Roughly 300 people were at the Broadway entrance to Encore Boston Harbor when the strike began on Friday, September 4, and the Boston Globe reported that they were preventing cars from moving in and out. More than 1,300 workers walked off at 7 a.m. Picketers have said they intend to stay until there is a deal, through the holiday weekend and past it.
The casino never closed. It is open now. So the practical question for anyone with a reservation this week is not whether Encore is operating, it is how to reach the door.
There is an answer, and it is not the obvious one.
The problem with the transit route most people will find
The MBTA’s own destination page lists exactly one direct T route to Encore: take the Orange Line to Sullivan Square, then the 104, 105, or 109 bus to Broadway at Dexter Street.
Broadway at Dexter Street is the picketed street.
Anyone who follows the standard transit directions gets dropped at the same entrance where the crowd has been gathering. That is not a reason to avoid the bus, and picketing on a public sidewalk is lawful activity. It does mean that the route most search results will hand you is the route that puts you in the middle of it, which is worth knowing before you plan an evening around it.
The route that bypasses Broadway completely
Encore is on the water. That is the part almost nobody uses and the part that matters right now.
Take the Blue Line to Aquarium station. Walk about five minutes to Long Wharf North, at the MBTA dock near Christopher Columbus Park. The Encore Premium Harbor Shuttle runs from there directly to the resort.
A boat arriving at Encore’s dock does not touch Broadway, does not pass the vehicle entrance, and does not require crossing a picket line on foot. For a visitor who wants to avoid the situation entirely, whether out of discomfort, mobility limits, or simple preference, the water is the clean answer.
Every other way in
From Encore’s and the MBTA’s current published information:
- Encore Downtown Shuttle, free, departing 209 Essex Street in Boston, serving South Station and Logan Airport.
- Chinatown Runner, free, picking up at the Chinatown Gate. Orange Line to Chinatown is about a six-minute walk; South Station on the Commuter Rail is about eight.
- Quincy Runner, free, with stops at Kam Man Foods on Quincy Avenue, New York Mart on Hancock Street, and the Speedway station on Hancock Street. Reachable by the Red Line to Quincy Center or North Quincy and buses 210, 211, 215, 217, and 225.
- Bicycle, with parking on site and a BlueBikes dock for drop-off.
MBTA fares are $2.40 on the subway and $1.70 on the bus, with one-day and seven-day passes available.
Two things to check before you rely on any of this
First, older guides are out of date. Coverage from the casino’s opening years describes free casino shuttles from Malden Center and Wellington on the Orange Line. Those do not appear on either the MBTA destination page or Encore’s own directions page today. Do not plan around them.
Second, the shuttles are run by the casino, not the MBTA. As of this writing Encore has not posted any service suspension or notice on its directions page, so the published schedules are what the operator says is running. In a labor dispute involving drivers and grounds staff, that is worth a phone call before you build a trip around a specific departure rather than trusting a web page.
On accessibility, and what has and has not been reported
A blocked vehicle entrance falls hardest on the people who need the vehicle entrance. A visitor who cannot walk a long approach, who uses a wheelchair, who has been dropped off by a family member, or who booked a ride to the door has fewer options than a visitor who can simply park farther away and walk.
That is a consequence of any blocked entrance, and it applies here as a matter of logic. It should not be reported as more than that. As of this writing there is no published reporting of complaints from elderly or disabled patrons at Encore, no accessibility complaint filed that has been made public, and no statement from either union about how the picket handles patrons who need vehicle access. Anyone who tells you otherwise should be asked for the source.
What is documented is narrower and still significant: cars were prevented from moving in and out of the Broadway entrance on the first day of the strike. Whether that has continued, and on what terms, has not been reported in detail.
For a visitor who needs door-to-door vehicle access this week, the harbor shuttle and the downtown shuttles both deliver to the property without using the Broadway vehicle entrance, and calling the resort before travelling is the reliable move.
We have also written on what a picket line may and may not legally do in Massachusetts.