Passenger Trains > MBTA South Coast Rail Overview

On March 24, 2025, the MBTA inaugurated commuter rail service between Fall River MA / New Bedford MA and Boston's South Station by extending 12+ exisiting South Station - Middleborough commuter train pairs per day to the new south coast destinations. The MBTA had purchased the decrepit track from CSX in 2011 (note that Mass Coastal RR took over freight operations on these lines and appears to be building business) and began re-construction of ~36 miles of track south of Middleborough in 2019. Six new stations and two new holding yards were built in addtion to installing new CWR and PTC/cab signalling on the lines which join at Myricks Jct. The new track has sections of 70+ mph running and inbound morning trains to South Station run the 55+ miles from Fall River in about 1 hour 34 minutes and the 60+ miles from New Bedford in about 1 hour 37 minutes. Cost of this phase of the implmentaion cost around $1B.

One of the interesting aspects of the initial operation is the use of the new East Taunton center island platform station as a "mini-Jamaica" as some 60 MBTA trains a day pass through there using cross platform transfers between shuttles and through trains. For example, a South Station to Fall River train will meet a New Bedford bound shuttle at E Taunton. The train continues to Fall River and turns back to E Taunton as a shuttle where it will meet a Boston bound train from New Bedford using the previous shuttle train equipment.  A bit later a 2nd Fall River bound train arrives from South Station and the 1st Fall River consist now shuttles to New Bedford where it will reverse back to E Taunton and onto South  Station. Rinse and repeat as they say....

These 60 daily trains operating Monday through Friday use a 3 mile section of mostly double track (the Rte 24 underpass south of E Taunton is currently a single track choke point) between E Taunton and Myricks Jct. The residents around Myricks have gone from seeing perhaps 1 or 2 slow short daily freight trains prior to March 2025 to coping with 60 speeding horn blowing commuter trains spanning almost 20 hours each day between 0430 and midnight  - the grade crossings in the area are not a quiet zone.

Screen grabs and aerials will follow to give you an idea how South Coast Rail's infrastructure has changed....

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Photo 1 shows what Myrick St grade crossing looked like 7 years ago before the track infrastructure upgrade began. Photos 2 and 3 show what it looks like today - 4 tracks with 60 trains/day.

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Photo 4: Aerial view of New Bedford track in 2016
Photo 5: same view captured in November 2024 after depot and layover yard were built
Photo 6: the E Taunton - New Bedford shuttle train at the New Bedford platform. Shuttle trains use the same 6-8 car consist of the trains to/from South Station.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/14/25 07:31 by JPB.

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Photo 7 shows the barren area north of the Fall River depot in 2016 that will become the layover yard and photo 8 shows the layover yard as built in 2024.
Photo 9 aerial shows the new Fall River depot and parking lot.
 

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Photo 10 shows the HSP at the Fall River Depot platform
Photo 11 shows the Fall River bound trains boarding at South Station
Photo 12 shows the interesting domwed ceiling over the South Station concourse that used to open to the air until a high rise building was constructed there.

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The  dome  is  classy.  Progress!!

Great reporting and images of this operation , Thanks !!

My family went on vacation through Fall River and New Bedford in 1968 when I was 12, and I remember spotting the Penn Central (former New Haven) tracks and thinking how much fun it would be to ride a train there.  Only took 57 years to be able to do it!  I'll ride it on next trip east!

dwatry Wrote:
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> My family went on vacation through Fall River and
> New Bedford in 1968 when I was 12, and I remember
> spotting the Penn Central (former New Haven)
> tracks and thinking how much fun it would be to
> ride a train there.  Only took 57 years to be
> able to do it!  I'll ride it on next trip east!

If you like to bike, the countryside between Fall River and New Bedford is among the most beautiful in the state.  The towns of Westport and Dartmouth have farmland that runs right down to the water's edge, beautiful beaches, a number of small villages, and plenty of country lanes for riding.  The MBTA allows bikes on board, so one could do a train-bike-train loop originating in Boston.

Dave

I took a ride on Thursday, March 27th while it was free.  I started out around 6:30am from Forge Park, the  end of the Franklin line to arrive later at
South Station in downtown Boston.  After a short period the South Coast train to Fall River was ready to leave..    It was a train of mostly bi-level cars.
Nothing new  until we reached Middleboro where the train  switched to the new portion of the line and new Middleboro station.  East Taunton is where
the fun starts. There was a train waiting to take passengers from  our Fall River train to board this second train to New Bedford.  The Fall River train
went on its way and I assume the New Bedford train followed to its destination.  A few passengers boarded our Fall River train at East Taunton  and
Freetown.  This is where the free narrated portion of the trip was provided by a "homeless" individual (courtesy of free rides) who claimed to live in a
teepee attached to his truck.  He was most knowledgeable of the geographic area Fall River and Somerset across the river. After arriving at Fall River
 and waiting for the train to go back to Boston -  this train took off for South Station via the East Taunton musical chairs situation.  This was a snarl that has to be dealt with. People exited our train, not knowing whether it was going to go south to New Bedford or north to south station.  Even the conductors were perplexed, although the destination sign on the side of the car said "South Station."  It appeared to me that the opposite train they were waiting for took a long time to arrive
causing this train to arrive at South Station much delayed.  This probably did not  bother any of the other passengers, however this train was scheduled to arrive
back at South Station at 1:28 pm at the same time that the Franklin train was about to depart: 1:28  I did not catch that train but I got something to eat and toured the upstairs bus station.  Next train out was 2 hours later, it consisted of almost all 300 and 600 series single  level  cars from the 80's.  The conductor
had trouble keeping the end door between  cars open as she collected tickets.  She locked all the side doors before she exited at Franklin/Dean Station,
leaving everybody to walk the length of the train to get off the first car after the engine.  I drove my car out of the station at 4:30.  As I am not a daily rider of the
train, I suspect I will be getting a bill for my parking soon!    Frank30