Old Colony Lines (MBTA)

Old Colony Lines
A Middleborough / Lakeville Line train at Campello station
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Type	Regional passenger train
place	Massachusetts United States
Number of stations	17th
opening	1997 (reopened)
operator	MBTA
Daily Passengers	19,168 (2010)
Legend 0.0 Boston MA South Station to Worcester and Providence Fort Point Channel from Boston OC Station to Islington (km 1.8 from South Station) Red Line from Alewife 3.7 JFK / UMass Savin Hill Red Line to Ashmont Neponset River North Quincy Wollaston 12.6 Quincy Center Quincy Adams Greenbush Line 17.9 Braintree Braintree Sweeper 24.3 Holbrook / Randolph 29.8 Montello 32.5 Brockton 35.0 Campello 44.2 Bridgewater Interstate 495 57.0 Middleborough / Lakeville 25.6 South Weymouth 30.9 Abington 33.8 Whitman 39.5 Hanson 45.4 Halifax 56.0 Kingston / Route 3 56.6 Plymouth

Under the name Old Colony Lines several branches of be MBTA commuter rail system in the state of Massachusetts of the United States combined, via the Boston South Station , the Boston connect the city center with outlying areas in the south and southeast of the city.

The Middleborough / Lakeville Line runs south through Holbrook , Brockton , Bridgewater , Lakeville and Middleborough , while the Plymouth / Kingston Line runs southeast from Braintree along Massachusetts Route 3 through the towns of Weymouth , Abington , Whitman , Hanson , Halifax , Kingston and Plymouth runs. Finally, the Greenbush Line heads east via Hingham and Cohasset to Scituate .

In 2010, the Middleborough / Lakeville line carried an average of 9,930 passengers every working day , while the Plymouth / Kingston line carried 9,238 passengers.

history

See also : New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad

The Old Colony system in 1893

Brockton Railway Station , 1906

The newly built Brockton station, 2009

By the middle of the 20th century, the area covered extended beyond the current terminus of the three branches. The Greenbush line ran as far as Kingston and merged there with the Plymouth Line , which went to Plymouth city ​​center . Another branch connected the city to Middleborough . To the southeast, the Old Colony trains ran to four different terminus on Cape Cod : Woods Hole , Hyannis , Chatham and Provincetown . Additional branches drove southwest to Bedford or Fall River Newport in Rhode Island . A few other smaller branches branched off the main lines, leading to Hull , East Bridgewater, West Bridgewater, North Hanover and Fairhaven, among others . Today none of these lines is active anymore.

The Old Colony owned by the New Haven Railroad

In 1959, the Old Colony Railroad's passenger trains were discontinued, despite high passenger numbers, because the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (NYNH & H), which had leased the line system , faced insurmountable problems.

As early as 1935, the then insolvent (NYNH & H) tried to evade its leasing obligations and return the operation to the shareholders of the Old Colony Railroad . However, this also drove the Old Colony , which had not operated a train for more than 30 years, into bankruptcy within one day, and a court ruling forced NYNH & H to continue operating the Old Colony lines. Operations are only allowed to be stopped if the losses exceed a certain amount.

In the early 1950s, the lines of the Old Colony experienced a brief revival, but this was over after a short time. The New Haven Railroad accountants took every opportunity to book more and more debts to the Old Colony , so that by the late 1950s the amount required by the court was reached. When NYNH & H announced that it would cease operations on the lines in 1958, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts made an emergency grant available for an additional year. In 1959, with the opening of the Southeast Expressway , which largely follows the route of the Old Colony , operations were finally stopped.

Gradual resumption of operations

In the late 1960s, air pollution and heavy traffic became increasingly serious problems on the expressway, so efforts were soon made to resume operations on the Old Colony lines. This was done step by step and accompanied by modernization, so that today all stations and trains of the Old Colony are barrier-free .

Red Line

In 1971 the Red Line was extended to Quincy Center and in 1980 to Braintree . The new stations were equipped with large parking garages , which resulted in an immediate increase in the number of passengers.

Middleborough / Lakeville and Plymouth / Kingston lines

In September 1997 the Middleborough and Plymouth lines were reopened to reduce traffic congestion on the roads in the area.

Greenbush Line

The Greenbush Line was originally supposed to open at the same time as the other two lines, but additional challenges had to be overcome here, which delayed the restart. Unlike the other two lines, the Greenbush Line had been completely out of service since the 1970s, so that not even freight trains ran there. As a result, the line's tracks had to be completely rebuilt, including the construction of a tunnel below the city center of Hingham . The line was finally able to resume operations on October 31, 2007.

Replacement of railway sleepers

In May 2010, the MBTA announced that from 2011 the Old Colony lines will no longer operate on weekends until further notice and will be replaced by buses on weekdays outside rush hour . The background to this is the necessary construction work along the route, as part of which concrete railway sleepers are being replaced by wooden ones; the concrete sleepers had become brittle long before the calculated service life. The construction work began in March 2011 and could not be fully completed until May 2012.

Operation restrictions from 2012

On March 28, 2012, the MBTA announced the cessation of operations on the Plymouth / Kingston , Needham and Greenbush lines on weekends. This measure was part of a package of fare increases and timetable reductions in order to improve the financial situation of the MBTA. The announcements were implemented on July 7, 2012.

List of stops

Surname	place	Transfer options outside of the Old Colony lines	Park & ​​Ride	Remarks
Boston South Station	Boston	Local transport Red Line / Silver Line / MBTA Bus Amtrak Acela Express / Lake Shore Limited / Northeast Regional MBTA Commuter Rail Fairmount Line / Providence / Stoughton Line / Franklin Line / Needham Line / Framingham / Worcester Line CapeFLYER		North end of the Old Colony Lines
JFK / UMass	Boston	Red Line / MBTA bus CapeFLYER	18 bicycle parking spaces
Quincy Center	Quincy	Red Line / MBTA bus CapeFLYER	872 parking spaces, 20 bicycle parking spaces
Braintree	Braintree	Red Line / MBTA bus CapeFLYER	1,281 parking spaces, 30 bicycle parking spaces
Holbrook / Randolph	Randolph	MBTA bus CapeFLYER	369 parking spaces, 8 bicycle parking spaces
Montello	Brockton	MBTA bus CapeFLYER	425 parking spaces, 16 bicycle parking spaces
Brockton	Brockton	Local bus routes CapeFLYER	200 parking spaces, 8 bicycle parking spaces
Campello	Brockton	CapeFLYER	546 parking spaces, 8 bicycle parking spaces
Bridgewater	Bridgewater	CapeFLYER	497 parking spaces, 24 bicycle parking spaces
Middleborough / Lakeville	Lakeville	CapeFLYER (only on weekends in summer)	853 parking spaces, 8 bicycle parking spaces	South end of the Middleborough / Lakeville line
South Weymouth	Weymouth		539 parking spaces, 10 bicycle parking spaces
Abington	Abington		405 parking spaces, 8 bicycle parking spaces
Whitman	Whitman		208 parking spaces, 8 bicycle parking spaces
Hanson	Hanson		428 parking spaces, 8 bicycle parking spaces
Halifax	Halifax		408 parking spaces, 8 bicycle parking spaces	When traveling south, the line splits to Plymouth or Kingston
Kingston / Route 3	Kingston	Local bus routes	1,030 parking spaces	South end of the Kingston Line
Plymouth	Plymouth		96 parking spaces, 8 bicycle parking spaces	South end of the Plymouth Line

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Ridership and Service Statistics (PDF; 6.2 MB) Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. 2010. Retrieved September 27, 2011.
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Jonathan Belcher: Changes to Transit Service in the MBTA district ( PDF ; 912 kB) NETransit. April 23, 2012. Retrieved August 4, 2012.
3. ↑ MBTA Old Colony tie project will require weekend shutdowns . Trains Magazine. May 4, 2010. Retrieved May 4, 2010.
4. ↑ Old Colony Commuter Rail Tie Replacement Project . Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. Archived from the original on September 19, 2011. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved September 27, 2011. 

Web links

Commons : MBTA Plymouth / Kingston Line  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Commons : MBTA Middleborough / Lakeville Line  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files