The South Station Bus Terminal is a bus station located at South Station in downtown Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is Boston's main terminal for regional commuter bus and intercity bus service, with 42 bus berths used by 10 operators. The industrial-style structure is built on air rights above the South Station rail platforms. It has two full levels – a bus deck and a rooftop parking deck – plus several partial levels. South Station Bus Terminal is owned by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA).
Beginning in the late 1950s, city and state agencies proposed a large parking garage with a bus terminal at South Station. It was intended to replace two existing terminals in the Park Square area. The Boston Redevelopment Authority purchased South Station in 1965 with plans to redevelop the site. Planning for the development continued over the following decades. The 1980 and 1981 environmental impact statements proposed a three-level terminal with a concourse deck, bus deck, and parking deck; a later phase would add commercial development on top.
The 1984–1989 reconstruction of South Station added footings to support the air rights project. Final design for the bus terminal was completed in 1990. Due to budget limitations, it had fewer bus berths and parking spaces than previously planned. Construction begin in September 1992 and the terminal opened on October 28, 1995. The ramps to the terminal were reconfigured in 2003–2005 by the Central Artery/Tunnel Project (Big Dig). As part of the South Bay Interchange, a new elevated connector road was built with direct ramps to/from I-93 and the Massachusetts Turnpike.
Expansion of the terminal was added to plan for the commercial air rights development (which became the South Station Tower) before the terminal even opened. Revisions to the plan were released in 1998 and 2002, but the project was delayed by the Great Recession. It was revived in 2016 with further modifications; construction began in January 2020. The expansion opened on November 4, 2025, adding 13 bus berths and a direct connection to the South Station concourse area.
Design
South Station Bus Terminal is located on air rights over the platforms and tracks of the South Station rail terminal in the southeast portion of Downtown Boston. Measuring about , the terminal is on the east side of Atlantic Avenue between East Street and Kneeland Street. The terminal has two full levels – the bus deck and the rooftop parking deck – plus several partial levels.
The main entrance lobby is on Atlantic Avenue at Beach Street; it has a secondary entrance from Platform 1 of South Station. Both lead to a concourse that runs above the train platforms and below the bus deck. Stairs, escalators, and elevators also connect the north end of the bus deck with the South Station passenger concourse under South Station Tower.
At the center of the bus deck is a rotunda with ticketing, baggage handling, and retail facilities around its perimeter. It is illuminated by a domed skylight more than across. Escalators in the rotunda connect the entrance concourse to the bus deck. A mezzanine above the outside of the rotunda holds offices.
The "commuter platform" concourses run north and south from the rotunda. The older south platform contains 25 of the terminal's 42 gates: 13 pull-in bus bays on the west side, 10 bays on the east side, and two curb stops on the south side. The newer north platform has six bus bays on each side. Five additional curb stops have access directly from the rotunda. Buses circulate clockwise around the deck; arriving and departing buses cross paths at the south end of the terminal. On the west side of the deck is a lane for staging buses.
The top of the terminal is a multi-level parking garage with about 750 spaces. It provides both paid daily parking and free short-term parking for passenger pick-up and drop-off. The main parking deck is above the South Station platforms, with several partial levels over its north half. A package express facility is located on the deck. The terminal is accessible. One elevator connects the ground floor and concourse; two connect the concourse, bus deck, mezzanine, and main parking deck. Two elevators connect the bus deck to South Station.
The exterior of the building is clad in aluminum. The industrial-style interior finish includes aluminum, steel, concrete, and granite – durable materials chosen for ease of maintenance. The rotunda has marble flooring. On the curved walls of the rotunda mezzanine are two -long murals by Todd McKie. Entitled Are We There Yet?, the enamel-on-steel murals depict colorful abstract figures.
Ramps connect the bus deck and parking deck to an elevated roadway, the South Station Connector, located southwest of the terminal. It has ramps connecting to the Boston surface street network at Kneeland Street, as well as to the Massachusetts Turnpike (Interstate 90) and Interstate 93. Additional direct ramps reserved for buses and high-occupancy vehicles (HOVs) provide access from northbound I-93 and both directions of I-90, and to southbound I-93 and eastbound I-90. A spiral ramp with entrance and exit on Atlantic Avenue also provides access to the parking garage.
When the terminal was built, all trains at South Station used diesel locomotives, necessitating a ventilation system to remove exhaust gases from the platform area. The ductwork and fans fits into a height between the top of trains and the bottom of the bus deck. They funnel exhaust to a set of ventilation shafts on the east side of the terminal. These shafts reach above the main parking deck.
Service
, the terminal is used by ten companies: Boston Express: services to Nashua and North Londonderry, New Hampshire C&J Bus Lines: service to Dover, New Hampshire Concord Coach Lines: services to Portland, Midcoast, and inland Maine; services to Concord and northern New Hampshire Dartmouth Coach: service to Hanover, New Hampshire (Dartmouth College) DATTCO: seasonal service to Newport, Rhode Island FlixBus: service to New York City Greyhound Lines: services to New York City (via Providence, Rhode Island, and via Hartford, Connecticut); Albany, New York; Bangor, Maine; Montreal; and Springfield, Massachusetts Megabus: services to Burlington, Vermont, and New York City Peter Pan Bus Lines: services to Albany; Hyannis, Massachusetts; New York City; Providence, Rhode Island; Springfield, Massachusetts; and Woods Hole, Massachusetts Plymouth & Brockton Street Railway: services to Hyannis and Woods Hole
South Station Bus Terminal is used by both commuter bus and intercity bus service. It is the main regional bus terminal for Boston, though six of the ten operators also serve Logan International Airport (often with South Station as an intermediate stop). The terminal is among the busiest intercity bus stations in the county. In 2010, it was the sixth-busiest terminal in the Greyhound network. The terminal averaged 10,000 daily total boardings and alightings in 2025. Scheduled service averaged between 500 and 650 daily arrivals and departures in 2011. The terminal is open 24 hours, with arrivals and departures at all hours.
The terminal is owned by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), which contracts with a private firm to manage the terminal. Bus companies negotiate with the managing firm for gate access; they pay lease fees for gates and ticketing facilities plus a per-bus usage fee. Some carriers pool gates between them for added operational flexibility.
History Previous terminals
Regional and intercity bus service from Boston began in the mid-1920s. A number of small terminals, most in the Park Square area, were used by different companies. These were gradually consolidated into two major terminals.
The Boston and Worcester Street Railway (B&W) opened a terminal at 10 Park Square by 1930. It was rebuilt in 1946 with off-street bus parking. At that time, it was also used by the Boston and Maine Transportation Company, New England Transportation Company, Quaker Stages, and Quaker City Bus Company. New England Trailways began using the terminal by 1949. Trailways purchased the terminal in 1958 and renamed it Trailways Bus Terminal. Other companies that used the terminal over the following decades included Almeida Bus Lines, Concord Coach, the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway, the MBTA, Medeiros Bus Company, Michaud Bus Lines, Peter Pan Bus Lines, Rhode Island Bus Company, and Trombly Motor Coach.
Greyhound Lines opened a terminal at 10 St. James Avenue in 1950, replacing a 1935-built terminal at 222 Boylston Street (60/80 Park Plaza). The terminal was also used at various times by Bonanza Bus Lines, Plymouth and Brockton Street Railway (P&B), Short Line, and Vermont Transit. It was renovated in 1976. Greyhound sold the property to a developer in 1985; it was resold in 1987 and 1989, though the bus station remained open.
In 1975, the MBTA built a temporary busway on the west side of South Station at a cost of $300,000 (equivalent to $ million in ). It was intended to serve MBTA Turnpike express buses while their usual downtown terminal was closed for redevelopment of the Jordan Marsh flagship store, as well as P&B buses from the South Shore. However, MBTA buses did not initially use the busway. P&B used it as an intermediate stop and as midday bus storage, but continued to use the Greyhound terminal.
On May 19, 1980, the Trailways terminal was closed to allow street reconfiguration and construction of the State Transportation Building. Trailways and its affiliates (Concord, Michaud, Peter Pan, and Trombly) moved to a temporary facility at the South Station busway. They moved again to a new terminal at 555 Atlantic Avenue in Dewey Square on November 7, 1980. It was built at a cost of $1.1 million (equivalent to $ million in ). MBTA express bus service was cut back to use the South Station busway as a terminal from April 1981 to May 1982. In 1986, Trailways discontinued most of its remaining service in New England. Peter Pan took over the routes and renamed the station as the Peter Pan Bus Terminal.
Greyhound drivers went on strike on March 2, 1990. Because Bonanza and P&B drivers did not want to cross picket lines, the companies moved to curbside operations nearby. Bonanza bought a used van for use as a ticket office. That June, the company moved to Dartmouth Street in front of Back Bay station. On November 10, 1992, Greyhound and Vermont Transit moved to a temporary terminal at the South Station busway.
Planning City officials proposed a large parking garage with a bus terminal at South Station, the city's largest railroad terminal, in July 1958. At the time, the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad was sharply cutting service as new highways were opening. That December, Mayor John Hynes proposed a 1,700-space garage and bus terminal over the western tracks of the station. Construction of a bus terminal and trucking terminal at South Station was again proposed by a state commission in 1961.
In the mid-1960s, the proposed redevelopment of South Station – including a possible bus terminal – became mired in controversy. The Boston Terminal Company (a terminal railroad subsidiary of the New Haven and the New York Central Railroad that owned the station) filed in late 1964 to sell the property to the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA). By that time, the railroads owed $2 million in back taxes (equivalent to $ million in ) for the station. The city, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, and Boston Patriots owner Bill Sullivan sparred over who would redevelop the property – and crucially, whether the development would pay taxes to the city. The BRA reached an agreement in August 1965 to purchase the station and took ownership on December 31, 1965.