The Bay Colony Railroad is a
shortline railroad
:''Short Line is also one of the four railroads in the American version of the popular board game Monopoly, named after the Shore Fast Line, an interurban streetcar line.''
A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that opera ...
operating in
.
Formerly operating along most of the south coast region (including all lines on
Cape Cod
Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...
), Bay Colony currently operates only along a roughly six-mile stretch of track between
New Bedford
New Bedford (Massachusett: ) is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts. It is located on the Acushnet River in what is known as the South Coast region. Up through the 17th century, the area was the territory of the Wampanoag Native American pe ...
and
Westport, referred to as the
Watuppa branch. In addition to moving freight for its customers, Bay Colony also performs
AAR
AAR or Aar may refer to:
Geography
* Aar, a river in Switzerland, tributary of the Rhine
*Aar (Lahn), a tributary of Lahn river in Germany, descending from the Taunus mountains
* Aar (Dill), a tributary of Dill river in Germany, also in the bas ...
-certified repairs on rolling stock and contract track construction projects for other railroads. It has a sister railroad, the
Seminole Gulf Railway
The Seminole Gulf Railway is a short line freight and passenger excursion railroad headquartered in Fort Myers, Florida, that operates two former CSX Transportation railroad lines in Southwest Florida. The company's Fort Myers Division, which ...
, which is based out of
Fort Myers
Fort Myers (or Ft. Myers) is a city in southwestern Florida and the county seat and commercial center of Lee County, Florida, United States. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 92,245 in 20 ...
,
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
.
History
The Bay Colony railroad was chartered on March 31, 1977, with the intent of taking over freight service on former New Haven lines from
Conrail
Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busin ...
, which was planning to abandon service. The lines were purchased by the state government, and Bay Colony took over all freight operations on the lines on June 12, 1982 with a 25-year contract.
The contract for the railroad lines owned by the State of Massachusetts administered by the Executive Office of Transportation (EOT), which included the Cape Cod main expired on December 31, 2007. It was awarded to a new company, the
Massachusetts Coastal Railroad
The Massachusetts Coastal Railroad is a Railroad classes, Class III railroad serving south-eastern Massachusetts. The railroad maintains track from Hyannis to Framingham, with the railroad operating its own trains on the 97 miles of lines betwe ...
(“Mass Coastal”), which took over on January 1, 2008. At that time the Bay Colony ceased operation on those lines, but continued to maintain operations in other areas of the state, namely the Millis branch (until 2019) and the Watuppa branch.
Former Millis Branch
Bay Colony continued operations along the
Millis Branch
The Millis Branch was a branch of what is now the MBTA Commuter Rail system. Branching off the still-operating Needham Line at , it ran through the towns of Dover, Medfield, Millis, and Medway. Due to lack of subsidies and poor ridership, the l ...
, a roughly eight-mile segment of track between
Needham Junction
Needham Junction station is an MBTA Commuter Rail station in Needham, Massachusetts. It serves the Needham Line. It is located on Junction Street near Chestnut Street in the southwestern part of Needham. It opened in 1906 when the New Haven Railro ...
and the former
Millis station
Millis was a railroad station in Millis, Massachusetts. It served the Millis Branch (formerly the West Medway Branch), and opened in 1886.
History
In April 1966, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) reached an agreement with th ...
. When the Millis
GAF
GAF may refer to:
Military
* General of the Air Force, US
* Ghana Armed Forces
* Guardia alla Frontiera, Italy
Other uses
* Gaf, a Perso-Arabic letter
* Gaf (Mandaeism), a demon of the Mandaean underworld
* GAF Materials Corporation, an Amer ...
Plant in
Millis closed, the Bay Colony Railroad took a new contract from Tresca Bros Cement. Fly ash cars from Dragon Cement in Maine were delivered periodically, usually in the summer months to a section of track near Island Road in Millis. Though inactive from February 2019 through 2021, the line resumed providing freight service to Tresca Bros in 2022, with one delivery happening in January and one in June.
Bay Colony holds operating rights in the rest of the segment in the event that other freight rail traffic returns along the span of the segment. This line interchanges with CSX at Medfield.
Watuppa Branch
Bay Colony also operates along the
Watuppa Branch (also referred to as the North Dartmouth Industrial Track), a roughly six-mile stretch of track in the south coast of the state. The branch diverges from the
New Bedford Secondary
The New Bedford Subdivision is a freight railroad line in the U.S. state of Massachusetts owned by the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, with freight operations handled by the Massachusetts Coastal Railroad. The line runs from the end of the C ...
and passes through the town of
Dartmouth before terminating in Westport. Bay Colony operates all freight rail along this line, and interchanges with Mass Coastal in New Bedford.
See also
*
Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge
The Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge (also known as the Buzzards Bay Railroad Bridge), a vertical lift bridge in Bourne, Massachusetts near Buzzards Bay, carries railroad traffic across the Cape Cod Canal, connecting Cape Cod with the mainland.
Des ...
References
External links
Company websiteThe Bay Colony Rail Trail
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bay Colony Railroad
Massachusetts railroads
Spin-offs of Conrail