Westborough (MBTA station)

WESTBOROUGH

Westborough station in April 2009
Location Smith Parkway & Fisher Street
Westborough, Massachusetts
Coordinates 42°16′11″N 71°38′50″W / 42.2696°N 71.6473°W / 42.2696; -71.6473Coordinates: 42°16′11″N 71°38′50″W / 42.2696°N 71.6473°W / 42.2696; -71.6473
Line(s)
  Framingham/Worcester Line
Platforms 2 side platforms
Tracks 2
Connections WRTA Westborough Commuter Shuttle[1]
Construction
Parking 443 spaces ($4.00 fee)
8 accessible spaces
Bicycle facilities 4 spaces
Disabled access Yes
Other information
Fare zone 7
History
Opened June 22, 2002[2][3]
Traffic
Passengers (2013) 759 (weekday inbound average)[4]
Services
Preceding station   MBTA   Following station
toward Worcester
Framingham/Worcester Line
  Former services  
New York Central Railroad
toward Albany
Boston and Albany Railroad
Main Line
Southville
toward Boston
toward Worcester
Worcester Line

Westborough is a regional rail station on the MBTA Commuter Rail Framingham/Worcester Line, located off Smith Parkway in Westborough, Massachusetts, west of the town center. The station consists of two side platforms serving the line's two tracks. Each side has a small mini-high platform for handicapped access; an overhead ramp structure connects the two platforms.

History

B&A station

The 1899-built Westborough station in 2016 after restoration

The Boston and Worcester Railroad (B&W) opened from Boston to Westborough on November 17, 1834, and on to Worcester the next July.[5] The line ran through the town center, with a station east of Main Street.[6][7]

In 1898, the Boston and Albany Railroad, successor to the B&W, began a project to eliminate dangerous grade crossings in downtown Westborough. 1.5 miles (2.4 km) of new tracks were built north of the downtown area along with a new station. The station was built in a Richardsonian Romanesque style, but designed by a B&A architect rather than the firm of Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge which had designed stations for the B&A until 1894.[8][9]

On April 24, 1960, the New York Central sharply cut services on the former B&A line. All local stops west of Framingham, including Westborough, were eliminated.[5] Amtrak planned to stop its Bay State at Westborough in 1972, but the stop was never actually put in place.[10] Commuter service to Worcester ended in 1975, replaced by a single daily Amtrak train which did not stop between Framingham and Worcester.[3] The station building was purchased by an abrasives company but largely unused, and fell into disrepair. A local civil engineering firm purchased the station in January 2000 and restored it for use as their offices, which opened in February 2001.[8]

MBTA station

In 1994, service to Worcester was restored as mitigation for delays with reopening the Old Colony Lines. Service initially ran nonstop from Framingham to Worcester, but intermediate park and ride stops were added later as mitigation for delays in reopening the Greenbush Line. Westborough station was opened on June 22, 2002, along with Southborough.[3] It is not located as the former station site, but instead to the west of downtown Westborough, closer to busy Route 9. The $4.9 million station originally included 311 parking spaces.[2] Due to high demand, an additional 142-space lot costing $500,000 was opened in January 2006.[11]

References

  1. ↑ "Westborough Shuttle – Westborough MBTA to Computer Drive (Commuter)". Worcester Regional Transit Authority. Retrieved 15 February 2016.
  2. 1 2 "New MBTA Commuter Rail Stations Open; Train Service Expanded" (PDF). TRANSreport. Boston Metropolitan Planning Organization. August 2002. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 January 2011.
  3. 1 2 3 Belcher, Jonathan (26 December 2015). "Changes to Transit Service in the MBTA district 1964-2015" (PDF). NETransit. Retrieved 25 January 2016.
  4. ↑ "Ridership and Service Statistics" (PDF) (14 ed.). Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. 2014. Retrieved 25 January 2016.
  5. 1 2 Humphrey, Thomas J.; Clark, Norton D. (1985). Boston's Commuter Rail: The First 150 Years. Boston Street Railway Association. pp. 21, 24. ISBN 9780685412947.
  6. ↑ "Westborough". New Topog. Atlas of the County of Worcester. L.J. Richards. 1898 – via WardMaps.
  7. ↑ "Westborough". Atlas of Worcester County, Massachusetts. J.B. Beers & Co. 1870 – via WardMaps.
  8. 1 2 Roy, John H. Jr. (2007). A Field Guide to Southern New England Railroad Depots and Freight Houses. Branch Line Press. p. 267. ISBN 9780942147087.
  9. ↑ Ochsner, Jeffrey Karl (June 1988). "Architecture for the Boston & Albany Railroad: 1881-1894". Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. 47 (2): 115. doi:10.2307/990324. JSTOR 990324. (subscription required (help)).
  10. ↑ Nationwide Schedules of Intercity Passenger Service. Amtrak. January 16, 1972. p. 48 – via Museum of Railway Timetables.
  11. ↑ "MPO Agency Notes" (PDF). TRANSreport. Boston Metropolitan Planning Organization. February 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 January 2011. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
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