page_title: Blandford Street station
section_title: Pocket track
hierarchical_section_title: Blandford Street station / History / Pocket track
caption_attribution_description: English: A train sitting on the pocket track at Blandford Street
context_page_description: Blandford Street is a surface-level light rail station on the MBTA's Green Line B branch located in Boston, Massachusetts. The station is located in the center median of Commonwealth Avenue at Silber Way and Blandford Mall, about 2 blocks west of Kenmore Square, near the east end of Boston University. The station consists of two low side platforms, which serve the B branch's two tracks. The station is the first station outbound on the B branch after it splits off from the C and D branches at Kenmore.
  Blandford Street is the seventh-busiest surface stop on the B branch, averaging 1,540 boardings per weekday. Although a number of the Green Line surface stops were upgraded with slightly raised platforms around 2003 to allow level boarding on Type 8 low-floor trams, Blandford Street was not among them, and it is not accessible.
context_section_description: A pocket track just west of the station between Blandford Mall and Granby Street is used for several operational purposes. Neither the C nor D branches have similar pocket tracks, so the Blandford Street pocket track is a primary location to store trains on the west end of the Central Subway without blocking revenue service tracks. The pocket track opened on June 30, 1931, replacing a former surface crossover at Kenmore station.
  It is frequently used as a layover point for trains during the middle of the day and overnight, and to temporarily store disabled cars. During Red Sox games and other major events at Fenway Park, extra trains are stored on the pocket track to provide extra service from Kenmore to Park Street to handle exiting crowds. An experimental four-car post-game train operated on April 9, 2011 used the track as a staging point. 
  The pocket track is also used to short turn westbound service from the central subway, such as when the B branch is not operating due to maintenance, accidents, or weather conditions. Run as Directed (RAD) trains, which provide additional capacity in the subway during peak periods, often operate from Blandford Street. RAD service began on January 1, 1977 and was intensified from July 24, 1982 to September 10, 1982 when the C branch was closed for maintenance. During the closure of the Huntington Avenue subway, beginning December 28, 1985, regular scheduled service was run between Blandford Street and Lechmere. On July 26, 1986 this reverted to RAD service, which was intensified on December 26, 1986 with use of other cutbacks (which, unlike Blandford Street, do not have pocket tracks). RAD service was greatly reduced on September 10, 1988, but increased again from Blandford Street on September 1, 2008.
caption: A train sitting on the pocket track
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