Making History At Myricks
For the first time since September 5, 1958 when the last New Haven Railroad passenger trains left town the cities of New Bedford and Fall River are once served be regularly scheduled passenger service to and from South Station in Boston.
On March 24, 2025 the MBTA in partnership with their operator Keolis Commuter Service inaugurated 'South Coast Rail' the extension of the Middleboro Line an additional 22 and 25.5 miles to Fall River and New Bedford respectively.
Despite the gloom I had to document a few trains so headed down after work and decided to set up at Myricks for the first two scheduled revenue outbound trains from Boston. Myricks is where the two lines split with the line to New Bedford being the older of the two having opened in 1840 between the whaling city and Taunton. Five years later the line from Fall River opened and then a year after that the route north via Middleborough and Bridgewater to Braintree opened. After passenger service endeded in 1958 the lines survived in freight service operated by the direct corporate successors of the NH...first the Penn Central from 1969 to 1976 then Conrail until 1999 and CSXT until 2010 with the routes deteriorating to the point they were limited to 5 or 10 mph speeds and saw no more than two trains a week. In 2010 MassDOT purchased the 38 miles for $21 million and concurrent with that deal CSXT turned around and sold its perpetual freight easement to Mass Coastal which provided exclusive freight service on both lines, interchanging with CSXT at Cotley.
Here are a couple photos pre rebuild a bit over five years ago when Mass Coastal maintained these lines:
Back then a single track crossed Myricks Street with a hand throw turnout connecting the two routes. Today the trackage is under the control of the MBTA and is maintained and dispatched by Keolis and features a four track grade crossing with a signal bridge straddling the massive new interlocking. However, despite these changes Mass Coastal continues to provide freight service to both cities.
Breaking trail is Wabtec rebuilt F40PH-3C 1031 leading outbound train 2055 to New Bedford as it passes through Myricks interlocking at MP NM40.4 on Main 2 of the New Bedford Mainline. This train left the new East Taunton Station at 8:11 AM and is scheduled to arrive in New Bedford at 8:34 AM, the first of 15 trains, half of which are shuttles like this where passengers can make a five minute cross platform connection with a Fall River bound train from Boston (in this case train 1905 in the prior photo) and half are one seat ride through trains.
Berkley, Massachusetts
Monday March 24, 2025
Making History At Myricks
For the first time since September 5, 1958 when the last New Haven Railroad passenger trains left town the cities of New Bedford and Fall River are once served be regularly scheduled passenger service to and from South Station in Boston.
On March 24, 2025 the MBTA in partnership with their operator Keolis Commuter Service inaugurated 'South Coast Rail' the extension of the Middleboro Line an additional 22 and 25.5 miles to Fall River and New Bedford respectively.
Despite the gloom I had to document a few trains so headed down after work and decided to set up at Myricks for the first two scheduled revenue outbound trains from Boston. Myricks is where the two lines split with the line to New Bedford being the older of the two having opened in 1840 between the whaling city and Taunton. Five years later the line from Fall River opened and then a year after that the route north via Middleborough and Bridgewater to Braintree opened. After passenger service endeded in 1958 the lines survived in freight service operated by the direct corporate successors of the NH...first the Penn Central from 1969 to 1976 then Conrail until 1999 and CSXT until 2010 with the routes deteriorating to the point they were limited to 5 or 10 mph speeds and saw no more than two trains a week. In 2010 MassDOT purchased the 38 miles for $21 million and concurrent with that deal CSXT turned around and sold its perpetual freight easement to Mass Coastal which provided exclusive freight service on both lines, interchanging with CSXT at Cotley.
Here are a couple photos pre rebuild a bit over five years ago when Mass Coastal maintained these lines:
Back then a single track crossed Myricks Street with a hand throw turnout connecting the two routes. Today the trackage is under the control of the MBTA and is maintained and dispatched by Keolis and features a four track grade crossing with a signal bridge straddling the massive new interlocking. However, despite these changes Mass Coastal continues to provide freight service to both cities.
Breaking trail is Wabtec rebuilt F40PH-3C 1031 leading outbound train 2055 to New Bedford as it passes through Myricks interlocking at MP NM40.4 on Main 2 of the New Bedford Mainline. This train left the new East Taunton Station at 8:11 AM and is scheduled to arrive in New Bedford at 8:34 AM, the first of 15 trains, half of which are shuttles like this where passengers can make a five minute cross platform connection with a Fall River bound train from Boston (in this case train 1905 in the prior photo) and half are one seat ride through trains.
Berkley, Massachusetts
Monday March 24, 2025