QUINCY, MASS. (WHDH) - Nearly two years of renovations and millions of dollars later, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s Wollaston Station in Quincy reopened Friday morning.
Officials closed the station, which serves the Red Line, for about 20 months as crews made some much-needed upgrades to make it more accessible to people of all abilities for the first time since it opened in 1971.
“It looks great,” commuter Alisha Leu said. “It smells nice it’s beautiful, it’s easy, there’s not a lot of traffic right now so it makes the commute in a little easier.”
The $36 million project included the addition of three elevators, two escalators, more customer paths to and from the station, two extra stairways, new bathrooms, and energy-efficient lighting.
“I think it’s great,” commuter Colin Driscoll said. “This is my first time in since it was remodeled and I was worried that they only kept the one staircase but they didn’t, there’s more stairs now which is what we needed.”
The upgrades come as T riders have voiced their frustrations following several public transportation issues, including a derailment on the Red Line at JFK/UMass Station in June. Officials expect repairs to continue through October.
“It’s beautiful compared to the last time that it was up,” commuter Justin Tang said. “I live right across the street so I’m really happy that it’s up and running, it saves me 30 minutes.”
This is all part of the MBTA’s 5-year, $8 billion capital spending program to improve the transit system.
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