Lines that never should have been abandoned?

There is an interesting article in yesterday's Worcester Sunday Telegram about the pending revivification of the North Brookfield Railroad (former B&A).

Some years back I initiated a thread here about old abandoned lines that have since become trails and perhaps shouldn't have. What are some nominees for lines other than the North Brookfield that never should have been abandoned and which now bear some potential for current use, years later? By this I'm not referring to talking-into-your-hat, "Gee, I wish" stuff, but rail lines that actually could do a fair bit of freight or even passenger business if they were resurrected.

The Lexington Branch to Bedford, MA, Manchester and Lawrence Branch to at least Derry, NH and the Eastern Route between Newbury Port, MA and Portsmouth, NH. All 3 could have high commuter rail potential but I don't see much if anything at all in terms of freight business.

The Lexington branch would be huge, in both directions. That whole area (Lexington, Burlington, Bedford) etc does not have access to good mass transit right now... it's a shame they ripped the tracks up.

I agree with both of you, with the addition of the old Central Mass. to at least Sudbury. (Not that it'll ever happen.)

If not necessarily by priority, then by order in which they popped into my head. . .

Currently trailed lines, medium-term
1. Lexington Branch - MBTA rapid transit (Red Line). Landbanking for the Minuteman is on a court-ordered "restoration without objection" settlement, so in theory the state holds the leverage here. In theory...I'm sure there are tons of well-studied loopholes. But on legalities this is how landbanking agreements should be negotiated, and for damn sure the gold standard for successful interim trails. Relatively easy one to rail-with-trail because it would be subway almost to Arlington Heights, then low-density rest of the way. Steep cost a lot more a factor than overpowering NIMBY's.
2. Manchester Secondary (inactive Hop River Trail portion, Manchester-Willimantic) - CDOT commuter rail (Hartford-Willimantic, continuing service to New London), NECR/CSO and P&W (overhead-only) freight. Likely the only direct Hartford double stack route from Worcester, New London, Vermont for P&W and NECR/CSO.
3. Franklin Line (inactive Southern New England Trunkline Trail portion, Franklin-Blackstone/P&W) - MBTA commuter rail (Woonsocket via Blackstone), P&W/G&U/CSX freight (alt route to Boston). Very easy to rail-with-trail. Trail's unpaved anyway because the Blackstone River bridge is out and it's disconnected from the rest of the Air Line. Undoubtedly a BETTER trail if a replacement bridge had a pedestrian berth next to active rail and they then had good reason to pave it east of the disconnect.
4. Armory Branch, state line-Springfield - CNZR/CSO freight and Springfield Line freight bypass. Likely the only direct Springfield-south double stack route for CNZR/CSO interchanges with CSX/PAS (Springfield Line with too many clearance issues). If Springfield Line goes HSR, Amtrak may start agitating to get freight booted to secondary routes by jacking its already high freight overhead rates as leverage. Small trail in Longmeadow, driveway/courtyard encroachment in Springfield but no structure encroachment (gas main underneath). National pressure the only way to restore this one because MA's let the towns chew it up, but national interests re: the Springfield Line could overrule if reactivation need comes down to that.
5. Falmouth Branch - MBTA/CCCR passenger. Not soon, but long-term there's going to be some deep regret about ripping up those tracks when the rich folks can no longer get anywhere due to unbearable Route 28 traffic. Unfortunately it'll manifest itself as whining to give them their own Greenbush Line handout...but, bleh, no short-term memory/no long-term memory when it comes to NIMBY's and recovering NIMBY's.
6. Chicopee industrial track (the one they just ripped up) - PVRR freight. Yeah, too late now, but shame on them for nuking a line with customers interested in service right now.


Potentially/imminently trailed lines that need to be kept open or otherwise VERY TIGHTLY regulated
1. M&L, Methuen - MBTA commuter rail (Lawrence-Methuen/Rockingham Park). 99-year trail lease given last year to trail nonprofit pushing the Iron Horse Preservation scam. Only ROW that can divert traffic off I-93 at the border, trailed portion in NH is in state rail plan as future reactivation corridor...ceding usage control to 1 town + non-profit in MA shoots that down forever.
2. Millis Line, Needham-Medfield - MBTA commuter rail. Aggressive, very anti-rail trail lobby using dubious tactics to try to take the line.
3. Eastern Route, Newburyport-Portsmouth - MBTA/NHDOT commuter rail (Portsmouth). Small portion in downtown Newburyport trailed, but only constrains restoration to single-track without blocking. Sale of Hampton Branch to state of NH needs very forward-thinking interim planning to not block reactivation (good rail-with-trail corridor if they can provision it smart enough).
4. Fitchburg Secondary, Fitchburg (inactive portion past Leominster yard to Fitchburg Main) - MBTA commuter rail (Framingham-Clinton/Leominster), CSX-PAS freight interchange. Trail is off for time being because of town disputes with CSX. Probably worth cooling it for a bit, at least until the state can consolidate ownership of the whole line. Commuter rail proposed Framingham to Northborough/I-290 with future Leominster extension potential; Fitchburg Line connection highly desirable on any CR configuration for equipment moves. Slim chance of freight interchange reopening if Worcester Branch congestion makes alt route desirable (doubtful if CSX retains ownership; very remotely possible if state owns and sweetens CSX's pot). For such a small stretch of inactive ROW, the rest of the active line pretty secure long-term, and such a small/cheap gap to reconnect, I wouldn't allow anything to block this line. Don't even change the designation from railbanked to landbanked.
5. Plymouth Line, Plymouth Center - MBTA commuter rail. Originally planned terminus of restored Plymouth Line...NIMBY infighting stopped it at Cordage Park, but they'll likely have no short-term memory in 10 years when downtown traffic gets bad and start bitching about needing rail.

1 & 2 are the most senseless, damaging, clear-and-present danger trail proposals currently going. Methuen is a total "WTF were you thinking???", and if the T was dumb enough to gak that one away I have no confidence they'll be able to rebuff the equally flimsy Medfield one. Others listed are manageable provided the states can start applying the landbanking laws a fraction of the way originally intended without the NIMBY's having 99% of the power and game being over before it ever was suggested.


Long-term holds (interim trail OK if protection is vigilantly maintained and "toothy" enough to overpower opposition)
1. Central Mass, Route 128-Sudbury - MBTA commuter rail (new junction past 128...duplicate Waltham section not needed). Weston is blocking the trail on homeless deviant bicyclist grounds or something stupid so current trail from Hudson can't extend east of S. Sudbury/Bruce Freeman Trail. It's pretty much a dead issue for foreseeable future. Line may be needed to S. Sudbury for Route 20 congestion, so state needs to be very careful about Weston/Wayland NIMBY games. Current Hudson trail's nonprofit is amenable to rail-with-trail if future Hudston/West Berlin service desired beyond S. Sudbury.
2. M&L, Salem-Derry/Manchester - MBTA/NHDOT commuter rail. NH state-controlled trail currently. Key is preserving the Rockingham Park-Lawrence portion and keeping it away from the Methuen lobby looking to insert a locally controlled blocker. I can't overstate how stupid, senseless, and utterly short-sighted the T was to sign its life away for 99 years to a local-yokel Iron Horse scam on the only possible cross-state relief valve for I-93. I can almost hear all of NHDOT's traffic engineers screaming "Noooooooooooo!" in pain.
3a. Air Line (+ Manchester Secondary), Willimantic-Putnam - Amtrak 2040 inland NEC routing option.
3b. Air Line, Putnam-Blackstone - Amtrak 2040 inland NEC routing option if they want to skip Worcester for a Boston direct (I'm betting not...short jog north on P&W + B&A east can handle it on upgraded infrastructure much cheaper with little schedule penalty, and Worcester is way too big a city to skip).
4. NH Main, Boscawen-White River Jct. - Amtrak Boston-Montreal regional or HSR. Not a protection risk as it's an NH "as-is/no-warranty" unmaintained snowmobile trail, so state holds all the cards and only needs to keep it that way.
5. NYNE/Washington Secondary, Providence-Plainfield - Hartford-Providence intercity rail via Willimantic. Trailed in RI, landbanked w/no trail planned in CT. Probably won't support rail-with-trail on dense Warwick portion, but trail a good interim use to enforce encroachment protection.
6. Framingham Secondary (Taunton-Mansfield gap) - CSX/MassCoastal freight, accessory MBTA commuter rail bypass. If CSX double-stack to Middleboro needed for future deep-dredge South Coast ports, NEC all the way to Attleboro is not an option. Can get around the obliterated downtown Mansfield ROW by restoring to Mansfield Airport, snaking it on a new-construction re-route hugging 495/140 for 1.5 mi., then 0.5 mi. on NEC freight siding (passenger-separated) to Mansfield Jct. (no overhead bridges north of 140, cat supports can readjust wires to DS height without affecting Amtrak performance). Probably not needed for any reason but DS to Fall River/New Bedford, but needs to be kept open as ultra-long range contingency because port carloads not easily predictable at >30 year ranges when deep-dredging factored in.
7. Portsmouth Branch, Newfields-Manchester - PAR freight, (maybe) NHDOT commuter rail Concord/Manchester-Portsmouth. Don't know if there's any trail here currently. The only restorable connection linking the NH Main, Western Route, and Eastern Route on a single shot. May be needed to spread freight traffic between the Main and WR when passenger congestion on each increases. Only way to do in-state CR linking Concord/Manchester metro area with Portsmouth/Kittery metro, only way to transfer passenger equipment between all 3 NH passenger mains north of North Station. Freight may bump this to a medium-term need if the north-south passenger traffic really explodes.

My nominee would be the Providence & Worcester's Pontiac Secondary. It was a 3 mile branch in Cranston/Warwick Rhode Island. They had a major customer in Wayne Distributing which distributed Miller Beer in the Howard Industrial Park. They purposely built there for rail car service, they were not happy when the P&W abandoned. The P&W also had Rusko Steel, 84 Lumber, Davol Inc and a couple other customers on the line. Unfortunately once RI did away with their tax-exempt status for the P&W they decided it wasn't worth servicing the line any more plus one relatively small wood bridge would have had to been replaced. Really think the line could have been worth saving, especially with the newly built Howard Industrial Park with lots of potential there, oh well...

About the Fitchburg Secondary north of Leominster: I traced it last winter and it is already impinged upon by massive mall parking lots and buildings betrween between Leominster and Fitchburg.

I hate to revive an old thread, but i was looking at F-line to Dudley via Park's Post, and i saw the M&L thing about MBTA giving it up, and how all hope for that corridor is now lost. I highly doubt that. Here is why:
1. Has anyone actually seen a formal document of the lease paper? some leases mention that the owner can snatch up the land at any given time.
2. A lease is where you give someone land for a continuous stream of money, right? Maybe they signed the lease so that when the time comes for resumption of rail, they can help fund it.
3. 99 years sounds reasonable, if they can snatch it back up. Its the longest a lease can go for, and nobody knows when the rail line will be in need of service again.
4. The Merrimack Valley Planning Active transportation plan (January 2015) Mentions the M&l, Stating it can be used as a rail with trail. Why would they even mention rail if it wont return? Answer: it will return. Not today, or tomorrow, but maybe in the next ten or 15 years, maybe earlier

F-line to Dudley via Park wrote:If not necessarily by priority, then by order in which they popped into my head. . .

Currently trailed lines, medium-term
1. Lexington Branch - MBTA rapid transit (Red Line). Landbanking for the Minuteman is on a court-ordered "restoration without objection" settlement, so in theory the state holds the leverage here. In theory...I'm sure there are tons of well-studied loopholes. But on legalities this is how landbanking agreements should be negotiated, and for damn sure the gold standard for successful interim trails. Relatively easy one to rail-with-trail because it would be subway almost to Arlington Heights, then low-density rest of the way. Steep cost a lot more a factor than overpowering NIMBY's.
2. Manchester Secondary (inactive Hop River Trail portion, Manchester-Willimantic) - CDOT commuter rail (Hartford-Willimantic, continuing service to New London), NECR/CSO and P&W (overhead-only) freight. Likely the only direct Hartford double stack route from Worcester, New London, Vermont for P&W and NECR/CSO.
3. Franklin Line (inactive Southern New England Trunkline Trail portion, Franklin-Blackstone/P&W) - MBTA commuter rail (Woonsocket via Blackstone), P&W/G&U/CSX freight (alt route to Boston). Very easy to rail-with-trail. Trail's unpaved anyway because the Blackstone River bridge is out and it's disconnected from the rest of the Air Line. Undoubtedly a BETTER trail if a replacement bridge had a pedestrian berth next to active rail and they then had good reason to pave it east of the disconnect.
4. Armory Branch, state line-Springfield - CNZR/CSO freight and Springfield Line freight bypass. Likely the only direct Springfield-south double stack route for CNZR/CSO interchanges with CSX/PAS (Springfield Line with too many clearance issues). If Springfield Line goes HSR, Amtrak may start agitating to get freight booted to secondary routes by jacking its already high freight overhead rates as leverage. Small trail in Longmeadow, driveway/courtyard encroachment in Springfield but no structure encroachment (gas main underneath). National pressure the only way to restore this one because MA's let the towns chew it up, but national interests re: the Springfield Line could overrule if reactivation need comes down to that.
5. Falmouth Branch - MBTA/CCCR passenger. Not soon, but long-term there's going to be some deep regret about ripping up those tracks when the rich folks can no longer get anywhere due to unbearable Route 28 traffic. Unfortunately it'll manifest itself as whining to give them their own Greenbush Line handout...but, bleh, no short-term memory/no long-term memory when it comes to NIMBY's and recovering NIMBY's.
6. Chicopee industrial track (the one they just ripped up) - PVRR freight. Yeah, too late now, but shame on them for nuking a line with customers interested in service right now.


Potentially/imminently trailed lines that need to be kept open or otherwise VERY TIGHTLY regulated
1. M&L, Methuen - MBTA commuter rail (Lawrence-Methuen/Rockingham Park). 99-year trail lease given last year to trail nonprofit pushing the Iron Horse Preservation scam. Only ROW that can divert traffic off I-93 at the border, trailed portion in NH is in state rail plan as future reactivation corridor...ceding usage control to 1 town + non-profit in MA shoots that down forever.
2. Millis Line, Needham-Medfield - MBTA commuter rail. Aggressive, very anti-rail trail lobby using dubious tactics to try to take the line.
3. Eastern Route, Newburyport-Portsmouth - MBTA/NHDOT commuter rail (Portsmouth). Small portion in downtown Newburyport trailed, but only constrains restoration to single-track without blocking. Sale of Hampton Branch to state of NH needs very forward-thinking interim planning to not block reactivation (good rail-with-trail corridor if they can provision it smart enough).
4. Fitchburg Secondary, Fitchburg (inactive portion past Leominster yard to Fitchburg Main) - MBTA commuter rail (Framingham-Clinton/Leominster), CSX-PAS freight interchange. Trail is off for time being because of town disputes with CSX. Probably worth cooling it for a bit, at least until the state can consolidate ownership of the whole line. Commuter rail proposed Framingham to Northborough/I-290 with future Leominster extension potential; Fitchburg Line connection highly desirable on any CR configuration for equipment moves. Slim chance of freight interchange reopening if Worcester Branch congestion makes alt route desirable (doubtful if CSX retains ownership; very remotely possible if state owns and sweetens CSX's pot). For such a small stretch of inactive ROW, the rest of the active line pretty secure long-term, and such a small/cheap gap to reconnect, I wouldn't allow anything to block this line. Don't even change the designation from railbanked to landbanked.
5. Plymouth Line, Plymouth Center - MBTA commuter rail. Originally planned terminus of restored Plymouth Line...NIMBY infighting stopped it at Cordage Park, but they'll likely have no short-term memory in 10 years when downtown traffic gets bad and start bitching about needing rail.

1 & 2 are the most senseless, damaging, clear-and-present danger trail proposals currently going. Methuen is a total "WTF were you thinking???", and if the T was dumb enough to gak that one away I have no confidence they'll be able to rebuff the equally flimsy Medfield one. Others listed are manageable provided the states can start applying the landbanking laws a fraction of the way originally intended without the NIMBY's having 99% of the power and game being over before it ever was suggested.


Long-term holds (interim trail OK if protection is vigilantly maintained and "toothy" enough to overpower opposition)
1. Central Mass, Route 128-Sudbury - MBTA commuter rail (new junction past 128...duplicate Waltham section not needed). Weston is blocking the trail on homeless deviant bicyclist grounds or something stupid so current trail from Hudson can't extend east of S. Sudbury/Bruce Freeman Trail. It's pretty much a dead issue for foreseeable future. Line may be needed to S. Sudbury for Route 20 congestion, so state needs to be very careful about Weston/Wayland NIMBY games. Current Hudson trail's nonprofit is amenable to rail-with-trail if future Hudston/West Berlin service desired beyond S. Sudbury.
2. M&L, Salem-Derry/Manchester - MBTA/NHDOT commuter rail. NH state-controlled trail currently. Key is preserving the Rockingham Park-Lawrence portion and keeping it away from the Methuen lobby looking to insert a locally controlled blocker. I can't overstate how stupid, senseless, and utterly short-sighted the T was to sign its life away for 99 years to a local-yokel Iron Horse scam on the only possible cross-state relief valve for I-93. I can almost hear all of NHDOT's traffic engineers screaming "Noooooooooooo!" in pain.
3a. Air Line (+ Manchester Secondary), Willimantic-Putnam - Amtrak 2040 inland NEC routing option.
3b. Air Line, Putnam-Blackstone - Amtrak 2040 inland NEC routing option if they want to skip Worcester for a Boston direct (I'm betting not...short jog north on P&W + B&A east can handle it on upgraded infrastructure much cheaper with little schedule penalty, and Worcester is way too big a city to skip).
4. NH Main, Boscawen-White River Jct. - Amtrak Boston-Montreal regional or HSR. Not a protection risk as it's an NH "as-is/no-warranty" unmaintained snowmobile trail, so state holds all the cards and only needs to keep it that way.
5. NYNE/Washington Secondary, Providence-Plainfield - Hartford-Providence intercity rail via Willimantic. Trailed in RI, landbanked w/no trail planned in CT. Probably won't support rail-with-trail on dense Warwick portion, but trail a good interim use to enforce encroachment protection.
6. Framingham Secondary (Taunton-Mansfield gap) - CSX/MassCoastal freight, accessory MBTA commuter rail bypass. If CSX double-stack to Middleboro needed for future deep-dredge South Coast ports, NEC all the way to Attleboro is not an option. Can get around the obliterated downtown Mansfield ROW by restoring to Mansfield Airport, snaking it on a new-construction re-route hugging 495/140 for 1.5 mi., then 0.5 mi. on NEC freight siding (passenger-separated) to Mansfield Jct. (no overhead bridges north of 140, cat supports can readjust wires to DS height without affecting Amtrak performance). Probably not needed for any reason but DS to Fall River/New Bedford, but needs to be kept open as ultra-long range contingency because port carloads not easily predictable at >30 year ranges when deep-dredging factored in.
7. Portsmouth Branch, Newfields-Manchester - PAR freight, (maybe) NHDOT commuter rail Concord/Manchester-Portsmouth. Don't know if there's any trail here currently. The only restorable connection linking the NH Main, Western Route, and Eastern Route on a single shot. May be needed to spread freight traffic between the Main and WR when passenger congestion on each increases. Only way to do in-state CR linking Concord/Manchester metro area with Portsmouth/Kittery metro, only way to transfer passenger equipment between all 3 NH passenger mains north of North Station. Freight may bump this to a medium-term need if the north-south passenger traffic really explodes.

M&L might work. Heres why:
1. has anyone seen the lease document? it might say they can snatch it up at any given time.
2. 99 years is reasonable for the lease if they can snatch it back. No one ever said when the line will be rebuilt.
3. Maybe they did a lease, so that when the time comes for restoration of service, they can help fund it.
4. Ive seen multiple papers and documents labeled 2015 (couple years after the lease) Talking about rail service. Why talk about it when it wont come back? that's because eventually, it will come back. Not today, nor tomorrow, but eventually.

The owners for the M&L are the respective states minus the section within the Manchester Airport which is owned by the airport. This particular line will be very hard to restore since it has a lot of at grade crossings and will require the construction of a tunnel near the airport. The NIMBY's will be in full force in Windham and probably Derry too. If the line was to be rebuilt, it would mostly likely terminate at 93's exit 5 since north of that is airport owned. The tunnel which is even more unlikely, would start at that point and follow the same alignment and re-surface somewhere north of the airport (just north of 293/101 if I remember correctly).

b&m 1566 wrote:The owners for the M&L are the respective states minus the section within the Manchester Airport which is owned by the airport. This particular line will be very hard to restore since it has a lot of at grade crossings and will require the construction of a tunnel near the airport. The NIMBY's will be in full force in Windham and probably Derry too. If the line was to be rebuilt, it would mostly likely terminate at 93's exit 5 since north of that is airport owned. The tunnel which is even more unlikely, would start at that point and follow the same alignment and re-surface somewhere north of the airport (just north of 293/101 if I remember correctly).

I might have to agree with you on some of that, However, not all of it. Of course, the NIMBYs will have a bit of force, but not full. Plus, i remember someone stating this elsewhere, That they might just completely forget about it when they are backed up on I-93. As for the airport, i'm thinking a termination for exit 5 would work, and then more into the future they should go under the runway or use the new ROW they were talking about all together. Plus, the airport has been pushing for an airport station to branch off the NH main for the Capitol corridor. Why not have a branch go right through their airport entirely? I dont think they would mind. As for the demand (i know you didn't mention it, but here it is anyways) I actually live in Windham, and i've been on I-93. Traffic is god awful! Many people in this town agree. And if this town is quite possibly the smallest (In population) On the M&L, could you imagine what the other, larger towns are thinking? Wouldn't know if i would use a train, but other people sure would, and that would clear up the roads. A problem, though, would be the trails. I just had an interesting conversation on Facebook with the leader of the Derry trail. He essentially said that he would be okay with the revitalization of the branch, as long as they still had a trail somewhere. Same with Windham (They have the Worcester-Nashua-Portland division that they can use as a trail! Hello?)

There isn't much of a physical right of way left past the depot heading towards Hudson and I'm not even sure that legally exists as a ROW on paper.

b&m 1566 wrote:There isn't much of a physical right of way left past the depot heading towards Hudson and I'm not even sure that legally exists as a ROW on paper.

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Really? Thats a shame to hear some of my points still stand though. I don't know what Windham will do trail wise however.

Here's my thoughts (on things not mentioned prior):

• Canal Line (south of Plainville): It's absurd how much traffic the B&M/Guilford pissed away here in their hairbrained "consolidate traffic to reduce branch lines" schemes... I believe the train servicing it regularly had 40+ cars.
• The Providence, Warren, & Bristol: While I don't know how much use the branch out towards Fall River would be for freight or passenger, there's definitely potential for restoring the PW&B mainline for passenger service, and maybe some freight customers (but not enough to ever warrant rebuilding the line for freight). RI-114 gets something like 30k cars on it daily, and precious little of it is actually a proper expressway, with both the full RI-114 expressway and I-895 expressway being nuked by community opposition. There's also decent residential density in the immediate vicinity of most of the line. Being a former two-track line, rail-with-trail is at least a possibility, as well. Unfortunately, I don't think there's any non-circuitous way to access Providence anymore; while the Seekonk River draw and the College Hill tunnel are still extant and otherwise workable, the recession of the tracks downtown and building the current recessed station has left little to no way to get the line from the west portal down into the station. And either option of going up the P&W East Providence Branch to Valley Falls to and then snaking down the P&W Main, or going up the old B&P main to East Junction and routing to Providence on the NEC have something in common... they both shoot you out at unidirectional junctions leading in the direction away from where you want to go, in addition to being out-of-the-way. And that former community opposition to the expressways would also probably come to a head again with restoration of rail service.

Another thing i forgot to state. The M&L would be great for commuter, but what about freight? Well, i read a document that said the NHDOT is urging some towns along the M&L to zone industrial, but unless Eastern packaging, Dodge Grain, True Value Distribution center, Cyr lumber, and Admix can do something with subsidization, then there's not much freight service for now.