, including the original Boston to Lowell mainline]]
The is a
Railroad line of the
MBTA Commuter Rail system, running north from
Boston to
Lowell, Massachusetts . Originally built as the '''Boston and Lowell Railroad''', and later operated as part of the
Boston And Maine Railroad 's Southern Division, the line was one of the
First Railroads In North America and the first major one in Massachusetts.
In the early
19th Century ,
Francis Cabot Lowell decided to build a model mill town in a Massachusetts town near Boston that was promptly reincorporated in
1822 as Lowell, Massachusetts in his honor. This industrial town began to produce large amounts of
Textiles and other products which had to get to people so they could be used. It also had to get raw materials such as
Cotton from which to build these products. At the time, the best way for the factory owners to do this was to transport to and from Boston and let Boston merchants deal with the rest there.
Before the
Railroad , there were two main ways of moving goods between Boston and Lowell. The first was the
Middlesex Canal , built previously to bypass a circuitous coastal route from the Merrimack River. The other consisted of
Stagecoaches running on the road between Boston and Lowell. These sufficed for some time, but as Lowell grew and more industrialists built
Mills there, problems with both modes soon overwhelmed them.
The
Canal was a very efficient way of moving large amounts of heavy goods cheaply and with minimal labor. It was slow, but no one had any delusions that it was suitable for perishables or other time-sensitive goods, passengers included. Unfortunately, it would freeze in the winter and the towpath was muddy in spring and late fall. This made it impractical for a burgeoning mill-town that needed year-round freight transportation.
Stagecoaches provided the passenger aspect of the transport, moving 100 to 120 passengers per day. There were six stagecoaches in operation at the time of the building of the railroad, for a total of 39 fully loaded round trips per week. This was sufficient passenger service for people who had to make an occasional trip but was much too expensive for daily use or what we would now call
Commuters .
One of the
First Railroads In North America was nearby Quincy's
Granite Railroad in
1826 . It was a three-mile, horse-powered railroad, built to move large granite stones from the quarries in
Quincy, Massachusetts to the Neponset River in
Milton . As was believed to be the most sturdy - and convenient, in this case - method at the time, it was built on a deep foundation of granite, setting a precedent for all railroads that could afford it. The Granite Railroad showed the Lowell mill owners that a railroad could be a practical method of freight transport.
The owners of the Lowell mills decided that they needed to do something about their transportation problem. They looked at the recently completed, nearby Granite Railroad and took inspiration. A railroad would supply exactly what they wanted. It could run year round, was expandable with as many tracks as they might need, and could use the new
Locomotives that were being highly praised in
England .
Once convinced that they wanted a railroad, they formed a group called the . This new group had the task of convincing the
State Legislature that a railroad was a good idea, and later building the railroad itself. The former proved very difficult, as the investors of the Middlesex Canal were very much against them building a bypass that seemed designed to replace their canal and drive them out of business.
Because there was no provision in Massachusetts State law for
Chartering railroads prior to
1872 , all railroads had to be chartered by special acts of legislature. This made it slow and inefficient to charter a railroad because the politicians had to agree; the issue would become partisan. This also meant that the legislature would not let the Boston Associates build the line unless they could show it was completely necessary.
The case of the Canal investors seemed reasonable and compelling at the time, though some aspects are humorous in hindsight. Their argument was mainly:
#Their investors spent a lot of money on the Canal.
#The Canal currently deals with all
Freight between Boston and Lowell.
#There is a finite amount of freight to be moved.
#The railroad is being built with the main purpose of transporting freight between Boston and Lowell.
#All the railroad can do is take business away from the Canal.
#This will ruin the canal.
#The railroad should not be built, or it should be forced to pay compensation to the canal's investors.
#Failure of the court to force compensation would decrease investor confidence and make it much less likely that people would be willing to invest in major projects in the future.
The Boston Associates won because they convinced the legislature that the Canal was inherently incapable of providing what they needed: reliable, year round, freight transport.
The Canal operators were also unable to foresee the future worth of canals. Before the State Legislature of Massachusetts, the Canal spokesperson testified that, "It is believed that no safer or cheaper mode of conveyance can ever be established, nor any so well adapted for bulky articles" than the Canal. This does not really reflect negatively on them because it was a common attitude at the time, but today is ironic and amusing.
The Boston Associates got their charter on
June 5 ,
1830 , with no provision for reparations to the Canal's investors. It was a favorable charter because it allowed for, in addition to the right to build and operate a railroad between Boston and Lowell, a thirty-year monopoly on the right to have a railroad between the same. The people along the road and in terminal end cities bought large amounts of
Stock , financing half the company. These two ideas, monopoly rights to discourage competition and public interest in the company as shown by the large amount of publicly bought stock, were exactly what the argument over the Canal was about. The legislators seem to have realized the growth value in giving a monopoly that they more or less stole from the Canal, but the Canal's investors seem to have been wrong with their final point; people were eager to purchase stock, showing no decrease in confidence at all.
The Boston Associates, armed with their charter, now had before them the task of surveying and building the line. They brought in Mr. James Baldwing to do the surveying, and charged him with finding a gently sloped path from Boston to Lowell, with few
Grade Crossings and well away from town centers. This latter point ended up being quite inconvenient later on. The general popular view toward railroads in the late
1820s , when Baldwing was preparing to do his surveying, was that railroads were smoky, noisy, dirty, fire-causing nuisances that should be kept as far away from people as possible. No one had any idea of the future possibility of railroads acting as public transportation, or if they did they were not paid any attention by the builders or financers of the road.
The
Right-of-way that Baldwing surveyed did well in each of these characteristics. The path sloped up at a gentle ten feet per mile at the maximum and there were only three grade crossings over the entire 26 mile distance. The path was close to the older Middlesex Canal path, but was straighter - as
Boats can turn sharper than
Trains . To achieve this superior linearity it needed small amounts of grade elevation in places. The route ignored
Medford center entirely, going through West Medford instead, and totally bypassed
Woburn . This would have to be corrected later with various spurs (the one to Medford being built off the
Boston And Maine Railroad ) but were always sources of annoyance to both the riders and the operators.
The proposed route was accepted by the Boston Associates and work began the on building phase. The road was begun from both ends at once and some sources say that they both started on the right hand side of the right-of-way, missing in the middle and having to put in an embarrassing reverse curve to tide them over until they built the other side.
Irish laborers were brought in to do the building, which was made especially difficult and heavy because the Boston Associates wanted to make the road the best known way possible. This, for them, meant laying imported
British Iron rails with a four foot deep wall of
Granite under each rail. They did this because it was commonly believed that the train would sink into the ground if they neglected strong support.
The first track of the road was completed in
1835 and freight service began immediately. The solid granite roadbed proved to be much too rigid, jolting the engine and cars nearly to pieces. Repairs on the locomotives (there were two at the time) would sometimes take most of the night, trying to get them ready for the next day's service. The much poorer
Boston And Worcester Railroad could not afford a granite bed and so was built with the modern wooden ties. This turned out to be far superior so the owners of the Boston and Lowell decided they would upgrade their entire
Railbed to wood when they added a second track.
The original Boston terminal was at the north corner of Causeway Street and Andover Street (halfway between Portland and Friend Streets), at the westernmost edge of the current
North Station . The bridge over the
Charles River to access it was the first
Movable Railroad Bridge in the United States.
{Link without Title} The original Lowell terminal was at the south corner of Merrimack Street and Dutton Street.
The quantity of freight traffic on the Boston and Lowell was large from the first, as everyone expected it to be, with several large mills needing to be supplied with materials and to have someone take them away after processing. The level of passenger traffic, however, was not anticipated. People all over were fascinated with the trains, and loved that they could get from Boston to Lowell in twenty minutes. Twenty minutes meant travelling at over sixty miles per hour and on unwelded track on a granite roadbed, which was extremely bumpy. Passenger complaints about the rough ride were another reason that the B&L ended up switching to wooden ties.
The B&L was now faced with a problem; it had a reputation for passenger speed which made it very popular and highly competitive with stagecoaches. Many people, however, did not want to go from Boston to Lowell but instead to and from places in between. The B&L decided to order another locomotive and some cars for local passenger rail in
1842 , and have them make six stops along the route. Passenger rail proved to be almost as profitable as freight.
Another railroad began about this time whose fortunes would be closely tied to those of the B&L. This road was the
Boston And Maine Railroad (B&M). This road ran down from
Portland Maine , through a bit of Southern
New Hampshire , to
Haverhill in Northeastern Massachusetts, connected to the B&L in
Wilmington , and then used B&L track to Boston. This route was conceptualized in
1834 , but took a long time to be built, mostly because, unlike the B&L, it did not have a secure base of funding like the Lowell Mills. It took two years to get to
Andover , another to get to Haverhill, three more to get to
Exeter , and did not get to
Portland until
1852 .
This extra traffic on the B&L line, especially with the line still over granite, provided the extra impetus to double track and upgrade. In
1838 , the B&L began two years of extensive track improvements, first laying a second track on wood, and with that one built, going back and re-laying the old track on the more forgiving wood as well. B&L traffic continued to increase and even with double tracks, the schedule became tight enough that the B&M trains, as renters, began to be pushed around to annoying hours, often having to wait over an hour in Wilmington before being allowed to proceed on to Boston.
The B&M soon tired of what they perceived as selfishness and decided to build its own track to Boston from Haverhill so that it would not have to rely on the B&L. The B&L tried to fight the B&M in court but failed because the monopoly granted in its charter was only good for traffic between Boston and Lowell. The shortcut, part of today's
Haverhill/Reading Line , was started in
1844 and was in use by
1848 . While the B&M was building it, they were still running their trains to Boston on the B&L. This made for a lot of conflict, with the B&L trying to squeeze every last penny out of the B&M before it lost the opportunity. The B&M tried to deal with this in court, and got the judge to forbid the B&L from raising rates until the case was done, but by the time they were close to an agreement, the bypass was complete.
With B&M business gone, the B&L realized how much they had been relying upon their renters. Additionally, the Lowell mills began to decline somewhat and there was less freight traffic for the line to move. Over the next four decades, the B&L declined until the more successful B&M leased it on
April 1 ,
1887 .
map]]
The B&L built or leased many branches to serve areas not on its original line. Immediately before its lease by the B&M in
1887 , it had five divisions - the Southern Division (including the original line), the Northern Division, the White Mountains Division, the Vermont Division and the Passumpsic Division. Additionally, it leased the
Central Massachusetts Railroad in
1886 .
The main part of the Southern Division was the mainline between
Boston and
Lowell .
;Charlestown
The
Charlestown Branch Railroad was not itself taken over by the B&L, but as originally built in
1840 it was a short spur from the B&L to
Wharves in
Charlestown . In
1845 the
Fitchburg Railroad leased it and incorporated it into their main line.
;Mystic River
The Mystic River Branch served the
Mystic River waterfront on the north side of
Charlestown .
;Woburn
The
Woburn Branch Railroad opened in
1845 , connecting
Woburn to the main line towards Boston. The
Woburn Branch Extension Railroad , built in
1885 , continued the line back north to the main line in North Woburn. The
Horn Pond Branch Railroad was a short freight-only branch off the Woburn Branch to
Ice House s on
Horn Pond .
;Stoneham
The
Stoneham Branch Railroad was built in 1862 to connect to
Stoneham .
;Lawrence
The
Lowell And Lawrence Railroad was chartered in
1846 to build a line between
Lowell and
Lawrence , which opened in
1848 . In
1858 the B&L leased the line.
;Salem
The
Salem And Lowell Railroad was chartered in
1848 as a branch from the Lowell and Lawrence at
Tewksbury Junction to the
Essex Railroad at
Peabody , along which it used
Trackage Rights to
Salem . The line was opened in
1850 and operated by the Lowell and Lawrence until
1858 , when the B&L leased it along with the Lowell and Lawrence.
;Wilmington
The Wilmington Branch, now known as the
Wildcat Branch , was built just west of the original
Boston And Maine Railroad alignment to connect the main line at
Wilmington to the Salem and Lowell at
Wilmington Junction , providing a shorter route between Boston and Lawrence.
;Arlington and Concord
The
Lexington And West Cambridge Railroad was chartered in
1845 and opened in
1846 , connecting the
Fitchburg Railroad at
West Cambridge to
Lexington . It was operated by the Fitchburg from opening, and leased to the Fitchburg from
1847 to
1859 . The line was reorganized as the
Lexington And Arlington Railroad in
1868 . The B&L bought the line in
1870 and built a new connection to their main line at
Somerville Junction .
The
Middlesex Central Railroad was chartered in
1872 and opened in
1873 , extending the line from Lexington to
Concord . It was leased from completion to the B&L. An extension west to the
Nashua, Acton And Boston Railroad at
Middlesex Junction was built in
1879 .
{Link without Title}
;Bedford
The
Billerica And Bedford Railroad was built in
1877 as a
Narrow Gauge line between the Middlesex Central at
Bedford and the B&L at
Billerica . It was sold and abandoned in
1878 , and the rails were taken to
Maine for the
Sandy River Railroad . A new
Standard Gauge branch was built by the B&L in
1885 , mostly on the same right-of-way.
{Link without Title}
;Lowell and Nashua
The
Lowell And Nashua Railroad was chartered in
1836 as an extension of the B&L from Lowell north to the
New Hampshire state line. The
Nashua And Lowell Railroad , chartered in
1835 , would continue the line in New Hampshire to
Nashua . The two companies merged in
1838 to form a new Nashua and Lowell Railroad, and the road opened later that year. In
1857 the B&L and N&L agreed to operate as one company from
1860 , and in
1880 the B&L leased the N&L.
;Stony Brook
The
Stony Brook Railroad was chartered in
1845 and opened in
1848 , connecting the Nashua and Lowell at
North Chelmsford with
Ayer . The N&L leased the Stony Brook in
1848 .
;Nashua to Keene
The
Wilton Railroad was chartered in
1844 . It opened a line from
Nashua west to
Danforth's Corner in
1848 , to
Milford in
1850 and to
East Wilton in
1851 . Since completion it was operated by the N&L.
The
Peterborough Railroad was chartered in
1866 to continue the Wilton Railroad northwest to
Greenfield . In
1873 the N&L leased it; the road opened in
1874 .
The
Manchester And Keene Railroad was chartered
1864 and opened
1878 , continuing the Peterborough Railroad west from
Greenfield to the
Connecticut River Railroad in
Keene . In
1880 the company went bankrupt, and it was operated by the Connecticut River Railroad until
1882 , when it was bought half-and-half by the B&L and the
Concord Railroad .
;Central Massachusetts Railroad
The
Massachusetts Central Railroad was chartered in
1869 to build a line east-west across the middle of the state, between the
Boston And Albany Railroad and the
Fitchburg Railroad . The first section opened in
1881 , splitting from the B&L's Arlington Branch at
North Cambridge Junction , and the company was reorganized as the
Central Massachusetts Railroad in
1883 . The B&L leased the line in
1886 , a year before the B&M leased the B&L.
;Northern Division
The
Boston, Concord And Montreal Railroad was chartered in
1844 , and opened in stages from
1848 to
1853 , eventually running from
Concord to
Woodsville, New Hampshire . That railroad, along with its branches, became part of the B&L Northern Division in
1884 , when the B&L leased the BC&M.
The
Northern Railroad was also chartered in
1844 , opening in
1847 from
Concord to
Lebanon, New Hampshire and later extending to
White River Junction, Vermont . The B&L leased it in
1884 as another part of its Northern Division.
The only connection between the Southern and Northern Divisions was at
Hancock Junction , where the
Manchester And Keene Railroad (Southern) and
Peterborough And Hillsborough Railroad (Northern) met.
In
1889 the BC&M merged with the
Concord Railroad to form the
Concord And Montreal Railroad , taking it out of B&M control until
1895 , when the B&M leased the C&M.
;White Mountains Division
The
White Mountains Railroad was chartered in
1848 and opened a line from
Woodsville to
Littleton, New Hampshire in
1853 . Along with extensions and branches, it was leased to the
Boston, Concord And Montreal Railroad in
1859 and consolidated into it in
1872 , becoming its White Mountains Division. In
1884 the B&L leased the BC&M and the old White Mountains Railroad became the B&L's White Mountains Division.
The Northern and White Mountains Divisions were connected at
Woodsville .
;Vermont Division
The
Essex County Railroad (chartered
1864 ),
Montpelier And St. Johnsbury Railroad (chartered
1866 ) and
Lamoille Valley Railroad (chartered
1867 ) were consolidated into the
Portland And Ogdensburg Railroad in
1875 as their Vermont Division. The line was finished in
1877 , and in
1880 it was reorganized as the
St. Johnsbury And Lake Champlain Railroad , which was taken over by the B&L as their Vermont Division. The line did not stay in the B&M system, and the easternmost part was leased to the
Maine Central Railroad in
1912 .
The White Mountains and Vermont Divisions were connected at
Scott's Mills, New Hampshire .
;Passumpsic Division
The
Connecticut And Passumpsic Rivers Railroad was organized in
1846 and opened a line from
White River Junction on the
Northern Railroad to the border with
Quebec ,
Canada in
1867 , junctioning the Northern and White Mountains Divisions at
Wells River and the Vermont Division at
St. Johnsbury . The
Massawippi Valley Railway , leased in
1870 , continued to
Sherbrooke, Quebec , where it junctioned the
Grand Trunk Railway among others. The B&L leased the line on
January 1 ,
1887 , three months before the B&M acquired the B&L.
Over the next 70 years or so, things were reasonably stable and constant for the Lowell Line as a part of the B&M's Southern Division. Passenger train round trips per day hovered in the low 20's and while freight from Lowell itself did not last too long, the Lowell line got some traffic from railroads that connected from the west.
.'']]
In the early
20th Century , things began to change. Trucks began to increase in popularity, and they got the
Eisenhower Interstate System to help them. More and more companies began to send freight by trucks. This was a bad time for a decline to happen, as the B&M, like most other railroads, had just switched over to
Diesel Locomotives , meaning that they had large debts. By
1976 the B&M was
Bankrupt .
This did not affect passenger service, just freight on the Lowell line, because in
1973 the
MBTA bought the Lowell line, along with the Haverhill and all other local Greater Boston passenger lines. Along with the sale, the B&M contracted to run the passenger service on the Lowell line for the MBTA. After bankruptcy, The B&M continued to run and fulfill its
Commuter Rail contract under the protection of the
Federal Bankruptcy Court , in the hopes that a reorganization could make it profitable again. It emerged from the court's protection when newly-formed
Guilford Transportation Industries (GTI) bought it in
1983 .
When GTI bought the B&M, commuter rail service was in jeopardy. The MBTA had owned the trains and the tracks since
1973 , but it had outsourced the operation to the B&M. When GTI bought the B&M in
1983 , it had to honor the B&M contract, but GTI management was very much against passenger rail, and, in
1986 , as soon as the contract expired, they let the job go to
Amtrak .
From 1986 until 2003, Amtrak managed the entirety of Boston's commuter rail. It did decently, though at times had strained relations with the MBTA. Quibbles centered on equipment failures, numbers of conductors per train, and who takes responsibility when trains are late. Because of these bad relations and Amtrak's repeated announcements that the contract was unreasonable, few people were surprised at Amtrak's decision not to bid again for the Commuter Rail contract when it came up for renewal in
2003 .
When the MBTA asked for new bids on the Commuter Rail operation contract, Amtrak did not bid but Guilford and the
Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Company did. The MBCR ended up getting the contract. When the MBCR began operating the Commuter Rail in July of 2004, nothing changed for the commuters as it is the MBTA that owns the trains, tracks, and sets the schedules.
Guilford's main line between
Mattawamkeag, Maine and
Mechanicville, New York now uses the
Stony Brook Branch , and the old main line north of Lowell. At Lowell it shifts to the B&M's original
Lowell Branch to get to the B&M main line towards Maine.
Another recent change on the Lowell line is the addition of the ''
Downeaster ''. The Downeaster is an
Amtrak line running from
North Station to Haverhill and up to Portland. Due to scheduling conflicts with the MBTA, the Downeaster runs up the Lowell Line to Wilmington and then out the old B&M
Wildcat Branch to the
Haverhill/Reading Line . This route allows the Downeaster to pass a commuter train on the Haverhill/Reading Line without scheduling conflicts. The route is also historically significant because it is the same route that the original B&M used to Portland.
North Station is
Wheelchair Accessible , as are Anderson RTC and stations north of there. See also
MBTA Accessibility .
