MBTA finalizes purchase of Widett Circle site

The MBTA has completed a $255 million purchase of the 24acre Widett Circle industrial area, with plans to turn what was once a busy meatpacking district into a railyard. T officials say Widett will provide a crucial relief valve to South Station, which sits about a mile to the north, by creating room for a nearby layover space to store and work on trains used along nine commuter rail lines. Widett, which is sandwiched between the Southeast Expressway and a set of railroad tracks, is considered essential if the T wants to increase commuter rail frequency south or west of the city, and it’s an important component of plans to add more tracks to South Station itself. Currently, the T’s yard in Readville, on the southern outskirts of Boston, is the closest layover facility to South Station. That requires many trains that are not in service to be piloted back and forth along the Fairmount line, particularly in the middle of the day when fewer trains are running.

This system of moving trains to Readville when they are not in use burns extra fuel, takes up additional crew time, and can cause congestion on the Fairmount route. Widett Circle, a nondescript assemblage of industrial buildings, served as home to a variety of food distributors and processors for roughly five decades. It popped onto the city’s radar about eight years ago, when it was proposed as the possible home for an Olympic stadium as part of Boston’s ill-fated bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The hope at the time was that the site could be redeveloped after the Games, and when Boston’s Olympic dreams were dashed in 2015, developers still held out hope for Widett’s potential as prime open real estate in the crowded city.