Plymouth station (MBTA)

Plymouth is an MBTA Commuter Rail station in Plymouth, Massachusetts. It serves the Plymouth/Kingston Line and is located in the Cordage Park complex of North Plymouth. Plymouth is one terminus of the MBTA's Kingston/Plymouth Line, along with Kingston/Route 3 station in nearby Kingston, Massachusetts. Plymouth station provides non-peak service to Boston's South Station, as well as some peak service, which runs in addition to peak trips to Kingston. Most trains on the line serve only Kingston station; service to and ridership from Plymouth are thus very limited.

Plymouth
Looking inbound from the station's single side platform
Location385 Court Street, Plymouth, Massachusetts
Coordinates41°58′52″N 70°41′25″W
Owned byMBTA
Line(s)Old Colony mainline
Platforms1 side platform
Tracks1
Connections GATRA: Plymouth Area Link
Construction
Parking96 spaces ($4.00 fee)
4 accessible spaces
Bicycle facilities8 spaces
Disabled accessYes
Other information
Fare zone8
History
OpenedNovember 29, 1997[1]
ClosedJune 30, 1959 (former station)
Previous namesNorth Plymouth (1873-c. 1880)
Seaside (c. 1880 - January 1925)
Cordage (January 1925 - June 30, 1959)
Traffic
Passengers (2018)21 (weekday average boardings)[2]
Services
Preceding station MBTA Following station
Halifax
toward South Station
 Kingston/​Plymouth Line Terminus

History
Plymouth station is located in Cordage Park, a commercial and light industrial park, rather than in downtown Plymouth

A previous station was located at Boundary Lane on the Plymouth/Kingston border, just north of the current site. Built as North Plymouth in 1873, it was renamed to Seaside around 1880 and Cordage in January 1925.[3][4] The station closed with the rest of the Old Colony Division on June 30, 1959.[5]

Because Plymouth did not want trains running through upscale residential areas near the downtown area, Plymouth station is located in Cordage Park, a commercial and light industrial park in North Plymouth. The rest of the Plymouth/Kingston Line and the Middleborough/Lakeville Line opened for rush hour service on September 29, 1997. Plymouth, with no rush hour trains, did not open until midday and weekend service began on November 29, 1997.[1] The station was closed from November 3 to December 23, 2010, during tie replacement on the line.[1][6]

Due to a FY 2013 budget shortfall and claims of low ridership by the MBTA, weekend service to the South Shore (and two other lines[7]) was discontinued in July 2012.[8] MassDOT and the MBTA subsequently received substantial feedback from rail commuters and legislative representatives to reinstate weekend service to those lines. In 2014, funding was reallocated to the FY 2015 state budget (for a trial period) and weekend service resumed on the (formerly) suspended lines on 27 December 2014.[9] Prior to the return of weekend service on the Kingston/Plymouth Line, the MBTA held special weekend service to Plymouth for 2 weekends leading up to the 2014 Thanksgiving holiday. The two trains per day were intended only for tourists going to Plymouth; they did not run on schedules allowing day trips to Boston.[10]

The fork at the end of the line creates operational issues - a single train cannot serve both terminal stations efficiently. Three daily trips run to both Kingston and Plymouth sequentially, which doubles travel time from Kingston to Boston during much of the day (Kingston is first on all weekday and one weekend trip). Between Kingston and Plymouth, the train is simultaneously acting as an inbound train (from the first station to Boston) and an outbound train (from Boston to the second station). Keolis and the MBTA planned to address the unusual routing during schedule changes in late 2015, but did not do so.[11]

References
  1. Belcher, Jonathan. "Changes to Transit Service in the MBTA district" (PDF). NETransit.
  2. Central Transportation Planning Staff (2019). "2018 Commuter Rail Counts". Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.
  3. Humphrey, Thomas J. & Clark, Norton D. (1986). Boston's Commuter Rail: Second Section. Boston Street Railway Association. p. 25. ISBN 9780938315025.
  4. Jacobs, Warren (October 1928). "Dates of Some of the Principal Events in the History of 100 Years of the Railroad in New England. 1826-1926". Railway and Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin. Railway and Locomotive Historical Society. 17: 15–28. JSTOR 43504499.
  5. Karr, Ronald Dale (1995). The Rail Lines of Southern New England. Branch Line Press. p. 310. ISBN 0942147022.
  6. "Old Colony Tie Replacement Project Underway Temporary Closure of Plymouth Station" (Press release). Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. November 2, 2010.
  7. "MBTA restoring weekend commuter rail service on three lines". Metro Magazine. 8 October 2014. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
  8. Trufant, Jessica (20 February 2014). "Duxbury man leads push to restore weekend rail service on South Shore". The Patriot Ledger. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
  9. MassDOT Press Office (7 October 2014). "Patrick Administration Announces Restoration Of Weekend Service On Three Commuter Rail Lines". Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
  10. "Take the Special Seasonal Weekend Train to Plymouth!" (PDF). Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
  11. Dungca, Nicole (4 October 2015). "Rail trip from Kingston shows MBTA's 'scheduling anomalies'". Boston Globe. Retrieved 5 October 2015.

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