Station Layout
The Red Line platforms at JFK/UMass have an unusual configuration. It is the only MBTA rapid transit station where trains from different branches of a line serve two separate island platforms; the Ashmont and Braintree branches merge immediately inbound from the station. This peculiar platform configuration comes from the historical fact that the Braintree Branch trains all bypassed the original station, until a separate island platform was later built for that branch. So that inbound passengers do not have to guess which inbound platform wil be served next, an automatic illuminated sign at the fare mezzanine level indicates the correct platform for the next inbound train.
This unusual setup can be compared to the junction station at Kenmore, where pairs of tracks serve different Green Line branches from a separate inbound island platform, and a separate outbound island platform. The commuter rail stations at Back Bay and Canton Junction have separate platforms for different lines that diverge near those stations.
Read more about this topic: JFK/UMass (MBTA Station)
Famous quotes containing the word station:
“How soon country people forget. When they fall in love with a city it is forever, and it is like forever. As though there never was a time when they didn’t love it. The minute they arrive at the train station or get off the ferry and glimpse the wide streets and the wasteful lamps lighting them, they know they are born for it. There, in a city, they are not so much new as themselves: their stronger, riskier selves.”
—Toni Morrison (b. 1931)