My daughter is moving to Boston on Monday and starts work on Tuesday. She is in flux for a week before she can move into her apartment and will be living at a family member’s for 7-8 days.
She will have access to a car, but would prefer to take public transportation to her job in Fenway. Are there any stations near Dover that would allow her to take the green line in AND have parking? For instance, Newton Highlands appears to be about 15 minutes away, but it doesn’t have parking. I am not at all familiar with the area, so I have no idea if there is public parking nearby that isn’t related to MBTA.
While true, since it’s only a week, I didn’t suggest, since the daughter would still need to take the Green Line after getting off at Back Bay and then walking, since only the Orange Line services Back Bay
When I use the MBTA trip planner to map from Eliot to Fenway, it shows her walking .7 miles to the station at Newton Highlands. Do you think I am doing something wrong? Sorry to be obtuse!
Also, I’m getting so confused between 128/Chestnut Hill/Riverside. Are they the same stations? Any guess as to what time she would need to get to Chestnut Hill to find parking? The MBTA website says there are 69 spaces, which doesn’t seem like many at all.
I have lived my entire life, minus 2 years, north of Boston. South and west of Boston might as well be Chicago in terms of my commuting knowledge. Sorry.
There’s a lot of parking at Riverside, which is the terminus of the Green Line’s D train. Also, depending on where in the Fenway she’s working, she might consider taking the Commuter Rail from Needham and getting off at Ruggles, which is at the edge of Northeastern’s campus and close to the Longwood Medical Area.
Agree with Metawampe that, if she can walk from the Ruggles train stop to her job in the Fenway, commuter rail would be a much better option than the Green Line. Getting to the Green Line stops from Dover would require driving Rte 128 to Riverside (and Rte 9 to Chestnut Hill), both of which see a lot of traffic.
Commuter rail stations near Dover include Needham, and Islington and dedham Corp, which are served by different MBTA commuter rail lines. Those would be an easier 5-10 mile drive on back roads, then a comfortable ride to Ruggles. (Dedham Corp is a little further than the other 2, but has the most parking.).
So I would try mapping her walk from Ruggles to see if that’s an option, and check the distances from your relative’s place to the three MBTA stations I mentioned, as the most stress-free way of getting in to work.
Alternatively, she can take commuter rail to Back Bay station and walk just a few minutes in Back Bay, which is a nice part of town, to connect to the Green Line outbound to her work. That would be longer, of course, but likely still less stressful than sitting in Boston traffic.
(Happy to provide more info, there just might be a lag bc I’m traveling this week)
The two issues with Needham (which is indeed the closest to their house) is first, that it ends up a mile from where she works. I am not sure she will want to do that walk, but maybe taking a bus would be ok.
Second, if I am reading the schedule correctly, it only runs once/hour, which doesn’t allow for a lot of flexibility. I will message you with a couple of more details, but the nature of where she works makes the commuter train a little bit more of a challenge, I think, but maybe you will have a better perspective.
I rode the commuter rail for 10 years when I worked in Boston (not the same line)–IMO that option of getting on at Wellesley and getting off at Landsdowne (right by Fenway) sounds the easiest for someone new to the area.
The issue would be how she gets from Dover to the Wellesley Commuter Rail stop. I’m assuming she doesn’t have a car, if she does, the issue would be if she can get parking at the Wellesley commuter rail stop. If not, could the relatives with whom she’s staying give her a ride to the Wellesley stop??
There are three stops in Wellesley. I think Wellesley Square is the worst for parking.
The trains will run at about 50 minute intervals on weekdays, so I would not get hung up on that. ~100k people get to work on the Commuter Rail every day.