Central Square – Lynn | |||||||||||||
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General information | |||||||||||||
Location | Lynn, Massachusetts | ||||||||||||
Coordinates | 42°27′55″N 70°56′26″W / 42.46522°N 70.94067°W | ||||||||||||
Line(s) | Eastern Route | ||||||||||||
Platforms | 1 island platform | ||||||||||||
Tracks | 2 | ||||||||||||
Connections | MBTA bus: 426, 426W, 429, 435, 436, 439, 441, 442, 455, 456 | ||||||||||||
Construction | |||||||||||||
Bicycle facilities | 14 spaces | ||||||||||||
Accessible | Yes | ||||||||||||
Other information | |||||||||||||
Fare zone | 2 | ||||||||||||
History | |||||||||||||
Opened | 1838 | ||||||||||||
Rebuilt | 1848, 1872, 1895, 1909–1914, 1952, 1991–1992, 2023[1] | ||||||||||||
Passengers | |||||||||||||
2018 | 549 (weekday average boardings)[2] | ||||||||||||
Services | |||||||||||||
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Lynn station (signed as Central Square–Lynn) is an intermodal transit station in downtown Lynn, Massachusetts. It is a station on the MBTA Commuter Rail Newburyport/Rockport Line and a hub for the MBTA bus system.
Service on the Eastern Railroad through Lynn began on August 27, 1838. The original wooden station was replaced by a larger structure in 1848, and the Saugus Branch began serving Lynn in 1855. In the "Great Lynn Depot War", a local disagreement in 1865 about where to place a replacement station became a major court case. It ended in 1872 with the construction of stations at two closely spaced sites, though one was soon torn down. The other station burned in 1889; it was replaced in 1895 by a depot with a large clock tower.
The Boston and Maine Railroad (B&M), which had acquired the Eastern in 1883, began a grade separation project through Lynn in 1909 – part of an attempt to quadruple-track the whole line. Completed in 1914, it expanded the station to four tracks and two island platforms, with the 1895-built structure modified "not for the better". It was replaced in 1952 by a modernist brick structure. Saugus Branch service ended in 1958; service on the mainline was subsidized beginning in 1965 by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA).
The MBTA opened a new accessible island platform in 1992, along with a large parking garage that anticipated a never-realized extension of the Blue Line. In 2003, the bus routes were moved to a busway adjacent to the garage. The rail station and parking garage temporarily closed on October 1, 2022, pending a reconstruction project, while the busway remained open. Interim platforms nearby opened in December 2023.