MBTA – North Station

Excellent location, but dingy and gross.
Love that I can get from Lowell to the TD or the North End so easily, but otherwise this place is a mess.
No cab lane. No direct access to the Green Line without leaving the building. Cold and breezy. Bathrooms are small and dirty.

Not a regular mbta user but seems like a decent and invaluable service. Is it perfect? No. Does it get me where I’m going in a reasonable amount of time? Almost always. My regular line is the orange. Rarely take busses… the bus system not so great. Slow, awkward system very inconsistent schedules.

Better than the old North Station– that’s for sure (memories from childhood…). All I can say is that it’s the T; so don’t expect glitz and glamor. The station itself is ok, looking more run down now that it did prior, as a reviewer here said it needs a few solid power washes — I agree. You’ve got a McDonald’s, Two Dunkin Donuts shops, a newsstand, pizza place, Emack and Bolio’s and the wonderful, yet random branded bar by track one. The bar comes in handy if you’re A) really early for your train, B) The train outbound is delayed, which is common or C) you really don’t feel like dealing with the crowds for rush hour trains.
Speaking of crowds, this place is a nightmare at around 4:00PM on weekdays and gets worse until the evening rush is over. There’s not enough room for us regular commuters to wait without getting trampled when your train is called. The doors to the tracks are too narrow, causing gigantic bottlenecks, which are no fun. There is part of that commuter crowd that follows the conductor en-​mass to the train prior to boarding call or, my personal favorite, lurks around waiting for an engineer (driver of the train for those unfamiliar) they recognize then line up outside the train doors on the platform prior to boarding… hence my prior point with the bar… it’s fun to watch the mania unfold while you’re drinking a beer. Win.
When it comes to boarding calls– they’re either right on point, calling boarding ten minutes prior to departure, or more commonly after about 4:30PM M-​F, calling your train 5 minutes or less before departure. It is as if they have no idea what track the certain departing line is going to. It can be messy for sure. Other than that, it’s a train station with close access to the Orange and Green line, a short walk to the Charlestown Navy Yard, and MGH. It’s my daily ride in and out of Boston, and it’s a heck of a lot better than sitting in Northbound traffic on ⁹⁵⁄₉₃ every night like I was doing.

I think this place is just okay. It can be high traffic at different points throughout the day, and because I was merely touristing throughout the different parts of Boston, I didn’t have to experience North Station when it’s probably very overwhelming.
Goodness gracious, they need to update this place. There’s food scattered around the floor, pigeons everywhere, bathrooms that are either not functioning or doors that don’t lock, and smells that make you look around.
Overall, it did the job, but this is a place where commuters come at the end of the day to unwind and relax. Updating the place would do everyone well, considering so many events take place in the building and near the track.

Terrible! A bunch of hobos hanging around asking people for money and fighting between each other and security doesn’t seem to do anything to get them out.

Decent coffee, pizza, multi modial connections. Green line, red line, bike path to memorial and sorrow drives. There is a a loud noise that sounds like the predator. I think it is one of the doors.

I like North Station for three reasons: The Downeaster, TD Garden, and the green and orange lines. Tavern in the Square across the street is a good addition to my list of likes.
The dislikes? The bathrooms. The smells. No ventilation during the hot summer months.
I had a 9am train to Maine on a March morning, and I wanted to use the ladies room. I walked in, and there was feces all over the walls. I thought… oh hell no… and waited till I got on the train to use the bathroom. Much cleaner and better than what I saw in the ladies room at North Station. And that’s sad. I mean, South Station had just gotten renovated and their improvements were by far better than North Station. Eeew. Just learned my lesson to not even try anymore.
I agree with Robert H, it has been «upgraded» since the dog days of way back when, but not by much it seems.

Great Public Transportation once you get the hang of it!

This commuter rail station is a super clean and well organized place at the old Boston Garden where the Celtics and the Bruins play. It is a convieneint and short walk from
The T’s orange line. The staff of the various snack bars and souvenir stands are always friendly and helpful.

I like North Station. For a laundry list of reasons at that. Although in comparison to South Station, this one is an easy 3 stars. The prime reason being — North Station is old and needs a lot of work. Here are some of the pros and cons and some tips for first time visitors:
Read the signs for directions: Literally. Depending on which line you are getting off of or which line you would like to get on, one good thing despite the chaos is that there are signs for each of the lines — Green, Orange and Commuter rail.
TD Garden: Clearly the biggest advantage about this station is that it brings you straight into the arena. Whether for a concert or for catching the Bruins or the Celtics.
Waiting area for Commuter Rail: Too small for the volume of people who traverse through it. Where nothing as compared to the crowd you come across in NYC, still during rush hours, this area is packed.
Eating options: Yes, there is definitely a Dunkin Donuts bang in the middle of the waiting area — 2 actually within few steps from each other. There are plenty of options to choose from at the very expensive TD Garden food stands or if you plan on taking a short walk out of the building. But at the main station itself, the choices are limited. There is a bar near track one. Also, a news stand for your reading and munching needs.
For daily commuters, this is an absolute blessing because driving in and out of the city during rush hours is a nightmare to say the least. Hope in time, the MBTA makes it more user friendly and cleaner like some of the other stations.

North Station is pretty clean and there is usually a place to sit or stand while waiting for your train. There are TWO Dunkins that always seem to be busy in the morning and there’s a magazine/​convenience store in the middle for all of your snacking needs. There are restrooms which are not very clean but functional in a pinch. Overall it’s a pretty wide open space where you really can’t get confused because there are plenty of signs. I don’t mind coming here twice a day every day to get into Boston.

Pretty standard station. Plus side is that it didn’t smell of anything that escaped out of a human previously.
Signs out to post times, a few benches to sit on, garbage cans, etc.

North Station rests on the first floor of Boston’s TD Garden — Home of the Bruins and Celtics — and serves as the Hubs primary commuter rail terminal for service north of the city, as well as providing access to the Green and Orange subway lines. Greater Boston’s public transit system is one of the most expansive and well maintained in America — no need for a car to get wherever your heart may lead you! In this city, it is much easier to be a pedestrian than a driver — just be sure to bring your GPS since Boston’s streets were designed by a 2 year old with a color crayon and it can be easy to get geographically confused.
North Station is the gateway between north shore commuters and the great inner city of Boston. The spacious lobby, perpetually bustling with commuters and MBTA staff, offers five restuarants, including a sports bar, MacDonalds, and a Dunkin Donuts. Adjacent to quite a few bars, all of them sure to be packed on game days!

Well, it sure isn’t Grand Central, or even South Station, but it is better than I remember it during the real run down days of The Boston garden era. It does of course have the traditional urine soaked stumble bums who must of course disturb the delicate noses of we taxpayers by loitering in our public spaces.

There was much promise when this station was being renovated & the Green Line elevated tracks were finally being integrated underground. This shiny new gem of the MBTA has started to lose it luster the past few years. I commute here daily & it always has an unpleasant sulfur smell. It’s like someone opened a bag of boiled eggs. The doors leading on the Causeway Street are always seemingly broken or coming of its hinges. While I understand that a large number of people travel trough this location I feel that the MBTA should have a better solution than duct tape to fix the automated gates. These little things makes we wonder where all the money goes in maintaining MBTA facilities. I do appreciated the Red Box & soda vending machines in the station also the food options in the commuter rail portion. For many this is their 1^st taste into the great city of Boston & because of this fact the facility should be maintained to insure its viability for years to come. After the ribbon is cut the people deserve a well maintained station to feel safe in.

Aight so you are in Beantown and want to go see the killer B’s or the Celtics. Why I couldn’t fathom, unless your team is in town and about to throwdown on either team. Well this is the easiest way to get to this joint. Parking is a nightmare around here but this MBTE Station is underneath the Gawden. Thus it is extremely handy and well located to facilitate a quick trip in to see a game.
This location is also a key change point to switch trains between the green and orange lines. The munchkin and I did just that. We came down from the outskirts of town and hopped a train to make it over to the Science Museum.
Pro Tip: Do not sit on the floor and be careful since this place is grody.
It definitely needs a serious heavy duty POWER WASH sometime. I bet the place would be very attractive aesthetically if only it had a deep cleaning hence a heavy duty power wash or two =)
Ohhh make sure that you don’t try and take your bike on the train at the wrong time of day. They wont let you on the train and the train will not move until you get off of it if you do put your bike on the train. Heck the conductor may even come down and eject you!
The signage is all clearly marked and allows for easy access around the entire system with clearly designated paths to travel to go from one platform to another in order to get to the right place. I like this place other than the cleanliness factor which it clearly has none of. But as a key point to go from A to B on mass transit, this place was very nice, helpful, and added to the ease of my vacay with the munchkin.

I really like that the inbound platform for both the orange line and the green line are connected, so I can grab whichever one gets me to my destination the quickest. I don’t like the wait for the green line to Lechmere; It is so obnoxious to see 3 – 4 trains go by with service that stops at North Station. The MBTA here are rude 80% of the time.

Nice station they have gotten a lot more food vendors here in the past few years. One perk if you are taking the Downeaster Amtrak train to Maine you know exactly which track it’s on because you can see all the trains. You can even wander out onto the platform and wait outside to beat the crowds.
The crowd who commutes north of Boston are also friendly.

For the most part, it’s pretty clean and well organized but there’s nothing special about it, nothing that makes it stand out.
It is an extremely busy station but there’s ample room to move about unlike other stops like Downtown Crossing for example. It also could be very very confusing for those who aren’t used to the hustle and bustle of the Mass transit so I would recommend either having extra time to navigate in case you’re lost.

MBTA North Station is the most station I utilized the most during my stay in Boston, since my hotel is only 2 minute walk from the station.
I can get on to the Green/​Purple or Orange Line from here so basically it is really accessible from here to other part of Boston.
Even with 3 lines, there are enough signage so I don’t feel like I am lost or in a maze.
I guess I was lucky to have miss game days traffic and excitement… maybe I should be back in town next time to catch a game at TD Garden?