Old Colony Lines (MBTA)

Under the name of Old Colony Lines several branches of the MBTA Commuter Rail system in the state of Massachusetts in the United States are summarized, which connect through the Boston South Station Boston's 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 in a southeasterly direction from Braintree along Massachusetts Route and 3 through the towns of Weymouth, Abington, Whitman, Hanson, Halifax, Kingston Plymouth runs. Finally, the Greenbush Line leads eastwards across Hingham and Cohasset Scituate after.

In 2010, the line Middleborough / Lakeville transported on any working day on average 9,930 passengers, the line Plymouth / Kingston came to 9,238 passengers.

History

Until the mid- 20th century, the area covered ranged beyond the present termini of the three branches. The line Greenbush led up to Kingston and united there with the Plymouth line that went to the city center of Plymouth. Another branch connected the city with Middlesborough. Southeast of the trains of the Old Colony four different end stations on Cape Cod at Woods Hole, Hyannis, Chatham and Provincetown. Additional branches were heading towards the southwest until after Bedford and Fall River about Newport in Rhode Iceland. From the main lines branched off a few more smaller branches, which led, among other things, to Hull, East Bridgewater, West Bridgewater, North Hanover and Fairhaven. Today, none of these lines longer active.

The Old Colony owned by the New Haven Railroad

In 1959 the passenger trains of the Old Colony Railroad were set despite high ridership, as the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad ( NYNH & H ), which had leased the line system was confronted with unmanageable problems.

Already tried in 1935, which at that time already insolvent ( NYNH & H) to escape their obligations under the lease and return the company to the shareholders of the Old Colony Railroad. This, however, drove the Old Colony, which had operated no longer train for more than 30 years, within one day also in bankruptcy, and a court ruling forced the NYNH & H to continue the operation of the Old Colony lines. The operation should only be set if the losses exceed a certain amount.

In the early 1950s, the lines of the Old Colony experienced a brief revival, but after a short time was over again. The accountant of the New Haven Railroad took advantage of every opportunity to book more and more debt on the Old Colony, so that the end of the 1950s had reached the required amount of loss by the court. When the NYNH & H announced, 1958 cease to operate the lines, put the Commonwealth of Massachusetts an emergency grant for another year. In 1959, the operation was then, finally ceased with the opening of the Southeast Expressway, which follows much of the route of the Old Colony.

Gradual resumption of operations

In the late 1960s were air pollution and heavy traffic towards ever larger problems on the Expressway, so that it will soon have been efforts to resume the operation of the Old Colony lines again. This was gradually and along with modernization, so that all stations and trains of the Old Colony are accessible today.

Red Line

In 1971, the Red Line was eventually expanded to Quincy Center and 1980 to Braintree. The new stations were equipped with large parking garages, which had an immediate increase in passenger numbers result.

Lines Middleborough / Lakeville and Plymouth / Kingston

In September 1997, the lines Middleborough and Plymouth were reopened in order to reduce the traffic load on the roads in the region.

Greenbush Line

The Greenbush Line was originally supposed to be opened at the same time to the other two lines, but here were additional challenges to overcome, which delayed the restart. Unlike the other two lines, the Greenbush Line was set since the 1970s, completely out of order, so that not even wrong freight trains there. Therefore, the railways of the line had to be completely rebuilt, which also included the construction of a tunnel beneath the center of Hingham among others. The line was finally able to resume its operation on October 31, 2007.

Replacement of railway sleepers

In May 2010, the MBTA announced that from 2011 no longer drive the Old Colony lines until further on weekends and weekdays during off-peak times replaced by buses. Background are necessary construction work along the route, under which railway sleepers are replaced by wooden ones made ​​of concrete; the concrete sleepers have long become brittle before the calculated life. Construction began in March 2011 and were completed in May, 2012.

Operating restrictions from 2012

On 28 March 2012, the MBTA announced the suspension of operations of the lines Plymouth / Kingston, Needham and Greenbush on weekends. This measure was part of a package of fare increases and reduction in schedule to improve the financial situation of the MBTA. By July 7, 2012, the announcements have been implemented.

List of stops

• Transport Red Line / Silverline / MBTA bus

• Acela Express / Lake Shore Limited / Northeast Regional

• Fairmount Line / Providence / Stoughton Line / Franklin Line / Needham Line / Framingham / Worcester Line

• Red Line / MBTA bus
• Cape flyer

• Red Line / MBTA bus
• Cape flyer

• Red Line / MBTA bus
• Cape flyer

• MBTA bus
• Cape flyer

• MBTA bus
• Cape flyer

• Local buses
• Cape flyer