Canton Center

Canton Center is a commuter rail station on the MBTA's Providence/Stoughton Line located in Canton, Massachusetts. It is served by most Stoughton Branch service except for evening inbound trains. The station has 1 side platform on the south side of the track west of Washington Street; the platform has a mini-high section for handicapped accessibility.HistoryCanton Center has seen one of the largest relative increases in ridership of any commuter rail station during the MBTA era. Ridership has increased tenfold from 65 daily riders in 1983 to 1,113 in 2013, while overall system ridership roughly tripled during that timeframe. This is in large part due to service increases on the line which began on March 12, 1984 as mitigation for construction work on the Southeast Expressway.PlansCanton Center station is proposed to be reconstructed as part of Phase 2 of the South Coast Rail project, which will extend the Stoughton Branch south to several South Coast cities in 2030. A second track will be added through the station to support increased bidrectional service; two full-length low-level platforms will be built, each with two mini-high platforms for handicapped accessibility. No other MBTA station has or is planned to have multiple mini-high platforms on each track; the configuration is designed to accommodate the station's high ridership for speedy boarding while not blocking freight access on the branch.