Saugus Branch Abandonment

According to the STB site, Pan Am filed to abandon the Saugus Branch on June 30. I wasn't even aware that the line hadn't been formally abandoned yet.

http://docs.stb.dot.gov/?sGet&Dl9bTH1WX ... ME0xOAw%3D

The Ethanol Test train probably got them into looking into what they own in that area that they have been paying taxes on.

Its a shame as just like the Danvers / Topsfield branches, it would have been nice to have some additional commuter rail options running on these to perhaps help alleviate some traffic on Rt 1 ... and to just offer additional options of getting down into the city for those of us living on the north shore.

i'm sure they knew they were paying taxes on it. within the last 6 months theyve removed all of the crossings and signals except for a couple.

i don't know what the holdup was with filing though.

I thought this line was owned by the MBTA?

b & m was still the operator

One statement in the abandonment application states that all rights and titles will return to the MBTA. It seems like a smart move by Guilford. That line doesn't have much future as a freight line with all of the industry being replaced by offices. Any future for that line will be as a passenger line or trail.

This line has a forest growing out of the tracks in Saugus, fences across them in Malden with people storing whatever they please on top of the tracks, a parking lot over the tracks in Malden or Everett, and I haven't seen a crossing that isn't ripped out in a long time. Even if there were a couple potential customers I couldn't imagine the line coming back unless there's a massive project on the part of the MBTA.

It was completely reballasted and fresh tracks laid in the 80's, right? Was it ever used after that? Even once? It looks terrible.

not that much.

The Saugus Branch was sold by the pre-Guilford B&M to the MBTA in 1977 along with the majority of main and branch lines in the greater Boston area. The B&M should not have been paying any taxes on it since then. The T may have spruced up just the west end of it at Everett Jct for storing ballast cars, but there has been no work done on it that I recall. Pan Am still has rights to serve freight customers on it, but since there are none, it is just a formality to abandon it and essentially give the T sole rights to operate it. It has no future at all right now, but who knows?

I thought some years ago that the branch was going to be made into a bike path all the way to Lynn?

There was some work done on the branch in the 80s that I'd forgotten; GE was using it to ship transformers from their plant in West Lynn, but by the 90s they had stopped making them there. Also in the document Pan Am give 1998 as the last year that a customer was served, although it did not mention where.

My parents live in Saugus Ctr.....over the last couple of years, the town has done work on Central St and some other areas and most of the tracks have been removed...so from the Center, down the river to Boston St. Cafe and accross the street from there...the tracks are pretty much gone. I can only ever remember there being a hand full of trains running through there even when I was a kid (mid 80s to mid 90s). The were always a couple of tankers down the line toward the junior high.....used to go down there with the girls and make out or whatever....those were removed in the early 90s and Linden Sq. has been scavenged for years....

they didn't waste much time...the iron in linden sq has begin to be torn up.

Too bad for railfans, but good for drivers....no more rediculous bumps or flat tires off the debris sticking up....it has been trash for years.