Kingston Line
The Kingston Line is a commuter rail line of the MBTA Commuter Rail system in southeastern Massachusetts, United States. It runs southeast from Boston to Kingston with eight intermediate stops. Plymouth station, which served as a second outer terminal, has been indefinitely closed since 2021. The line had 4,171 boardings per weekday in October 2022.
The line originated as the Old Colony Railroad, which opened between Boston and Plymouth in 1845. It became the primary rail route between Boston and southeastern Massachusetts, serving a number of branches that the Old Colony built and acquired. The Old Colony merged in 1854 to become the Old Colony and Fall River Railroad, in 1863 to become the Old Colony and Newport Railway, and in 1872 to become the Old Colony Railroad. It was leased by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in 1893.
Commuter service peaked in the early 20th century and began to decline in the 1910s. After two decades of attempts to end Old Colony Division service, the New Haven terminated it in 1959. Planning for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority to restore service to Plymouth began in the 1980s. Construction began in 1993 and service began in 1997 as the Plymouth/Kingston Line. It became the Kingston Line after the closure of Plymouth station.
Operations
The northern section of the line follows the Middleborough Main Line south through Boston, Quincy, and Braintree. That section is shared with the Fall River/New Bedford Line and Greenbush Line. At Braintree, the line switches to the Plymouth Branch, which continues southeast through Weymouth, Abington, Whitman, Hanson, Halifax, and Kingston. Intermediate stations are served at,,,,,, and. In Kingston, the short Kingston Branch splits from the Plymouth Branch and runs south to Kingston station and the Kingston Layover. The Plymouth Branch continues southeast from the split to the currently-closed Plymouth station in northern Plymouth. The Plymouth Branch is single track with passing sidings, while the Kingston Branch is mostly double-tracked. The portion of the Middleborough Main Line used by the Kingston Line has a mixture of single and double track.Like the rest of the MBTA Commuter Rail system, the Kingston Line operates using push-pull trains with diesel locomotives. Maximum speeds are between south of Braintree and to the north., the line has 13 inbound and 12 outbound trips on weekdays and nine round trips on weekdays. Most trips operate the full length of the line, with running times typically around 60 minutes. The last trips in each direction, plus the first weekday inbound trip, only operate between Braintree and Kingston. Trains always serve all stops except for JFK/UMass, which is only served at weekday peak hours in the peak direction. All stations are accessible with full-length high-level platforms.
History
Previous service
Old Colony Railroad
The Old Colony Railroad opened between and Plymouth on November 10, 1845. A short extension into Boston proper opened in March 1846. As the only rail line east of the Blue Hills, the Old Colony became the primary rail route between Boston and southeastern Massachusetts. The Old Colony built or acquired a number of other lines, all of which used the Old Colony mainline to access Boston. The Fall River Railroad, Milton Branch, South Shore Line, Dighton and Somerset Railroad, and Granite Branch all joined the mainline between and Boston. The Hanover Branch joined at, while the Bridgewater Branch joined at Whitman.The mainline was double-tracked between Boston and South Braintree in 1848 to serve the growing traffic. Schedules were suitable for commuting from as far south as South Braintree by 1847; commuter service to Plymouth was intermittent until around 1860 and consistent thereafter. Some short turn trains terminated at Whitman after 1860. The Old Colony merged in 1854 to become the Old Colony and Fall River Railroad, in 1863 to become the Old Colony and Newport Railway, and in 1872 to become the Old Colony Railroad. The Plymouth and Vineyard Sound Railroad, an extension beyond Plymouth to Cape Cod, was proposed in the 1860s, but only the Cape Cod section between and was built.
Major wrecks took place on the mainline at Wollaston in 1878 and at Quincy in 1890. To reduce congestion on the busy mainline and make trains faster, the Old Colony used a practice called flying switches. The rear coaches of moving trains were disconnected at speed near junctions and brought to a halt to serve as branchline trains, while the rest of the train continued without stopping. The practice was ended after an 1883 incident at Neponset. After Old Colony acquired the Boston and Providence Railroad in 1888, some trains were routed via the Stoughton Branch to reduce mainline congestion.
New Haven Railroad
The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad leased the Old Colony in 1893. Passenger service on the Old Colony Division was at its peak from around 1898 to 1914. In 1898, daily inbound service to Boston included seven trains from Plymouth and five from Whitman plus some through trains from the Bridgewater and Hanover branches. Six South Shore trains used the line between Plymouth and Kingston. The mainline was relocated between South Boston and in 1897–1898 to eliminate grade crossings in preparation for the 1899 opening of South Station. The line was quadruple-tracked from South Boston to in 1901–02, to Neponset in 1911–12, and to in 1913, including grade crossing eliminations. Double track was added between Kingston and Plymouth in 1900 and between South Braintree and Whitman in 1907.During World War I, a short branch was built from the mainline to the Victory Destroyer Plant to carry materials and workers. Systemwide passenger service levels began to decline during the war when freight was given priority, and continued to decline thereafter. By 1924, inbound service included six trains from Plymouth, three from Whitman, two from the Bridgewater Branch, and four from Hanover. Bridgewater Branch service ended in 1925. Part of the Cambridge–Dorchester Line was constructed along a section of the main line plus the Shawmut Branch in the 1926s, ending service to the innermost stations. Despite the cuts, by 1935 the mainline still saw over 100 trains per day.
Abandonment
The New Haven Railroad declared bankruptcy in 1935, setting off a 12-year-long reorganization process. The Old Colony lease was a major liability to the New Haven. It ended the lease in 1936 but was forced to continue operating the division. In the 88 stations case, the New Haven controversially closed 88 stations in Massachusetts on July 17, 1938. Four were on the Plymouth line – North Hanson, Burrage,, and Plympton. In May 1939, the company proposed to abandon all passenger service in the "Boston Group" – the primary group of lines into Boston, including the Greenbush, Plymouth, and Middleborough lines and the shared mainline north of Braintree. A revised proposal that September was to keep Boston–Braintree service plus limited commute-hour service as far as Campello,, and Hingham.After further controversy, a compromise schedule took effect on March 31, 1940, with service cut nearly in half but no lines abandoned. This schedule only required use of a single track and passing sidings between South Braintree and Plymouth, and the second track was removed over the following two years. On February 18, 1941, the Interstate Commerce Commission refused abandonment of the Boston Group, forcing the New Haven to continue operations on the Old Colony. Additional traffic during World War II temporarily boosted the railroad's fortunes, but the postwar years again saw mounting deficits on the Old Colony Division. Hanover Branch service ended in 1948. Sharp cuts in March 1949 removed most off-peak service; the Plymouth line was left with just three daily round trips. The northern section of the mainline was reduced to two tracks in the early 1950s.
Under the 1951–1954 presidency of Frederic C. Dumaine Jr., the New Haven increased passenger service, using new Budd Rail Diesel Cars to reduce costs. By April 1954, there were seven daily inbound trains from Plymouth, and 15 trains from South Braintree supplemented service on the mainline. However, Patrick B. McGinnis taking the railroad's presidency in 1954 resulted in deferred maintenance and canceled plans for further service expansion. The New Haven again proposed to abandon all Old Colony service. A temporary state subsidy was introduced in 1958 to continue Greenbush, Plymouth, Middleborough, and Cape Cod service for an additional year while the Southeast Expressway and other highways were under construction. The final day of service was June 30, 1959, as the subsidy expired. Bus companies including the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway and Plymouth and Brockton Street Railway expanded their South Shore commuter service.
1960s and 1970s
The wooden trestles of the drawbridge carrying the Old Colony main line over the Neponset River between Boston and Quincy burned on the night of July 22–23, 1960. The New Haven collected insurance money but refused to rebuild the bridge, instead rerouting freight trains via Middleborough. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority was formed in August 1964 as an expansion of the urban Metropolitan Transit Authority into the surrounding suburbs. The MBTA was intended to subsidize commuter rail service – and to replace much of it with rapid transit extensions.The MBTA's first such project was a branch of the Red Line following the Old Colony alignment to Braintree. In November 1965, the MBTA purchased the Old Colony main line between Boston and South Braintree from the New Haven. The Red Line opened to Quincy Center station in September 1971 and Braintree station in South Braintree in March 1980. Within Boston, a single freight track paralleled the new tracks. Although there was no freight service through Quincy, a single-track right-of-way was reserved for future freight use when the extension was built.
The New Haven Railroad merged into Penn Central at the end of 1968. In 1970, following revolts against freeways in the urban core, Massachusetts governor Francis Sargent placed a moratorium on new highway construction inside the Route 128 beltway. The resulting cancellation of the Southwest Expressway by the Boston Transportation Planning Review meant the already-overcrowded Southeast Expressway would continue to be the only highway into Boston from the south. In January 1973, the MBTA acquired most of Penn Central's suburban lines around Boston, including the Plymouth line. Freight service continued to operate on the line, though the segment from North Plymouth to Plymouth was out of service by the late 1970s.