Taunton was a passenger rail station located south of Oak Street in downtown

Taunton, Massachusetts Taunton is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the seat of Bristol County. Taunton is situated on the Taunton River which winds its way through the city on its way to Mount Hope Bay, to the south. At the 2020 cen ...

. As Taunton Central Station, it served local and Boston-focused routes from 1836 to 1958. A later station at the same site served

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

's '' Cape Codder'' from 1986 to 1996, and

Cape Cod and Hyannis Railroad A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment which drapes the wearer's back, arms, and chest, and connects at the neck. History Capes were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon. Th ...

commuter trains in 1988.

History

Taunton Central station

The New Bedford and Taunton Railroad opened from Mansfield to Taunton in August 1836 - one of the first branch lines in the state. Its Taunton Central station was located between Oak Street and Wales Street, surrounded by the

Taunton Locomotive Manufacturing Company The Taunton Locomotive Manufacturing Company was one of the earliest firms in the United States established especially for the manufacture of steam locomotives. Located in Taunton, Massachusetts, the company was organized in 1849 and incorporated ...

and

Mason Machine Works The Mason Machine Works was a machinery manufacturing company located in Taunton, Massachusetts, between 1845 and 1944. The company became famous for an early invention by its creator, William Mason, the self-acting mule, first patented in 1840 ...

. The line passed to the

Old Colony Railroad The Old Colony Railroad (OC) was a major railroad system, mainly covering southeastern Massachusetts and parts of Rhode Island, which operated from 1845 to 1893. Old Colony trains ran from Boston to points such as Plymouth, Fall Ri ...

in 1879 and the

New Haven Railroad The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad , commonly known as The Consolidated, or simply as the New Haven, was a railroad that operated in the New England region of the United States from 1872 to December 31, 1968. Founded by the merger of ...

in 1893. The New Haven operated passenger service through Taunton, including Boston - Fall River and Boston - New Bedford routes, in addition to the seasonal New York - Cape Cod '' Cape Codder'' service. The railroad was obligated to eliminate grade crossings near the station by a 1913 court order, but this was vacated in 1926. Year-round NH passenger service to Taunton ended in 1958. Taunton briefly saw service again, during the summers of 1960 to 1964, when the '' Day Cape Codder'' and ''Neptune'' returned.

Amtrak and CC&HRR

A new station nearby was built for

's '' Cape Codder'' service from 1986 to 1996. Located off Oak Street next to the GATRA Bloom Bus Terminal (where a ticket counter was located), the station consisted of a single bare asphalt platform serving the single track. Cape Codder Ticket Window in Bloom Bus Terminal, April 2015

Cape Codder Ticket Window in Bloom Bus Terminal, April 2015

Cape Cod & Hyannis Railroad commuter trains stopped at the station on Attleboro-Cape Cod runs in 1988. the 1980s-built platform is still extant, though partially covered by vegetation, and the old ticket window could be seen in the Bloom Bus Station that served as the terminal, until a renovation in 2015.

South Coast Rail

At several times during the

South Coast Rail South Coast Rail is a project to build a new southern line of the MBTA Commuter Rail system along several abandoned and freight-only rail lines. The line has been planned to restore passenger rail service between Boston and the cities of Taunton, ...

planning process, the site was under consideration as a station for MBTA Commuter Rail service to Boston. In September 1995, the MBTA filed an environmental notification form for construction of the project, with a routing following the Northeast Corridor to just north of Attleboro and a new bypass connecting to the branch line to Taunton. The station would have been upgraded to a full-length high-level platform to meet Americans with Disabilities Act requirements. However, further reports suggested a route through Stoughton which would not stop at the station location, and the project was eventually cancelled in 2003. When planning was restarted in 2005, alternatives through Attleboro and Stoughton were considered. The Stoughton alternate chosen in 2009 included two possible routing options, one following the former Whittenton Branch which would have a station at the Oak Street location. This would have provided convenient transfers to GATRA bus services, but resulted in longer travel times as the Whittenton Branch includes several major curves. The Final Environmental Impact Statement, released in 2013, selected a route further east with

Dean Street Dean Street is a street in Soho, central London, running from Oxford Street south to Shaftesbury Avenue. Historical figures and places In 1764 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, then a young boy, gave a recital at 21 Dean Street. Admiral Nelson stayed ...

station as a downtown stop instead. The FEIS included the possibility of using the Whittenton Branch, but a station would have been built at Dana Street several blocks to the north of the Oak Street location, where the straighter track geometry would be more favorable for the construction of full-length high-level platforms.

References

External links