Westborough
Westborough station in April 2009
General information
LocationSmith Parkway and Fisher Street
Westborough, Massachusetts
Coordinates42°16′11″N 71°38′50″W / 42.2696°N 71.6473°W / 42.2696; -71.6473
Line(s)Worcester Line
Platforms2 side platforms
Tracks2
Construction
Parking448 spaces ($6.00 weekday, $2.00 weekend fee)
Bicycle facilities4 spaces
AccessibleYes
Other information
Fare zone7
History
OpenedJune 22, 2002[1][2]
Passengers
2018754 (weekday average boardings)[3]
Services
Preceding station MBTA Following station
Grafton
toward Worcester
 Framingham/​Worcester Line Southborough
toward South Station
Former services
Preceding station New York Central Railroad Following station
Worcester
toward Albany
 Boston and Albany Railroad
Main Line
 Cordaville
toward Boston
North Grafton
toward Albany

Westborough station is an MBTA Commuter Rail station in Westborough, Massachusetts. It serves the Framingham/Worcester Line. It is located off Smith Parkway, west of the Westborough town center. The station consists of two side platforms serving the line's two tracks. Each side has a small mini-high platform for accessibility; 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.[4] The line ran through the town center, with a station east of Main Street.[5][6] Westborough was a station stop by 1838.[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.[4] 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.[2] 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. After the opening of Grafton in 2000 caused traffic congestion in the town, officials from Ashland, Southborough, and Westborough asked that their three stations open within a 90-day span to avoid overwhelming any one town with traffic. The three stations, which together cost $14.2 million, were originally scheduled to open on December 31, 2001.[11] However, they were delayed by several factors, including a debate on whether to build full-length high-level platforms. Those were ruled out because they interfere with freight traffic; instead, smaller "mini-high" platforms plus long low platforms were built.[12] Southborough and Westborough opened on June 22, 2002, followed by Ashland on August 24.[13][2]

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.[1] Due to high demand, an additional 142-space lot costing $500,000 was opened on December 28, 2005.[14][15]

References

  1. 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.
  2. 1 2 3 Belcher, Jonathan. "Changes to Transit Service in the MBTA district" (PDF). Boston Street Railway Association.
  3. ↑ Central Transportation Planning Staff (2019). "2018 Commuter Rail Counts". Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.
  4. 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.
  5. ↑ "Westborough". New Topog. Atlas of the County of Worcester. L.J. Richards. 1898 – via WardMaps.
  6. ↑ "Westborough". Atlas of Worcester County, Massachusetts. J.B. Beers & Co. 1870 – via WardMaps.
  7. ↑ Dickinson, S.N. (1838). The Boston Almanac for the Year 1838. p. 50.
  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.
  10. ↑ Nationwide Schedules of Intercity Passenger Service. Amtrak. January 16, 1972. p. 48 – via Museum of Railway Timetables.
  11. ↑ Flanagan, Ted (October 16, 2001). "They'll wait for the stations a little longer". Boston Globe. p. 28 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  12. ↑ Saltzman, Jonathan (June 16, 2002). "Hear that whistle blowin'". Boston Globe. pp. 148, 150 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon (second page)
  13. ↑ Saltzman, Jonathan (August 11, 2002). "New stations popular with commuters: Town's rail stop will open Aug. 24". Boston Globe. p. 111 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  14. ↑ "MPO Agency Notes" (PDF). TRANSreport. Boston Metropolitan Planning Organization. February 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 January 2011. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
  15. ↑ "MBTA Completes Parking Expansion Project At Westborough Commuter Rail Station" (Press release). Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. December 28, 2005.

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