Woburn Loop Remains

I feel that the short term thinking that led to cutting off the northern part of the loop in 1959 probably led to the demise of the rest of the loop in 1981. In the 50's it was a very busy line. Now, I lost my old timetables in a move, so I can't say for sure, but I believe that roughly half of all Lowell trains went up the loop. At Woburn Center there was not only Boston traffic, but also passengers traveling between Woburn and stations to the north.

Had the entire loop been intact when MBTA took over, I think the loop would have been a valuable strategic asset and worth investing in. With a higher population and more businesses than the main line, I think it would have been an important part of the commuter rail system. I believe (at least at one time) there were two stations north of Woburn Center -- North Woburn and Central Square. I don't know if either of them still had service in 1959. I also don't know how much freight originated on the loop, but I recall seeing long freight trains passing through. if the loop were intact today, I could imagine it would provide a good alternate route, something like the Wildcat Branch that provides an alternate routing to Haverhill.

I also suspect moving the terminus in the '60's had some impact. It was just a few blocks from the old station on Pleasant Street to the later one east of Route 38, but it made the service less visible and probably to some, less convenient, especially to those who went to Woburn Center to work or shop.

That's a good question, and I can only speculate. The whole thing is strange, really:

Of commuter service still operated when the MBTA was formed in 1964, the following services were discontinued and have not returned.
Service past the state line:
Eastern Route past Newburyport (1965)
Western Route past Haverhill (1967)
New Hampshire Main past Lowell: (1967, brief 1980-81 revival)
Single rush-hour round trips:
Lexington Branch (1977)
Central Mass (1971)
West Medway (1967)
Dedham (1967)
Other service
NY&NE service past Franklin to Blackstone (1967)
Woburn Branch (1981)

So you've got the service to New Hampshire - gone in 1967. You've got the one-a-day branch lines - gone by 1971 except the Lexington. Blackstone was the only stop past Franklin, and being beyond walking distance from Woonsocket and without room for a park-and-ride lot ridership was pretty limited.

But the Woburn branch had pretty good service, and I suspect decent ridership too. It was a good short turn point. So, budget cuts or not, I'm not sure why it was terminated. Perhaps the MBTA wanted to focus their attention on the main lines and to get rid of a branch line that took up slots without getting ridership from the north side of the line. In any case, it's very strange that it's not landbanked. I doubt service would have returned, but it would make a nice feeder trail to Winchester, a la the Minuteman.

I was told service ended due to deplorable track conditions despite good ridership. Its too bad it isn't landbanked because it would have been a short, fairly cheap/simple resumption of service. Hindsight...

B&M 1227 wrote:I was told service ended due to deplorable track conditions despite good ridership. Its too bad it isn't landbanked because it would have been a short, fairly cheap/simple resumption of service. Hindsight...

It was a very dumb and short sighted decision not to landbank. Does anyone know if there were many freight customers along the line -- either the stub end service (1959-1981) or the full loop? From Google Earth it looks like there was some sort of yard in Woburn where the last station was located (1962-1981).

The lumber yard was a customer, i think they still have visible rails poking through their driveway. But from what I hear, they are soon going out of business. On the far north end of the loop, there's the cement plant that is technically still an active customer on the woburn loop. And if you look close on google maps, you can see another building with a clear spur that looks like it's still serviceable, but I think that building is a Verizon building now, no need for rail. Also the big superfund lot across the street from the cement plant definitely had at least a pair of spurs that are still visible from satellite. Thats all I know of.

The B&M abandoned the middle of the Woburn loop because it was more track capacity than they needed, it had few or no customers, and it had busy grade crossings - my ETTs aren't handy, but I expect Main St. (Rt. 38), Pleasant St. and Winn St. must have required crossing tenders as long as through passenger trains used the loop. Also, the alignment north of the Woburn depot is quite wiggly compared with the NH Div. main.

At the time the MBTA abandoned the south end, I was riding to Cross St. with some regularity and I didn't see any active industrial customers.

All of the old photos I've seen of the Woburn Center station at Pleasant Street show two platforms -- the northbound on the station side and southbound on the far side. However, when I boarded there in the 1950's I think the far side southbound platform was gone. I recall waiting for southbound trains on the station side and simply crossing over the northbound track to board. Does anyone else remember?