South Sudbury (MBTA station)
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South Sudbury was a
commuter rail Commuter rail, or suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting Commuting, commuters to a Downtown, central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Generally commuter r ...
station in Sudbury, Massachusetts. It was located at the junction of the
Central Massachusetts Railroad The Central Massachusetts Railroad was a railroad in Massachusetts. The eastern terminus of the line was at North Cambridge Junction where it split off from the Middlesex Central Branch of the Boston and Lowell Railroad in North Cambridge an ...
and the Framingham and Lowell Railroad slightly north of Boston Post Road (
U.S. Route 20 U.S. Route 20 or U.S. Highway 20 (US 20) is an east–west United States Numbered Highway that stretches from the Pacific Northwest east to New England. The "0" in its route number indicates that US 20 is a major coast-to-coast route. S ...
) in South Sudbury. The Boston and Maine Railroad station was incorporated into the MBTA Commuter Rail through subsidies in 1965. The station was closed in November 1971 when the branch's last remaining round trip was discontinued. The 1952-built station building was a private business until its closure in 2019, and the building is now abandoned.


History

The Framingham and Lowell Railroad (F&L) opened between its namesake cities on October 1, 1871. Its South Sudbury station and freight house were located on the east side of the tracks, on the north side of Boston Post Road. The
Central Massachusetts Railroad The Central Massachusetts Railroad was a railroad in Massachusetts. The eastern terminus of the line was at North Cambridge Junction where it split off from the Middlesex Central Branch of the Boston and Lowell Railroad in North Cambridge an ...
(CM) opened from Boston to
Hudson, Massachusetts Hudson is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, with a total population of 20,092 as of the 2020 census. Before its incorporation as a town in 1866, Hudson was a neighborhood and unincorporated village of Marlborough, Massa ...
in October 1881. After going out of business in 1883, it was reopened by the
Boston and Lowell Railroad The Boston and Lowell Railroad was a railroad that operated in Massachusetts in the United States. It was one of the first railroads in North America and the first major one in the state. The line later operated as part of the Boston and Maine ...
(B&L) in 1885, which was, in turn, acquired by the Boston and Maine Railroad (B&M) in 1887. 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 ...
, which had acquired the F&L in 1879, constructed a
union station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...
at the southeast corner of the junction of the two lines around 1887-91. This Victorian-style station included a three-story tower. The Old Colony Railroad was leased by the
New York, New Haven and Hartford 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 ...
(often referred to as just the "New Haven Railroad") in 1893, making South Sudbury one of a small number of stations which served both of New England's two largest railroads. Passenger service ended on the F&L in 1933 (although freight service between South Sudbury and West Concord lasted until 1982, and between South Sudbury and Framingham Centre into the 1990s). Service on the CM past Clinton ended in 1932 and on the branch to Marlborough in 1939; by 1950, there were just four daily round trips. With such drastically-reduced traffic levels, it was no longer economical for the B&M to maintain the large Union Station. A small wooden station was built around 1952; after failed attempts to move and preserve it, Union Station was demolished, with portions of the interior auctioned off to collectors. The
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (abbreviated MBTA and known colloquially as "the T") is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. The MBTA transit network in ...
was formed in August 1964 to subsidize suburban commuter rail service. On January 18, 1965, services were cut back to the boundaries of the MBTA funding district. Although the MBTA initially intended to discontinue the single remaining trips on the Central Massachusetts Branch and the Lexington Branch, they were kept at the last minute. However, the remaining CM trip was cut from Hudson to South Sudbury. On November 26, 1971, the remaining South Sudbury round trip was discontinued due to poor track conditions and dwindling ridership. The circa-1952 station building is still extant, and was in use as a private business, AAA Limousines, until 2019. Part of the platform and a station sign reading "Sudbury" remain at the building.


References


External links

{{commons category
The diamond at South Sudbury (date unknown)
MBTA Commuter Rail stations in Middlesex County, Massachusetts Former MBTA stations in Massachusetts Sudbury, Massachusetts Railway stations in the United States opened in 1881 Railway stations closed in 1971 1971 disestablishments in Massachusetts 1881 establishments in Massachusetts