Tufts Medical Center is a rapid transit station on the MBTA Orange Line subway and Silver Line bus rapid transit system. It is named for the Tufts Medical Center and is built under a wing of the facility that crosses over Washington Street in downtown Boston between Kneeland Street in Chinatown and the Massachusetts Turnpike.The underground Orange Line station consists of two side platforms serving the line's two tracks, while Silver Line buses stop along the sidewalks on the surface next to the station entrance on Washington Street. A secondary entrance is available on Tremont Street one block to the west. Like all Orange Line stations, Tufts Medical Center is fully wheelchair accessible.HistoryIn September 1968, the MBTA began construction of the shell of the station - then called South Cove Station - and the South Cove Tunnel during what were to be the early stages of the abandoned Interstate 695 project, in anticipation of the future relocation of the Washington Street Elevated. The relocated Orange Line was to run in the median of the extended I-95 in the Southwest Corridor, then replace service on the Needham Line to Needham. Due to a lack of available federal monies, the MBTA financed the $13.3 million project with local bond funds. The tunnel (which reached to Marginal Street) and the station shell were completed in 1972. However, I-695 was cancelled due to local opposition in 1971; the Elevated remained in service, and the South Cove Tunnel and station sat unused.
