Framingham/Worcester Line

FRAMINGHAM/ WORCESTER LINE
Front facade of Worcester Union Station
Overview
Type	Commuter rail line
System	Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
Status	Operating
Locale	Central Massachusetts
Termini	Boston South Station Worcester Union Station
Stations	17
Daily ridership	16,293 (2013 weekday average boardings)[1]
Operation
Opened	1834 as the Boston and Worcester Railroad
Owner	MassDOT (Back Bay to Riverside) MBTA (Riverside to Framingham) MassDOT (Framingham to Worcester)[1]
Operator(s)	Keolis North America
Technical
Line length	44.3 miles (71.3 km)[2]
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Route map Legend mi 0.0 South Station Massachusetts Turnpike Fairmount, Greenbush, and Old Colony Lines 1.2 Back Bay Franklin, Needham, and Providence/Stoughton Lines  Green Line  "E" Branch 2.5 Yawkey  Green Line  "C" Branch & "D" Branch  Green Line  "B" Branch Grand Junction Branch 3.8 West Station opening 2020 CSX Beacon Park Yard (closed 2013) 4.7 Boston Landing 8.1 Newtonville 9.1 West Newton 10.2 Auburndale Massachusetts Turnpike 10.7 Riverside closed 1977 12.5 Wellesley Farms 13.5 Wellesley Hills 14.7 Wellesley Square 17.7 Natick Center 19.9 West Natick Framingham Secondary 21.4 Framingham Milford Branch Fitchburg Secondary 25.2 Ashland 27.4 Southborough 34.0 Westborough 36.4 Grafton Grafton and Upton Railroad Worcester Yard 44.2 Worcester 1994-2000 44.3 Worcester Providence & Worcester RR Amtrak Lake Shore Limited Norwich & Worcester Branch Boston Surface Railroad (P&W) (proposed)

The Framingham/Worcester Line of the MBTA Commuter Rail system runs west from Boston, Massachusetts to Worcester, Massachusetts through the MetroWest region, serving 17 station stops in Boston, Newton, Wellesley, Natick, Framingham, Ashland, Southborough, Westborough, Grafton, and Worcester. The third-longest and second-busiest line on the system, the Framingham/Worcester Line is plagued by poor track conditions, interference from freight trains, and a number of non-handicapped-accessible stations. Service on the line is a mix of local and express trains serving Worcester plus short-turn Framingham locals.

The Framingham/Worcester Line was one of the first commuter rail lines, with daily commuter-oriented service to West Newton beginning in 1834. Originally the Boston and Worcester Railroad, service has been operated by the Boston and Albany Railroad, New York Central, Penn Central, and since 1964 by Boston and Maine Railroad, Amtrak, and the MBCR until 2014 under contract to the MBTA. Since 2014 service has been operated by Keolis North America. In 1975 the line was cut back to Framingham, but service returned to Worcester in 1994 with four infill stations added between 2000 and 2002.

After purchasing the Framingham-Worcester trackage from CSX in 2012, the MBTA has begun adding service to the outer section of the line and performing track work to increase speeds and reliability. A new station is planned: West Station in Beacon Park Yard opening in 2020.

All stations from Boston Landing east and West Natick west are handicapped accessible; those in between are not. West Station will be fully handicapped accessible.

History

This 1881-built depot at Auburndale, designed by H. H. Richardson, was torn down in 1961 to make room for the Massachusetts Turnpike

Grafton station, with large ramps and mini-high platforms for handicapped accessibility, is typical of the west-of-Framingham stations built around 2000

Originally built in 1834 as the Boston and Worcester Railroad, the line was later part of the Boston and Albany Railroad and New York Central Railroad systems. The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority acquired the tracks from Newton to Back Bay Station^[3] in order to construct the Boston Extension of the Massachusetts Turnpike from the Route 128 circumferential highway to the then-elevated Central Artery in downtown Boston. Construction ran from 1962 to 1964, and reduced the railway to two tracks.

The New York Central was merged into Penn Central Transportation in 1968, which went bankrupt in 1970. Amtrak was created in 1971 to take over intercity rail service from the private railroads. When Amtrak started operations on May 1, 1971, no intercity service was kept on the line, thus ending direct connections from Boston to Springfield, Pittsfield, and Albany. In mid-May, Amtrak added the Boston-New Haven Bay State.^[4] The train struggled to find consistent ridership, with frequent changes of schedule and destination. In 1973, the westbound trip operated as a quasi-commuter train. The Bay State was canceled on March 1, 1975.^[4]

On January 27, 1973, the MBTA acquired the remainder of the tracks east of Framingham, and began subsidizing service between Framingham and Boston. Commuter rail service between Worcester and Framingham (with no intermediate stops after 1960) was not subsidized by the MBTA; with just ten riders per day riding from Worcester, service was cut back to Framingham on October 27, 1975.^[3][5] Amtrak began operating a Boston-Albany section of the Lake Shore Limited four days later. Boston-New Haven (Inland Route) service was restored under the Bay State name in 1984, and ran in various forms until the early 2000s.^[4]

The trackage on the western segment was inherited by Conrail in 1976, which returned to profitability in the 1980s; after a corporate breakup in 1999, CSX Transportation became the owner of the Worcester-to-Framingham segment. Service along the remaining Boston-Framingham segment was considerably increased in October 1979; this was intended to partially compensate for the closure of the Needham Line that month to make room for Southwest Corridor construction.^[3] As part of the Southwest Corridor project, the Orange Line was rerouted into parallel tracks sharing the Framingham Line's right of way between Back Bay station and the portal to the Washington Street Tunnel.

1994-2002: Westward expansion

MBTA commuter rail service expanded to Worcester on September 26, 1994 with limited rush-hour-only service. Off-peak service was added beginning on December 14, 1996. Worcester Union Station underwent a major renovation in 2000, and in 2006 the city's main bus terminal was co-located at the train station. Infill stations at Ashland, Southborough, Westborough, and Grafton were added in 2000 and 2002.^[3]

2003-2011: Ownership and performance problems

CSX freight trains in Beacon Park Yard in Allston in 2010

Empty Beacon Park Yard in 2014

For a variety of reasons, the line had some of the worst on-time performance in the MBTA system for several years. While state agencies including the MBTA owned the line out to Framingham, CSX Transportation owned from Framingham to Worcester and ran frequent freight trains as far east as Beacon Park Yard in Allston. CSX then dispatched (controlled signals) on the line from their operations base in Selkirk, New York, resulting in low priority for passenger trains.^[6] Conflicts with freight trains, ongoing track work, and an increase of passenger load of about 40% since opening were all blamed for the poor on-time performance, as were new federal speed regulations that went into effect in 2005.^[7]

In 2007, pessimistic that CSX would ever sell the line, the state Executive Office of Transportation began studying alternatives to improve service. Possibilities included adding interlockings or additional tracks to the line, or even running service from Worcester to North Station via Ayer over the Pan Am Railways Worcester Branch (former Worcester, Nashua and Rochester Railroad) and the Fitchburg Line.^[8]

In October 2007, only 48.4% of trains ran on time (no more than 1 minute early or 5 minutes late), improving to 69.3% in January 2008 after CSX and MBCR officials began meeting daily.^[7] On February 18, 2008, a new schedule went into effect, intended to more accurately reflect the run time on the line.^[9] By August 2009, actual on-time performance was at 82%.^[10]

In January 2008, the Framingham/Worcester Line became the first in the MBTA system to offer wi-fi service aboard the trains. The service was expanded system-wide after a test period, but the Worcester Line was chosen for the pilot phase in part to compensate for low on-time performance, as well as to test the service across the line's varied terrain.^[11]

In September 2009, after several years of negotiations, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts completed an agreement to purchase the tracks from Framingham to Worcester, with the actual transfer originally expected in 2011.^[12][13] Earlier phases of the agreement had allowed the addition of five weekday trains to Worcester.^[12]

2012-current: Service expansions

Low platforms, like this one at West Newton, are not handicapped accessible. They cause slow boarding on a large section of the line, as passengers must climb steps to enter train cars.

Boston Landing station under construction in September 2016

In June 2012, New Balance announced plans to build a new station stop at their new development in Allston-Brighton. Boston Landing was originally to open in 2014, but has since been delayed to 2016.^[14][15]

In July 2012, the MBTA announced plans to add additional service on the line as CSX moves freight transload operations from Beacon Park Yard in Allston to a new yard in East Worcester that does not interfere with passenger operations.^[16] Three additional weekday Boston-Worcester round trips were added on October 29, 2012 after the October 4 signing of the deed that transferred ownership of the Framingham-Worcester section to the MBTA.^[17] A rush-hour express serving Worcester was added on April 29, 2013.^[18] The ultimate goal was originally for 20 Worcester round trips by October 2013, up from 12.5 round trips before the service increases; however this was pushed back by delays in the rebuilding of Yawkey station and the delivery of the new MPI HSP46 locomotives and bilevel passenger cars.^[19]

By early 2013, Beacon Park was largely vacated except for the locomotive maintenance facility, leaving only occasional freight service east of Framingham. MBCR took over dispatching of the line from CSX in August 2013, meaning that passenger trains are now given full priority over freight trains.^[20] The dispatching changeover brings other benefits for passenger service: MBCR has greater flexibility to deal with minor emergencies affecting operations, to communicate directly with train crews, and to dispatch extra trains to cover for a late or stalled train. Blanket heat-related speed restrictions were intended to be eliminated, limiting delays even on hotter summer days.^[20]

A series of public comment hearings in 2013 were held to determine schedules. Implementation of the new schedules was delayed because the completion of Yawkey station's rehabilitation and expansion was delayed.^[21] The expansion included installation of a second track, crucial to the service expansion. The increase to 20 weekday and 9 weekend round trips to Worcester took place on March 10, 2014.^[22][23][24] The MBTA has long been planning to speed travel times on the line by adding a second main track through Beacon Park Yard - the only single-track section of the line.^[25] The former second track through the yard was turned into a yard lead with no through service in the 1950s.

In November 2013, MassDOT announced plans to spend $15 million through 2014 and 2015 to improve travel times on the line.^[21] Some of the work involves heating and cutting quarter-mile rail segments to eliminate heat kinks. The promised reduction in heat-related speed restrictions has not yet occurred due to the poor condition of the tracks; the work to reduce them started in 2014 with $1.2 million in work between Worcester and Grafton, but will not be complete until 2016.^[26]

In early 2014, MassDOT proposed DMU local service for the inner part of the line as part of the "Indigo Line".^[27] In September 2014, MassDOT announced plans to build the multimodal West Station in Beacon Park Yard as a transfer point between local DMU service and mainline locomotive-hauled commuter rail service. The $25 million station will be constructed simultaneously with a $260 million reconfiguration of the Mass Pike through Beacon Park Yard and will open in 2020.^[28] Plans for DMU service were cancelled in 2015, but West Station will still be served by conventional commuter rail trains.^[29]

On May 23, 2016, the MBTA began running a single daily round trip - inbound in the morning rush, outbound in the late evening - with no intermediate stops between Yawkey and Worcester. Branded "HeartToHub", the trips are scheduled for travel times of under one hour between Back Bay and Worcester, slightly faster than the driving time between those two locations.^[30]

Station listing

This listing shows only those stations which have seen service since 1964. For previously closed stations, see the full list of Boston & Albany Railroad stations.

Miles[1]	City	Station	Opening date	Connections and notes
0.0	Boston	South Station	1899	Red Line and all south side Commuter Rail lines Amtrak Acela Express, Lake Shore Limited, and Northeast Regional
1.2		Back Bay	1960s	Replaced Trinity Place(westward) / Huntington Av.(eastward) due to I-90 construction Orange Line splits from Providence/Stoughton Line/Franklin Line/Needham Line Amtrak Acela Express, Lake Shore Limited, and Northeast Regional
2.5		Yawkey	April 29, 1988	Only operated during games at Fenway Park until January 2, 2001, when it opened to daily commuter traffic. Rebuilt with full-length high-level platforms and accessible street-level connections; new station opened March 10, 2014 Former Brookline Junction with Highland Branch
3.8		West Station	2020 (planned)[28]	Connection with Grand Junction Branch at Beacon Park Yard
4.7		Boston Landing	May 22, 2017
8.1	Newton	Newtonville		MBTA Bus: 59, 553, 554, 556
9.1		West Newton	April 16, 1834	MBTA Bus: 553, 554
10.2		Auburndale		MBTA Bus: 505, 558
10.9		Riverside		closed October 27, 1977; separate from Green Line station split with Highland Branch and abandoned Newton Lower Falls Branch
12.5	Wellesley	Wellesley Farms		Originally Rice's Crossing
13.5		Wellesley Hills
14.7		Wellesley Square	July 3, 1834	Originally Wellesley
17.7	Natick	Natick Center		Former junction with abandoned Saxonville Branch
19.9		West Natick	August 23, 1982
21.4	Framingham	Framingham		Amtrak Lake Shore Limited junction with Milford Branch and Boston, Clinton, Fitchburg and New Bedford Railroad (NYNH&H, includes original Framingham Branch)
25.2	Ashland	Ashland	August 24, 2002	Former junction with abandoned Hopkinton Railway (NYNH&H)
27.4	Southborough	Southborough	June 22, 2002	Originally Cordaville
34.0	Westborough	Westborough	June 22, 2002
36.4	Grafton	Grafton	February 23, 2000	Originally North Grafton junction with Grafton and Upton Railroad
44.2	Worcester	Worcester		Amtrak Lake Shore Limited replaced older terminal temporarily closed October 26, 1975, reopened September 26, 1994 junction with Providence and Worcester Railroad (NYNH&H), Norwich and Worcester Railroad (NYNH&H), Worcester, Nashua and Rochester Railroad (B&M) and Boston, Barre and Gardner Railroad (B&M)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to MBTA Framingham/Worcester Line.

• MBTA - Framingham/Worcester Line
• B&A Track Charts
• The Boston & Albany Railroad Webpage