Spending night in South Station (Boston: hotel, neighborhood, purchasing)

[geneseosoph]

Is South Station safe to spend overnight until when people start coming through the station, which should be around 6 or 7am, or do commuters arrive even earlier at 5am?

Should I worry about the homeless or are there police officers [either Boston PD or Metro PD, not sure if Boston MTA has its own police force]?

Closest RiteAid I found is 1 mile or so away from South Station. CVS has a store on Milk Street, which appears to be nearby. Planning on purchasing two gallons of water at CVS before the stores close, get some dinner in Chinatown, which appears to be a 5 min walk from the station.

Anyone with any info on the neighborhood or any recommendations/suggestions on what to do and what not to do, please leave your input. Thanks.

[tooldude]

I think south station should be open by 5am because the MBTA subways start to operate at 5am. I rarely go there late night but I think there's alot of transit police around. there's a couple of cvs witin walking distance of south station. I think the closest one is at the corner of washington and boylston

[shiver]

The South Street Diner across the street from South Station is open 24 hrs.

South Street Diner - Boston, MA

It's a really popular spot as it's pretty much the only all-night place in Boston. We're talking lines out the door late-night on weekends, but assuming you're there on a weeknight, it probably won't be as busy. You'll have to order something, but if it's not too crazy, you can probably sit for an hour or two and read.

Added: I'm assuming that the main doors to South Station are open all night, but I could be very wrong. I suppose you should double check that to make sure that you can back inside during the middle of the night.

[miu]

How many hours do you have to kill there? Back in the mid-80's, I once spent most of the night at the old Greyhound bus station while waiting for the first bus to Providence in the morning. It was a rather seedy crowd that waited with me and I was fine. I was awake the whole time. Of course, taking naps would have been unwise.

Two years ago, I picked up my boyfriend from the Greyhound station there. It was about 5am in the morning. He had no complaints about the wait there. The area seemed very clean and empty of bums.

I'd recommend hanging out at that diner and hopefully if they aren't very busy, you can be there for a few hours nursing a cup of coffee and a snack without upsetting the waitstaff. Bring a good book or some magazines. At least be a good tipper.

[Cantabridgienne]

Can you actually stay there all night? I would think the T cops would be discouraging loiterers. Otherwise, wouldn't it basically be a homeless shelter every night?

[miu]

If the O.P. has a ticket in hand for his morning trip, then he's not a loiterer. And he's not homeless and I believe that he does have a residence, just not in Boston.

[geneseosoph]

No I am not homeless, although if I was I would be a computer literate homeless. Then again, any person can walk into their local library and have access to the internet free of charge. I am from nyc, no I do not hate the Red Sox. I will be returning to boston the very same day after I complete my business there. I will be arriving the day before, probably before it gets dark around 730 or 8pm. I plan on catching a quick dinner in chinatown, which appears to be right next to the station. Does anyone know if logan airport is close to the heart of downtown boston, which I am guessing is near south station's vicinity. The silver line appears to run from the airport to the station, but is it an actual subway/train or a bus line? The airport would most likely be 24hrs and probably a better choice for spending the night. I'll bring a book or magazine. I'll check the schedule to see when the silver line begins operating in the morning, so I can get from the airport to south station, finish my business, and head out. Perhaps I may be get in trouble for loitering but that is the least of my concerns. I'm just wondering if logistically it is difficult to get to the airport from south station and vice versa.

[Cantabridgienne]

Why don't you just get a bed in a hostel?

You don't seem to grasp that you can't just use airports and bus stations as your own personal hotel room. In the situation you are describing you are no different than a homeless person, and cops are not likely to let you stay based on your ability to work the World Wide Web.

[miu]

What about using Amtrak to travel to Boston from NYC? It used to be that you could catch a 3am train at Grand Central Station and get into Boston around 7am. You can even get some sleep on the train on the way north.

Otherwise, I'd imagine with Homeland Security and all that terrorism crap, spending all night at Logan Airport would be very much discouraged by their security, especially since you wouldn't have a valid plane ticket on your person, and that would make you a loiterer in their eyes.

[ogre]

One thought I have is that you might want to get this info straight from the source. Here is a link to MBTA customer service numbers: MBTA > Customer Support > Phone Directory. Down toward the bottom of the page there's also a service number for the airport. I'd guess that people at the MBTA's general customer service number would be able to answer questions about staying in South Station overnight, but there is also a number for the transit police, in case there are questions about police coverage in the station that the general service people can't answer.

The silver line is an underground bus, which has its own tunnel so that it doesn't get slowed down by general automobile traffic. If you were to take the silver line to the airport, you'd want to make sure not to start the trip over there too late at night. The transit system officially closes at 1AM, but that's the scheduled time for the last stop on the last run on the last line running, so most last stops are sometime just a bit after midnight.

Regarding staying at the airport overnight, that's a good question. Without a ticket showing that you're waiting for a flight out later that morning, you might run into some questions about what you're doing there. Of course they're going to be used to seeing people waiting around between flights, so they may not check immediately to see whether you have any business in the airport, especially if you have any kind of travel bag so you look like a passenger. I'm not sure, though. With airports being places of special concern regarding terrorism, they might check anyone who's hanging around the airport for an unusually long time. Don't know whether you're a guy or a girl, but if you're a girl, MAYBE they'd be understanding about your desire to spend those few hours in the middle of the night in the safest place possible. I'm not sure, though, again because of special concerns about security in airports, which might lead the authorities to be strict about keeping people away if they're not there for a flight.

Be aware too that the State Police provide law enforcement and security at Boston's airport. I've always had the impression that Mass. state troopers are notoriously hard-nosed as a general rule, so that's another reason that a plan to hang out at the airport overnight might be iffy. The best plan might be to call the MBTA and find out how well patrolled S. Station is during the night, and plan on staying there and/or at that diner across the street that Shiver told you about. If it's not too great a price difference between the train and the bus, miu's suggestion of taking an early-moring Amtrak train that would have you arriving in Boston at about the right time sounds like maybe the best idea of all.

Interesting that no one seems really sure about whether S. Station is open all night (though the Amtrak website says it is). Not too surprising, though, because in the city where you live you're not so likely to have experience with waiting for a connection overnight. You just get there at the time your train is leaving. Anyway, I hope the info people have provided here helps.