It sounded like the stairs have been closed off for years, which sadly fits with the T's pattern of not repairing decaying infrastructure. Not that they're terribly opposed to inconveniencing passengers; a handful of useful entrances exist but are closed off, most notably the Berkeley Street entrance to Arlington (I think that was also accessibility reasons), so it's a situation where their indifference and lack of funds go hand-in-hand.
Yeah, probably even a year or two before the community meetings. Some of the bigger concerns, at the time, raised about it was the fact that the lighting was shot going out into the parking lot that you would need to traverse through the dark into the side street out back up to the main drag which was a bit of safety concern at night, especially for women (which a few were pretty vocal about this).
It's not quite so extreme as that. The pedestrian detour is not a significant distance, no longer really than the pedestrian route to the outbound platform, where there are no stairs at all. I don't disagree that there should be more direct access, but I don't see it as a super high priority when we are only talking about an extra hundred yards, if that.
So, I mean for the outbound platform you can either walk all the way around through the storage place parking lot (might I add maybe the best looking storage place ever?), or... you could just walk down the same stairs and cross the tracks from platform to platform right there. And, yeah, OK it's about 200 yards detour, but it's a pretty big physiological detour including the issues with lightning at night I detailed above. Sure, a bit of hyperbole from me and melodrama, but, it's the third most trafficked station on the line excluding the termini at Ashmont and Mattapan, and its singular main entrance has been out of commission for years.
Also, admit that the High-Speed line is near and dear to my heart - and it is annoying after a few years now on the 'transformation' project that little has been done with the rehabs of the PCCs are woefully behind schedule with little else going on. There has been a decent amount of ToD on the line, too, which makes the T's dragging of feet all the more annoying. Plus, I personally see the line as almost the perfect guinea pig and test bed - pretty much a closed loop with only two grade crossings that the T should be using as more of a lab for things like signal priority, synchronization with the Red, hell, and even full automation. Should be a test bed for wider Green Line technology rollouts.
I'd see the station moved and centered under Adams (yeah, bridge... so maybe crazy pitch), with entrances on both sides of Adams and Eliot and then selling/pushing for air rights ToD development where the station is now, and on the Eliot St. side, too and hopefully continue the street wall for a decent square, with a good connection to the rest of Lower Mill's CBD. The Chocolate Factory condos seem to go for over a million easily, so, I'd have to think on the Milton side development isn't a hard economic sell. Also - please forgive my grammer/spelling/stupidity, full the 2-month newborn brain shutoff right now (on top of the existing 3 yo toddler). Late-night ranting on ArchBoston helps the sanity a bit.
Also: do we have a Mattapan High Speed Line thread? more than happy to relocate my ranting there, but I don't think I have ever been able to find one.