The Cape Cod Railroad (also currently referred to as the Cape Main Line) is a railroad in southeastern Massachusetts, running from Pilgrim Junction in Middleborough across the Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge, where it splits towards Hyannis in one direction and Falmouth in the other. It was incorporated in 1846 as the Cape Cod Branch Railroad to provide a rail link from the Fall River Railroad line in Middleborough to Cape Cod.
Among the proponents of the Cape Cod Branch Railroad were Col. Richard Borden of Fall River, who saw the new line as an opportunity to bring more traffic and business through his hometown. He was at one time president of the Bay State Steamboat Company, which together with the Old Colony Railroad formed the noted "Fall River Line". He was later elected president of the Cape Cod Railroad. [1]
On January 26, 1848, the first 14.7-mile (23.7 km) segment of the railroad was opened between Middleborough and Wareham. By May 1848 an additional 12.9 miles (20.8 km) was opened to Sandwich, enabling unimpeded transit between Boston and Sandwich, thus serving the needs of the Boston & Sandwich Glass Company. In 1853, the extension of the line to Hyannis was started, reaching West Barnstable on December 22, 1853.
On February 22, 1854, the Cape Cod Branch Railroad was renamed the Cape Cod Railroad Company. [2] In the spring of 1854, construction continued, with the railroad reaching Barnstable village May 8, Yarmouth Port May 19, and finally Hyannis on July 8, 1854. [3] Connecting steamboat service to Nantucket commenced from Hyannis in late September and would continue until 1872.
In 1868, the Cape Cod Railroad acquired the Cape Cod Central Railroad (1861–1868), which had opened a line from Yarmouth to Orleans in 1865. [4]
In 1871, the Cape Cod Railroad bought the Plymouth and Vineyard Sound Railroad – which had been incorporated in 1861 as the Vineyard Sound Railroad Company intending to build a line from Buzzards Bay to Woods Hole. However, the road to Woods Hole was not completed until July 17, 1872, after the merger with the Cape Cod Railroad. [5] Upon completion of that road, the steamboat service to Nantucket moved to Woods Hole. [4]
By this time, the Cape Cod Railroad had merged with the Old Colony and Newport Railway to form a new company, renamed the Old Colony Railroad. The Cape Cod routes became known as the "Cape Cod Division" of the Old Colony Railroad, with its headquarters in Hyannis. [6] The merger was completed on September 30, 1872.The Woods Hole Branch opened on July 17, 1872. [7]
With much fanfare, the Old Colony Railroad completed the line to Provincetown in July 1873. [8] Old Colony Railroad maintained all rail operations on the Cape until their closure in 1893.
After Old Colony Railroad closed in 1893, the entire network was leased by New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, which took over operations on the Cape Cod Railroad. The NYNH&H ended daily passenger service to southeastern Massachusetts and the Cape in 1959. The railroad did, however, restore the popular seasonal rail service from New York City to Hyannis, with connections from Boston, during the 1960 through 1964 summer seasons.
The New Haven's passenger service to Cape Cod was operated under a number of different names, including and Day Cape Codder , the Night Cape Codder, the Neptune, the Islander, and the Flying Dude. [9]
Following New York, New Haven and Hartford permanently terminating Cape operations in 1964, the Cape lacked any regular passenger rail service for almost twenty years. In 1984, the Cape Cod and Hyannis Railroad began providing seasonal service between Braintree and Hyannis, until their closure in 1988. In 1986, Amtrak began operating the Cape Codder during summer weekends from New York City to Hyannis, until it was terminated in 1996. The cancellation of the Cape Codder marked the end of non-heritage passenger rail between the Cape and the mainland for almost twenty more years.
From 1989 to 1999, Bay Colony Railroad operated seasonal heritage railroad excursions from Hyannis to Sagamore under the Cape Cod Railroad brand, [10] until these services were taken over by Cape Cod Central Railroad in 1999. Bay Colony was also the sole operator of freight rail on the Cape from 1987 to 2007, until their contract expired and service was taken over by Massachusetts Coastal Railroad.
Throughout the 20th century, most of the railroad tracks on the outer Cape were removed, with many being replaced with rail trails. Today, the only railroad tracks on the Cape exist on the upper Cape. Shortly after crossing the Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge, the track splits in two directions, with one direction heading towards Falmouth and the other heading towards Hyannis. The Falmouth line is currently used for freight and heritage passenger service, while the Hyannis line is used for regular freight and passenger services.
The Cape Cod Central Railroad continues to operate seasonal tourist excursions, departing from Hyannis and Buzzards Bay and occasionally including stops at West Barnstable and Sandwich. [11] A limited number of trains also depart from North Falmouth, [12] which marks the only passenger service along the Falmouth spur of track.
Ever since the Old Colony Lines were restored for public service in the late 1990s, there have been several efforts made to extend commuter rail service from Middleborough/Lakeville station to Buzzards Bay. As of 2020, the MBTA is conducting a study to evaluate the feasibility of implementing such service in conjunction with the currently-underway South Coast Rail project. [13] [14] While regular commuter service has not yet been implemented, the seasonal passenger train CapeFLYER began operating from Boston to Hyannis in 2013, as a collaborative effort between Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority and Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. In addition to serving select stops along the regular commuter rail lines, the CapeFLYER also makes stops in Wareham, Buzzards Bay, Bourne, and Hyannis
In 2007, the contract for Cape freight rail was awarded to Massachusetts Coastal Railroad, which currently continues to manage all freight rail on the line today. [15] The most common operation is the "energy train", which hauls refuse from the Upper Cape Regional Transfer Station in Falmouth and the Yarmouth-Barnstable Regional Transfer Station in Yarmouth, to the Southeastern Massachusetts Resource Recovery Facility, a waste-to-energy plant in Rochester. Other regular operations include interchanging with CSX in Middleborough and transporting material for the ongoing South Coast Rail project. Massachusetts Coastal Railroad is owned by the same parent company as Cape Cod Central Railroad.
Mass Coastal has been in conflict with proponents of a new rail trail that wish to replace the line between Bourne and Camp Edwards with a new branch of the Shining Sea Bikeway. This would eliminate rail service to the transfer station within Camp Edwards. The railroad is advocating for a rails with trails instead. [16]
Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months. The name Cape Cod, coined in 1602 by Bartholomew Gosnold, is the ninth oldest English place-name in the U.S.
Falmouth is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 32,517 at the 2020 census, making Falmouth the second-largest municipality on Cape Cod after Barnstable. The terminal for the Steamship Authority ferries to Martha's Vineyard is located in the village of Woods Hole in Falmouth. Woods Hole also contains several scientific organizations such as the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), the Woodwell Climate Research Center, NOAA's Woods Hole Science Aquarium, and the scientific institutions' various museums.
Sandwich is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States and is the oldest town on Cape Cod. The town motto is Post tot Naufracia Portus, "after so many shipwrecks, a haven". The population was 20,259 at the 2020 census.
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 River, New Bedford, Newport, Providence, Fitchburg, Lowell and Cape Cod. For many years the Old Colony Railroad Company also operated steamboat and ferry lines, including those of the Fall River Line with express train service from Boston to its wharf in Fall River where passengers boarded luxury liners to New York City. The company also briefly operated a railroad line on Martha's Vineyard, as well as the freight-only Union Freight Railroad in Boston. The OC was named after the "Old Colony", the nickname for the Plymouth Colony.
The Cape Cod Central Railroad is a heritage railroad located on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. It operates on a rail line known as the Cape Main Line which is owned by Massachusetts Department of Transportation. The line was previously owned and operated by the Cape Cod Railroad, the Old Colony Railroad, and later the New Haven Railroad, each of which operated passenger trains on the line from 1854 to 1959. Although its namesake is the former Cape Cod Central Railroad (1861–1868), the two companies are unrelated.
The Cape Codder was a seasonal passenger train operated by Amtrak between New York City and Hyannis, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod. It operated during the summer between 1986 and 1996. It was the first regular service from New York to the Cape since 1964. The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad previously had operated a train under this name until 1958.
The Old Colony Lines are a pair of branches of the MBTA Commuter Rail system, connecting downtown Boston, Massachusetts with the South Shore and cranberry-farming country to the south and southeast. The two branches operate concurrently for 10 miles (16 km) via the Old Colony Mainline from South Station to Braintree station. The Middleborough/Lakeville Line then winds south through Holbrook, Brockton, Bridgewater, Middleborough, and Lakeville via the Middleborough Main Line and Cape Main Line. The Kingston Line heads southeast to serve Weymouth, Abington, Whitman, Hanson, Halifax, and Kingston by way of the Plymouth branch. Limited service to Plymouth was provided prior to April 2021 but was cut due to low ridership and budget constraints. The Greenbush Line, which was also part of the Old Colony Division, was reactivated in 2007 as a separate project.
The Middleboro Secondary is a railroad line owned by MassDOT in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. The line runs from Attleboro to Middleborough via Taunton.
Holbrook/Randolph station is an MBTA Commuter Rail station on the border of Holbrook and Randolph, Massachusetts. It is served by the Middleborough/Lakeville Line.
Bridgewater station is an MBTA Commuter Rail station in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, served by the Middleborough/Lakeville Line. It is located on the east end of the Bridgewater State University campus along the Middleborough Main Line.
Middleborough/Lakeville station is an MBTA Commuter Rail station in Lakeville, Massachusetts, just south of the Middleborough border. It is the southern terminus of the Middleborough/Lakeville Line; it is also an intermediate stop for seasonal CapeFlyer service to Cape Cod. Middleborough/Lakeville has a single full-length high-level side platform serving the line's single track.
The Massachusetts Coastal Railroad is a Class III railroad serving south-eastern Massachusetts. The railroad maintains track from Hyannis to Framingham, operating over 135 miles of track between Hyannis and Fall River/New Bedford. The railroad is the successor operator of portions of the Bay Colony Railroad.
Sandwich station is a railway station in Sandwich, Massachusetts on Cape Cod. It is currently only used by the Cape Cod Central Railroad as a whistle stop for its seasonal excursion trains.
The Hyannis Transportation Center (HTC) is an intermodal transportation center in Hyannis, Massachusetts, operated by the Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority (CCRTA). It is the terminus for several CCRTA bus lines and its CapeFLYER passenger train that operates on summer weekends between Boston South Station and Hyannis. It is also used by the Plymouth and Brockton Street Railway, Peter Pan Bus Lines, and Greyhound via CapeBus intercity bus services. The Cape Cod Central Railroad uses a separate station building across the tracks for its excursion services. A rail yard used by the Cape Cod Central is located north of the station, along with a former roundhouse.
Hyannisport Wharf was a railroad wharf in the Hyannisport section of Hyannis, Massachusetts.
Buzzards Bay station is a train station located on Main Street in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts. The site also contains an interlocking tower. The Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge is adjacent.
The CapeFlyer is a passenger rail service in Massachusetts between Boston and Cape Cod that began in 2013. It is operated by the Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority (CCRTA) in collaboration with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT). The service runs on the weekends, beginning Friday evenings and including holidays, between Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend.
The Cape Cod & Hyannis Railroad was a railroad that provided tourist and seasonal passenger services in Southeastern Massachusetts in the 1980s. Its primary service operated from the Braintree MBTA station to Hyannis on Cape Cod; branches to Attleboro and Falmouth also operated in some years. The service ended after the 1988 summer season amid early-1989 state budget cuts in Massachusetts; much of the same trackage is being used for the seasonal CapeFLYER service.
Wareham Village station is a train station that is located on Merchants Way in Wareham, Massachusetts. Service to Wareham formerly ran from 1848 until 1959. A shelter, built in 1985 for short-lived Amtrak and commuter service, is currently unused. A new platform constructed nearby for the CapeFLYER summer weekend service opened for the CapeFLYER on June 27, 2014.
Middleborough station is an under-construction MBTA Commuter Rail station in Middleborough, Massachusetts. It is expected to open in May 2025 as part of the South Coast Rail project, replacing Middleborough/Lakeville station for regular service. The station will have a single side platform located inside the wye between the Middleborough Main Line and the Middleboro Secondary.
