Anderson Regional Transportation Center

Anderson Regional Transportation Center
Amtrak inter-city rail station MBTA commuter rail station
Location	100 Atlantic Avenue Woburn, Massachusetts
Coordinates	42°31′03″N 71°08′38″W / 42.5174°N 71.144°WCoordinates: 42°31′03″N 71°08′38″W / 42.5174°N 71.144°W
Owned by	Massport
Line(s)	Amtrak:   Downeaster MBTA:   Lowell Line
Platforms	1 island platform
Tracks	3
Connections	Logan Express
Construction
Parking	Yes
Bicycle facilities	No
Disabled access	Yes
Other information
Station code	WOB (Amtrak only)
Fare zone	2 (MBTA Commuter Rail only)
History
Opened	April 28, 2001
Traffic
Passengers (2010)	1,239 weekday avg.[1] (MBTA)
Passengers (2014)	22,754[2]  16% (Amtrak)
Services
Preceding station   Amtrak   Following station Boston North Station Terminus Downeaster Haverhill toward Brunswick, ME MBTA Mishawum toward North Station Lowell Line Wilmington toward Lowell Winchester Center toward North Station Haverhill Line rush hours only Wilmington toward Haverhill

Anderson Regional Transportation Center (RTC) (noted on MBTA schedules and maps as Anderson/Woburn) is a train and bus station located at 100 Atlantic Avenue, off Commerce Way, in Woburn, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. It can be accessed from Exit 37C off Interstate 93 or the Washington Street exit off Interstate 95/Route 128.

It opened on April 28, 2001, replacing nearby Mishawum as Woburn's main Amtrak and MBTA station. It was named in memory of James R. "Jimmy" Anderson (1968–1981), whose death led to the Woburn Wells court case (Anderson v. Cryovac) chronicled in the film A Civil Action.^[3]

As of 2012, there are 30 commuter-rail departures to Boston each weekday, the most of any MBTA station outside Boston after Beverly, which has 31 departures, and Salem, which has 29. Of the eleven Amtrak stations in Massachusetts, Woburn was the seventh busiest in FY2010, boarding or detraining an average of approximately 40 passengers daily.^[4]

Design and facilities

Its services and facilities include:

• A stop on Amtrak's Downeaster service to New Hampshire and Maine
• A stop on the MBTA Commuter Rail Lowell Line, with inbound service to North Station in Boston
• Logan Express bus service to Logan International Airport
• Two large parking lots
• Bicycle parking
• A staffed ticket window
• A small concession and vending area
• A Dunkin' Donuts kiosk
• Well-lit, enclosed waiting areas
• Restrooms

Baker/Wohl Architects of Boston designed the depot, using motifs and design features of the region’s historic train stations as inspiration. The varying roofline and shed dormers help create an asymmetrical, picturesque composition typical of many Victorian-era depots. Other nods to Victorian design include the dark red and buff brick laid in a checkered pattern on the ground, as well as the use of red and gray shingles to create a pattern on the roof. All of these colorful design choices, especially the brickwork, are reminiscent of the polychromy popularized by architects such as Boston’s Henry Hobson Richardson. Inside, an atrium opens up to the floor above, and is encircled by a mezzanine that provides access to the upstairs offices and conference room. The cost of the $10 million facility was split among the MBTA, Massachusetts Department of Transportation (Highway Division), and the Port Authority of Massachusetts.^[5]

There are separate parking lots for overnight parking and for commuter rail (day-only) parking. The former is intended for airport and Amtrak customers and is more expensive. The Massport lot has 875 spaces and the MBTA lot has 1,500 spaces.

Connections

MetroNorth Shuttle service that connected the station to locations in Woburn, Burlington and Lexington ended in 2006, and the Manchester Shuttle service to Manchester-Boston Regional Airport ended in June 2008.^[6]

History

An outbound MBTA commuter train departing from Anderson RTC.

The station and the surrounding commercial-industrial area was redeveloped from the Industri-Plex Superfund site.^[7][8] The site is a former chemical and glue manufacturing facility. Industri-Plex was used for manufacturing chemicals such as lead-arsenic insecticides, acetic acid, and sulfuric acid for local textile, leather, and paper manufacturing industries from 1853 to 1931. Chemicals manufactured by other industries at the site include phenol, benzene, and toluene. Industri-Plex was also used to manufacture glue from raw animal hide and chrome-tanned hide wastes from 1934 to 1969. The by-products and residues from these industries caused the soils within the site to become contaminated with elevated levels of metals, such as arsenic, lead, and chrome. During the 1970s, the site was redeveloped for industrial use. Excavations uncovered and mixed industrial by-products and wastes accumulated over 130 years. During this period, residues from animal hide wastes used in the manufacture of glue were relocated on-site from buried pits to piles near swampy areas on the property. Many of the animal hide piles and lagoons on-site were leaching toxic metals into the environment. In the 1980s, the site contained streams and ponds, a warehouse and office buildings, remnant manufacturing buildings, and hide waste deposits buried on the site.^[9] The site was cleaned up using the capping technique, in which an impermeable layer seals the top of the hazardous waste site, preventing further pollution.

Attractions

• Easy access to Interstate 93 and Interstate 95/Route 128
• Nearby industrial park and large chain stores

Accessibility

• Anderson Regional Transportation Center is wheelchair accessible and has a full length, high-level, center platform that serves trains in both directions. There is an elevator in the station building that leads to an overpass and a long ramp to the platform.
• Amtrak stations on the Downeaster route are accessible with high platforms.
• Only selected MBTA commuter rail stations have wheelchair access and most of those have short elevated platforms that only serve one or two cars.

References

1. "Ridership and Service Statistics" (PDF). MBTA. 2010. Retrieved 2012-05-11. External link in |publisher= (help)
2. "Amtrak Fact Sheet, FY2014, Commonwealth of Massachusetts" (PDF). Amtrak. November 2014. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
3. "Anderson v. W.R. Grace". Seattle University School of Law. Retrieved 31 May 2015.
4. "Amtrak Fact Sheet, FY2011, Commonwealth of Massachusetts" (PDF). Amtrak. December 2011. Retrieved 2012-05-11. External link in |publisher= (help)
5. "Woburn Station". Amtrak's Great American Stations. Retrieved 11 December 2014.
6. "Manchester Shuttle". Manchester-Boston Regional Airport. Archived from the original on 2008-06-07.
7. "Review Recent Publications and Articles About the Industri-plex Project". Greenfield Environmental Trust Group. Archived from the original on 2007-05-31.
8. "MetroNorth: Digging up the Region's Most Challenging Projects". Archived from the original on 2011-10-09.
9. "Waste Site Cleanup & Reuse in New England: Industri-Plex". Environmental Protection Agency.

External links

• MBTA Anderson/Woburn station information

• Amtrak – Stations – Woburn, MA
• Woburn, MA (WOB) (Amtrak's Great American Stations)
• Station from Google Maps Street View