What if we had Regional Rail?

Examining a hypothetical passenger line between Fitchburg and Worcester

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Oct 18, 2024

Massachusetts, like much of the United States, had an extensive railroad network at the turn of the 20th century. Rail lines connected every city in the state, along with the towns in between. This impressive coverage was necessary for the region’s industry as trains were the primary method of moving freight overland before the invention of the diesel truck.

Passenger service, like freight, was also extensive. Take Fitchburg, a small city in Central Mass. The namesake of the Fitchburg Railroad, it was also a terminus of the Fitchburg & Worcester line. Passenger trains ran direct routes to nearby cities like Worcester, Framingham, and Gardner.

The Present

History was not kind to Fitchburg’s passenger lines. Service to Worcester would end in 1926, and service to Framingham ended in 1931. Though the MBTA brought back service to Boston in the eighties, service to Gardner ended in 1987.1 Portions of the Fitchburg & Worcester Railroad were torn up to create the Twin Cities Rail Trail as late as 2020.2

Today Fitchburg Intermodal Transportation Center only has one passenger line — the Commuter Rail route to Boston. It’s called “Intermodal” because it serves as a bus hub.

If you want to get to Worcester, you have to take this little shuttle van called the Worcester Commuter which stops in Leominster and Clinton. It takes about an hour, stopping at Worcester seven times between 7:25 and 6:06 every day.

There’s a reason why most people just take Interstate 190 if they can. In the words of one rider, “I think it’s great that we can commute from Fitchburg to Worcester, though it does take a long time. I suppose that’s to be expected with a shuttle though.”

The Future

With the potential expansion of passenger service on the East-West and Northern Tier rail corridors, Worcester and Fitchburg may once again become significant centers of regional rail travel. Let’s imagine what kind of route would be needed to reconnect these two cities and replace the commuter bus with a local passenger train.

Trains would depart from the Intermodal station in Fitchburg and head to the nearby city of Leominster, where they stop at the city center. They would then continue south through the countryside to Clinton, stopping at the North-South platform by Depot Square. They would travel around the Wachusett Reservoir to stop at the small town of West Boylston, then head into the city limits of Worcester. The first stop would be in suburban Greendale, which would not only attract riders from the neighborhood, but also feature stops for city busses and a car garage for park & ride passengers. They then stop at Worcester’s transport hub for bus and rail: the grand Union Station on Washington Square. Finally they make a stop for Clark University at the park, before heading into a depot to prepare for the return journey.

This would be a fast, frequent commuter service, with train cars suited to high ridership between the two population centers.

Possible route of a Fitchburg-Worcester passenger line. Credit to Lori H. Krikorian.

It goes without saying that there would be challenges to creating such a route. A new right-of-way would need to be secured in a few places, such as between Fitchburg and Leominster and on the approach to Clinton. The former would face NIMBY opposition as well as significant budgetary requirements to convert the rail trail into a “rail-with-trail” — laying new track where it had only recently been torn up. Such are the problems that arise when you shortsightedly destroy heavy rail infrastructure for something as banal as a bike path.

However, the benefits would far outweigh the costs. This route would return rail service to two historic depots in Leominster and Clinton, and would provide entirely new stations for West Boylston, Greendale, and South Worcester. For the first time this century, all of these population centers would see passenger rail. North Leominster, which now only sees park & ride service, would be supplemented by a new station downtown within walking distance of the city’s businesses and homes. The ecological and economic benefits to a local passenger line cannot be understated; linking Fitchburg and Worcester together would have a system-wide positive impact.

The Fitchburg-Worcester line would act as an orbital to the Commuter Rail radials

This new line would serve as an orbital route between the terminal cities of two different Boston Commuter Rail lines. Fitchburg and Worcester would become interchange points where passengers can transfer between different local trains — either radially to and from the big city or orbitally around it. Local lines from Fitchburg to Lowell or from Worcester to Providence would strengthen this ability even further.

What this means is that such a line would not only link Worcester and Fitchburg, but bring communities like Framingham, Concord, and Shrewsbury into a cohesive regional network. Clinton Station would act as a local access point, linking rural communities such as Lancaster, Berlin, and Sterling to nearby towns and cities. The ‘MetroWest’ — the densely populated region between Boston and Worcester — would be bounded on all sides by local passenger rail. Passenger trains would not only be for those going into and out of Boston, but an increasingly viable way to get from one town to the next. This would be the new beginning for a true, cohesive regional urbanism.

Thanks again to Lori for doing the hard work of plotting out the route. Transit advocacy would not be possible without people like you.

Wikipedia - Fitchburg Intermodal

MassDOT - Twin Cities Rail Trail