FleetCenter/ North Station's Future?

Sbarro closed? What replaced it?

Ron Newman wrote:Sbarro closed? What replaced it?

IIRC Pizzeria Regina of the North End replaced it. Thats awesome in my opinion. Real italian north end pizza for a change instead of a national chain brand of pizza.

That's Italian... I agree the pizza is a big improvement! The sandwiches aren't to bad either.

Wow, Sbarro's doesn't even come close to Pizzeria Regina. No loss there. South Station also has Auntie Anne's Pretzels, which is great in my opinion.

I always har those stupid alarms going in and coming and coming out of north sation everyday.Snoozer do you know what they are for?Personally NS doesn't bother me as I am in there for no more than 15 mins a day and I sit out on the tracks on one of those benches overcrowing doesn't seem to be a problem while I am there

ST214 wrote:There was originally supposed to be a new CR station out front, where North Station used to stand. The stairs are right where the benches are near the ticket office. They're covered now, but that wall was added after North Station was torn down. I remember as a kid walking down that corridor, looking out and watching them building the new platforms, and how excited i was that one day, the train would stop right at the stairs.

It has been a while since this thread was revisited (4 years!), but I just picked up "Boston's Depots and Terminals" at a train show and am trying to piece things together better. Here is what I have so far... and excuse the names as things have gotten complicated - BG/NS (original) will refer to the 1928-built Boston Garden/North Station complex, while TD Garden will refer to the present facility, and the FleetCenter will refer to the present facility at time of its construction.

The original Boston Garden/North station complex fronted up against Causeway Street. Now this is an empty lot, with the TD Banknorth Garden in the rear. Judging by the pics/narrative in the book, they claim that the original North Station remained open shortly after the FleetCenter opened and that tracks were extended back to the BG/NS (original) complex, after being retrenched for a parking lot (presumably what is now the TD Garden). So does this mean that for a while, trains ran underneath the FleetCenter, or at very least, platformed there? How was access to the Fleetcenter maintained if the present access was platforms? I'm also presuming that when the BG/NS (original) complex was torn down, the present lobby was created, which served as the waiting room for everyone until the expanded waiting room opened last year, also causing further track length reductions.

Now if I get all this straight, how, if and when the front parcel is developed and also to include the new North Station waiting room, are folk supposed to get from this new structure to the tracks which are on the other side of the TD Garden lobby? Or would they be re-extended to pass through the lobby, thus forcing Delaware North to come up with a side entrance or a concourse into the arena? This of course is assuming something will happen someday - most likely not today, but someday.

Or am I completely wrong on everything?

Original plan: A hotel and office complex was to go up on the old Garden site, in front of and connected to the current arena. The "new" North Station concourse would have been on the ground floor, with direct underground access to the MBTA Orange and Green Line stations(no ducking outdoors like you do now). Passengers would have entered through the arena directly into the concourse.
What actually happened: No one stepped forward to develop the old Garden parcel. The temporary arrangements at North Station were growing so intolerable to passengers that something had to be done, hence Plan B, which is what we see today. Passengers still must exit the Garden building to reach the T.
What could happen: Eventually the old Garden site will be developed, but it's uncertain if North Station will be included.

With the exception of the new addition to North Station the rest has been there since the building opened in October of 1995. The only thing different is that there use to be an opening between the two escalators leading up to the new arena that led into the old North Station and Bruins Pro Shop for the first two or three years before it was closed for good. I have no idea why the new North Station took longer to open.
As far as the "Super Station Goes" what you see now is what you've got. There will be no Super Station like originally planned. I have no idea what Delaware North plans to do with the parcel of land but it’s currently used as a parking lot for Celtics and Bruins players.

savebowdoin wrote:I would imagine that, if for some reason a building IS actually constructed on the Boston Garden site, the only transit-related aspect of it will now be an interior walkway to the subway headhouse.

Correct. With the new expansion(discussed in another thread...) the new building is not required to have the station on the ground floor. The T made that deal with the property owners to get the current expanded station.

I was told that originally the plan was that you would enter the station between the 2 escalators, like it used to be when the old garden was still up. Also from what I was told was the ticket office was originally not supposed to be where it is and was added afterward. It is/was supposed to be taken down after and if they ever build anything out front.