Roxbury Crossing station
| Company type | Rapid transit station |
|---|---|
| Industry | Public transportation |
| Founded | 1987 |
| Headquarters | Boston, Massachusetts , United States |
Area served | Boston, Massachusetts |
| Products | MBTA Orange Line service |
Roxbury Crossing station functions as a rapid transit stop within Boston, Massachusetts, serving the MBTA Orange Line. Positioned on Tremont Street in the Mission Hill area, the existing station was inaugurated in 1987 amid the southern Orange Line's reconstruction and rerouting. It offers full accessible facilities.
Railroad station
Roxbury Crossing was among the initial stops on the Boston and Providence Railroad, which began service in 1834 between Boston and Canton. Although the Massachusetts legislature approved relocating the station building northward to Ruggles Street in 1867, this plan was never implemented. A replacement station building was finalized in December 1888.
Originally constructed at grade level, the railroad line through Roxbury was elevated starting in 1891 by the Old Colony Railroad, which had acquired the Boston and Providence Railroad in 1888 before itself being absorbed by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in 1893. This elevation project raised the main line onto a four-track stone embankment stretching from Massachusetts Avenue to what is now Forest Hills, removing grade crossings and enabling the construction of five new stations across Roxbury and Jamaica Plain. The elevated Roxbury Crossing station commenced operation on June 1, 1897.
On November 22, 1909, the Washington Street Elevated extended southward from , adding new stations at and . Despite Roxbury Crossing and four other NYNH&H stops remaining active for over thirty years, competition from the Elevated resulted in their closure on September 29, 1940 due to diminishing passenger numbers.
Orange Line
During the 1960s, proposals to extend I-95 into downtown Boston along the NYNH&H right-of-way included replacing the Washington Street Elevated (later known as the Orange Line) with a rapid transit route located within the highway median. This initiative led to the demolition of numerous homes and clearing of the Southwest Corridor through Roxbury and Jamaica Plain. However, community opposition halted construction in 1969, and Governor Francis W. Sargent officially canceled the project in 1972.
The cleared land was subsequently transformed into Southwest Corridor Park. Although the original highway plan was abandoned, the Orange Line was realigned along this corridor in 1987, featuring a new Roxbury Crossing station situated on the former NYNH&H site. The Washington Street Elevated ceased operations permanently on April 30, 1987; Roxbury Crossing along with eight other southern Orange Line stations opened four days later. Several bus routes that previously terminated at Dudley Square were extended to connect with Roxbury Crossing via Ruggles station.
From August 19 to September 18, 2022, the entire Orange Line, including Roxbury Crossing station, was closed for maintenance work. The MBTA intends to adjust bus stops at Roxbury Crossing in 2024 as part of constructing bus lanes on Columbus Avenue and Tremont Street: enhancements will be applied to route 66 stops along Tremont Street, while stops for routes 22 and 29 on Columbus Avenue will be eliminated due to existing Orange Line connections at Jackson Square and Ruggles.