The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) was awarded $32.5 million to expand and enhance the historic South Station in Boston.

South Station offers travelers access to Amtrak's high-speed Acela service as well as Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority commuter rail, intercity bus, rapid transit and bus rapid transit services, including direct service to Boston Logan International Airport.

The station currently operates beyond its capacity and expects an estimated 50 percent increase in high-speed intercity passenger rail travel in the coming years along the Northeast Corridor, making expansion necessary.

The grant will allow MassDOT to complete all necessary environmental reviews as well as preliminary engineering activities for the station expansion, including:

• Development of a new layover facility for train storage during off-peak times.

• Improvements to existing tracks, platforms, interlockings, passenger facilities and other infrastructure.

• Demolition and relocation of an existing, adjacent U.S. Postal Service General Mail Facility to construct new passenger facilities, including tracks, platforms, waiting areas with connections to existing platforms and tracks, and the adjacent South Station Bus Terminal.

• Design passenger enhancements through improved streetscape, pedestrian, bicycle, local transit, and vehicular facilities in and around the station, including the re-opening of Dorchester Avenue for public use.

• Develop a cost estimate for the construction phase of the project.

• Consideration of opportunities for joint public/private development over an expanded South Station. Such development agreements exist at New York's Penn Station and Union Station in Washington, DC.

MassDOT will contribute $10.5 million to this phase of the project.