Hartford, Connecticut; services to Albany, New York, Bangor, Maine, and Montreal
* Megabus: services to Burlington, Vermont, and New York City
*Peter Pan Bus Lines: services to Albany, Hyannis, Massachusetts, New York City, Providence, Rhode Island, and Woods Hole, Massachusetts
* Plymouth & Brockton Street Railway: services to Hyannis and Woods Hole

History

Previous terminals

Regional and intercity bus service from Boston began in the mid-1920s. A number of small terminals, most in the Park Square area, were used by different companies. These were gradually consolidated into two major terminals.

The Boston and Worcester Street Railway (B&W) opened a terminal at 10 Park Square by 1930. It was rebuilt in 1946 with off-street bus parking. At that time, it was also used by the Boston and Maine Transportation Company, New England Transportation Company, Quaker Stages, and Quaker City Bus Company. New England Trailways began using the terminal by 1949. Trailways purchased the terminal in 1958 and renamed it Trailways Bus Terminal. Other companies that used the terminal over the following decades included Almeida Bus Lines, Concord Coach, the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway, the MBTA, Medeiros Bus Company, Michaud Bus Lines, Peter Pan Bus Lines, Rhode Island Bus Company, and Trombly Motor Coach.

On May 19, 1980, the terminal was closed to allow street reconfiguration and construction of the State Transportation Building. Trailways and its affiliates (Concord, Michaud, Peter Pan, and Trombly) moved to a temporary facility at South Station, then to a new $1.1 million terminal at 555 Atlantic Avenue in Dewey Square on November , 1980. In 1986, Trailways discontinued most of its remaining service in New England. Peter Pan took over the routes and renamed the station as the Peter Pan Bus Terminal.

Greyhound Lines opened a terminal at 10 St. James Avenue in 1950, replacing a 1935-built terminal at 222 Boylston Street (60/80 Park Plaza). The terminal was also used at various times by Bonanza Bus Lines, Plymouth and Brockton Street Railway (P&B), Short Line, and Vermont Transit. Greyhound drivers went on strike on March 2, 1990. Bonanza and P&B drivers did not want to cross picket lines, so the companies moved to curbside operations nearby. Bonanza bought a used van for use as a ticket office. That June, the company moved to Dartmouth Street in front of Back Bay station. On November 10, 1992, Greyhound and Vermont Transit moved to a temporary terminal at South Station.

South Station

Planning

City officials proposed a large parking garage with a bus terminal at South Station, the city's largest railroad terminal, in July 1958. At the time, the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad was sharply cutting service as new highways were opening. That December, Mayor John Hynes proposed a 1,700-space garage and bus terminal over the western tracks of the station. Construction of a bus terminal and trucking terminal at South Station was again proposed by a state commission in 1961.

In the mid-1960s, the proposed redevelopment of South Station – including a possible bus terminal – became mired in controversy. The Boston Terminal Company (a terminal railroad subsidiary of the New Haven and the New York Central Railroad that owned the station) filed in late 1964 to sell the property to the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA). By that time, the railroads owed $2 million in back taxes for the station. The city, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, and Boston Patriots owner Bill Sullivan sparred over who would redevelop the property – and crucially, whether the development would pay taxes to the city. The BRA reached an agreement in August 1965 to purchase the station and took ownership on December 31, 1965.

Usage

Redevelopment plans for South Station ultimately fell through. The BRA sold the station to the MBTA in 1979 and was renovated in the 1980s. The MBTA approved the design for a bus terminal with a single parking level in December 1990. A construction contract for the $81 million project was awarded in September 1992. The new bus terminal opened on October 28, 1995, though ticketing facilities were not completed until 1996. Its 29 gates were fewer than those available at the three terminals it replaced. The companies using the Greyhound and Peter Pan terminals moved in immediately, while Bonanza did not begin using the terminal until December 3.

The set of companies using the terminal has changed over time. Concord Coach subsidiaries Dartmouth Coach and Boston Express began service to the terminal in 2000 and 2007. DATTCO took over American Eagle (successor to Medeiros) service in 2004. That year, Chinatown bus lines Lucky Star/Travel Pack and Fung Wah Bus Transportation switched from curbside stops in nearby Chinatown to South Station. Low-cost carriers BoltBus and Megabus began using the terminal in 2008.

Fung Wah was shut down by federal regulators in 2013 due to safety issues; its berth at South Station was redistributed to another operator. Its planned return to operation in 2015 was cancelled because the company could not obtain a new berth at the terminal. BoltBus ended all service in July 2021. FlixBus began service to the terminal in April 2022 and took over Lucky Star service to Boston that November. DATTCO ended year-round service to Boston in 2023 but began operating seasonal service in 2024.

The terminal is being expanded as part of the South Station Tower project.

References

External links

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MBTA – South Station Transportation Center Improvements
*South Station Bus Terminal on bus company websites
Boston ExpressC&JConcord Coach LinesDartmouth CoachFlixBusGreyhoundPeter Pan Bus

Bus stations in Boston