New center platform at Union Station to open Monday, MBTA says

WORCESTER — The long-awaited new center platform for Union Station is set to open Monday, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority announced Friday.

Since 2022, Union Station commuters have had to use a temporary platform on Shrewsbury Street to board the train, either making a trek from the main Union Station building or driving to a parking area on Shrewsbury Street.

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, the MBTA's official Commuter Rail account announced the opening date for the "center island platform."

The post includes a diagram showing renderings of the new platform along with elevators and bridges.

Commuters and drivers along Shrewsbury Street have become familiar with the construction around Union Station.

The project sought to build a high-level center platform at Union Station that would enable the station to handle two trains at once and effectively double the station’s capacity.

Plans included the gradual building of an elevator up to the platform, a pedestrian bridge, infrastructure upgrades and accessibility improvements to the parking area. The elevator and bridge have now become new staples of the Shrewsbury Street skyline.

The project has been behind schedule.

Earlier projections from the state and MBTA said the platform should have been completed by winter 2023.

In December, a spokesperson for the MBTA told the Telegram & Gazette that the authority was targeting this spring completion of the project.

The MBTA also undertook a project to waterproof the station's plaza.

A September 2023 MBTA presentation to the Worcester Redevelopment Authority gave the price of the project at the time as $45 million.

In April, MBTA shared that it was reintroducing weekday morning express trains from Worcester to South Station starting May 20.

With an arrival time at South Station at 8:45 a.m., the express line will also includes stops at Framingham and Lansdowne Station in Boston.

Until last fall, an express line took off from Worcester at 6:30 a.m. and made one stop in Framingham before going directly to Lansdowne Station, arriving at 7:24 a.m.

Also in April, Mayor Joseph M. Petty announced a mayoral task force to create a blueprint for an efficient commuter rail system for Worcester.