If you transfer from the commuter rail to the subway at North Station, you can now avoid the cold.
And the snow. And the rain.
And traffic on Causeway Street.
A long-awaited 250-foot-long tunnel connecting the commuter rail and subway stations opened Sunday, allowing for a more seamless transfer at one of the MBTA’s busiest connections.
The tunnel had been scheduled to open in December.
MBTA general manager Steve Poftak posted photos of the newly opened corridor on Twitter.
Very pleased to announce the opening of the North Station Pedestrian Passageway today and to welcome our first customers. Will be open for tomorrow’s commute. #mbta pic.twitter.com/DarJdIKI3S
— Steve Poftak (@spoftak) January 6, 2019
Commuters have long looked forward to the connection, as riders had long been forced to leave the lobby in North Station on the ground floor of TD Garden in order to access the Green or Orange lines.
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“You’re crossing a weird intersection, you’ve got shuttles and just regular traffic,” commuter Tony Bailey of Andover told the Globe in November. “There are police details, but it’s kind of a mess.”
The tunnel is wedged between the Orange and Green line tunnels, and surfaces inside the station lobby at one end, and the T station across Causeway at the other. There will be elevators and an escalator for riders.
Adam Vaccaro of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Sean Smyth can be reached at sean.smyth@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @smythsays.