Fairmount station is an

MBTA Commuter Rail The MBTA Commuter Rail system serves as the commuter rail arm of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's (MBTA's) transportation coverage of Greater Boston in the United States. Trains run over of track on 12 lines to 142 stations. It ...

station in

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. It serves the

Fairmount Line The Fairmount Line or Dorchester Branch is a line of the MBTA Commuter Rail system in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Except for a short portion in Milton, it lies entirely within Boston, running southwest from South Station through the neighborho ...

. It is located in the Hyde Park area, under the Fairmount Avenue overpass. Fairmount station opened in 1979 during Southwest Corridor reconstruction; intended to be temporary, it eventually became a permanent stop.

History

Previous service

Service on the Fairmount Line (as the Dorchester Branch of the

Norfolk County Railroad The Norfolk County Railroad was a railroad in Massachusetts, United States. Chartered as two different companies in 1846 and 1847, it completed a rail line between Dedham, Massachusetts, Dedham and Blackstone, Massachusetts, Blackstone in 1849. M ...

and later the

New York and New England Railroad The New York and New England Railroad (NY&NE) was a railroad connecting southern New York State with Hartford, Connecticut; Providence, Rhode Island; and Boston, Massachusetts. It operated under that name from 1873 to 1893. Prior to 1873 it was ...

and

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 principally in the New England region of the United States from 1872 to 1968. Founded by the merger of ...

) began in 1855 and lasted until 1944. The service included a stop named Hyde Park at Fairmount Avenue, and a stop named Fairmount (also called Glenwood) near Glenwood Avenue. Another station, currently known as , is located in Hyde Park six blocks to the west. During their histories, both stations were referred to both as "Hyde Park" and as "Fairmount". The grade crossings at Fairmount Avenue, and at Dana Street (Bridge Street) nearby, were replaced with road bridges in 1909.

Fairmount Line

The Dorchester Branch (also known as the Midland Route) was reopened as a bypass in November 1979 during Southwest Corridor construction, including stops at Uphams Corner,

Morton Street Morton Street is a street in southern Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It extends from the southeastern end of the Arborway in Jamaica Plain to Washington Street in the Lower Mills Village of Dorchester. Most of the road is a connecting ...

, and Fairmount. This station was originally built at minimal cost, with small low-level platforms and no direct access to Morton Street. The station was not handicapped accessible, as service over the route was intended to be temporary. However, it was popular with residents of the communities the line passed through: by 1983, over 600 riders per day boarded at Fairmount, enough to justify service to both Fairmount and nearby Hyde Park after the end of construction. When the Southwest Corridor reopened in October 1987, the Fairmount shuttle service was retained as the Fairmount Line. Fairmount was the terminus of the line until it was extended to

Readville Readville is part of the Hyde Park neighborhood of Boston. Readville's ZIP Code is 02136. It was called Dedham Low Plains from 1655 until it was renamed after James Read, the owner of the Dedham Manufacturing Company along Mother Brook, in 184 ...

on November 30, 1987.

Renovation

A major renovation of Fairmount station began in early 2003. The $7 million project, which was completed in 2004-05, added 1-car-length high platforms and ramps to the Fairmount Avenue overpass to make the station handicapped accessible. During the construction, new temporary platforms were built slightly northeast of the station. Uphams Corner and Morton Street stations received full-length high level platforms in renovations that finished in 2007. When Blue Hill Avenue, the last of four new stations, was completed in 2017, Fairmount and Readville became the only stations on the line without full-length high-level platforms. The MBTA wishes to eventually add high-level platforms at Fairmount to speed boarding, but there are no current plans to do so. As part of a long-term shift of the Fairmount Line from commuter rail to a rapid transit-like service, Fairmount was shifted from Zone 1 to Zone 1A on July 1, 2013, making a trip to South Station equal to a rapid transit fare. This equalized all fares on the line except trips to/from Readville. On May 20, 2024, Fairmount became the outer terminal for some midday Fairmount Line service.

References

External links

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MBTA – Fairmount
MBTA Commuter Rail stations in Boston Former New York and New England Railroad stations Railway stations in the United States opened in 1979 Hyde Park, Boston Railway stations in the United States closed in 1944