Ashmont station (signed as Ashmont/Peabody Sq.) is a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) intermodal transit station located at Peabody Square in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the southern terminus of the Ashmont branch of the rapid transit Red Line, the northern terminus of the connecting light rail Ashmont–Mattapan High-Speed Line, and a major terminal for MBTA bus service. Ashmont has two side platforms serving the below-grade Red Line and a single side platform on an elevated balloon loop for the Mattapan Line. The station is fully accessible for all modes. History The first Ashmont station was a simple building along the original Shawmut Branch of the Old Colony Railroad, which opened in 1872. Service on the branch ended in 1926 as the Boston Elevated Railway constructed its Dorchester Extension. Ashmont and stations opened on September 1, 1928, with Ashmont the terminal station. Like , Ashmont was designed for convenient transfer between rapid transit trains and surface streetcars. It had two island platforms with rapid transit on the inner tracks and streetcars on the outer tracks, allowing cross-platform transfers in both directions. Several streetcar lines were replaced with buses shortly after the station opened, using a surface-level busway on the west side of the station. In 1929, the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway began operating bus service to Ashmont; unlike Fields Corner and , it was never served by Eastern Mass streetcars. The Eastern Mass eventually operated three bus routes out of Ashmont, all of which became MBTA bus routes in 1971: to Brockton (now route ), to Quincy via Granite Avenue (), and to Quincy via Adams Street (). The remaining surface streetcar lines running to Ashmont were gradually replaced by buses, with the final two routes (now routes and ) replaced by trolleybuses in 1949. The grade-separated Mattapan Line continued streetcar operation. From 1948 to 1968, Hudson Bus Lines operated service from Ashmont to several South Shore locations. The station was modernized in 1976. The station was made nominally accessible, though the 1990 passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act created stricter standards. In 1981, the platforms were extended for six-car trains, which were introduced in 1988. Reconstruction The MBTA issued a $4.3 million design contract for renovations of Ashmont, Shawmut, and Fields Corner stations on May 3, 2001; the Ashmont portion was $1.3 million. The agency issued a request for proposals for transit-oriented development on an