Lynn (MBTA station)

Lynn is a passenger rail station on the MBTA Commuter Rail Newburyport/Rockport Line in downtown Lynn, Massachusetts, located 11.5 route miles from North Station. The station consists of a single center island platform serving the two station tracks on an elevated grade that runs through the downtown area of Lynn. A large parking garage is integrated into the station structure. The present station, built in 1992, is the latest in a series of depots built on approximately the same Central Square site since 1838. A number of other stations have also been located on several different rail lines in Lynn.Lynn is also a major bus transfer point serving 11 MBTA Bus routes in the North Shore region, including routes leading to Salem, Marblehead, Wonderland, and the Liberty Tree Mall as well as downtown Boston.HistoryEarly historyAfter the railroads from Boston to Lowell, Worcester, and Providence were chartered in 1830 and 1831, railroads to other surrounding cities including Newburyport and Portsmouth were proposed. The Eastern Railroad was chartered on April 14, 1836. Work began at East Boston in late 1836; it reached Lynn in the spring of 1837, but construction was slowed by the Panic of 1837 and did not reach Salem until 1838. Service from Salem to East Boston began on August 27, 1838, with fares half that of competing stagecoaches.