Rowley station is an

MBTA Commuter Rail The MBTA Commuter Rail system serves as the commuter rail arm of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's transportation coverage of Greater Boston in the United States. Trains run over of track to 141 different stations, with 58 statio ...

station in

Rowley, Massachusetts Rowley is a New England town, town in Essex County, Massachusetts, Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 6,161 at the 2020 census. Part of the town comprises the census-designated place of Rowley (CDP), Massachusetts, Row ...

. It is the penultimate station on the Newburyport branch of the

Newburyport/Rockport Line The Newburyport/Rockport Line is a branch of the MBTA Commuter Rail system, running northeast from downtown Boston, Massachusetts towards Cape Ann and the Merrimack Valley, serving the North Shore. The first leg, operating via the Eastern Rou ...

History

The small

Boston and Maine Railroad The Boston and Maine Railroad was a U.S. Class I railroad in northern New England. Originally chartered in 1835, it became part of what was the Pan Am Railways network in 1983 (most of which was purchased by CSX in 2022). At the end of 1970, B ...

(B&M) station building in Rowley was in disrepair by 1961, and was later demolished. Service to the station ended on April 20, 1967, when the B&M received permission from the

Interstate Commerce Commission The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later trucking) to ensure fair rates, to eliminat ...

to discontinue all service on the line (which had been cut back from

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

to in January 1965); at that point, service beyond consisted of only one daily round trip to

North Station North Station is a commuter rail and intercity rail terminal station in Boston, Massachusetts. It is served by four MBTA Commuter Rail lines – the Fitchburg Line, Haverhill Line, Lowell Line, and Newburyport/Rockport Line – and the Amtrak ...

. Both Rowley and Newburyport were, at the time, outside the MBTA's service district; the town of Newburyport signed a subsidy agreement with the MBTA, allowing it to continue to receive service, but Rowley did not, and its station closed. Newburyport service continued to run until April 2, 1976. The current station opened on October 26, 1998, as part of the restoration of service on the Newburyport/Rockport Line between Ipswich and Newburyport. As with Newburyport, the new station was built with a full-length high-level platform, which allows level boarding for all cars of even the longest MBTA trains.

References

External links

MBTA - Rowley
MBTA Commuter Rail stations in Essex County, Massachusetts Stations along Boston and Maine Railroad lines Buildings and structures in Rowley, Massachusetts Railway stations in the United States opened in 1998 {{Massachusetts-railstation-stub