Kingston station (formerly Kingston/Route 3) 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 ...

serving the

Plymouth/Kingston Line The Kingston Line is a commuter rail line of the MBTA Commuter Rail system in southeastern Massachusetts, United States. It runs southeast from Boston to Kingston, Massachusetts, Kingston with eight intermediate stops. Plymouth station (MBTA), ...

, located off of

Massachusetts Route 3 Route 3 is a state-numbered route in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, maintained by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT). Spanning approximately along a north–south axis, it is inventoried with U.S. Route 3 (US 3) a ...

south of downtown

Kingston, Massachusetts Kingston is a coastal town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 13,708 at the 2020 census. History Before European settlers arrived, Kingston was within the tribal homeland of the Wampanoag people. Several years ...

. It opened in 1997. Like all stations on the line, Kingston station is fully accessible. The station consists of a single

side platform A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platforms, ...

serving the single track. Marion Drive, the access road for the station parking lot, crosses the line at grade just east of the platform. The Kingston layover yard is located just west of the station.

History

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 River, ...

's Kingston station was located in downtown Kingston off Summer Street ( Route 3A). The original station was replaced in 1889. It was the southern terminus of the

South Shore Line The South Shore Line is an electrically powered commuter rail line operated by the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICTD) between Millennium Station in downtown Chicago, Illinois and the South Bend Airport station in Sout ...

until 1938. Boston–Plymouth service ended in 1959, though the station is still extant and used as a restaurant. The station was built to provide a

park and ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, Rail transport, r ...

station for Route 3 so that traffic to the station would not go through downtown Kingston. A completely new right of way – the first new section of mainline rail in the state since the

Needham cutoff The Needham Line is a branch of the MBTA Commuter Rail system, running west from downtown Boston, Massachusetts through Roxbury, Massachusetts, Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, Jamaica Plain, Roslindale, Massachusetts, Roslindale, West Roxb ...

in 1906 – was constructed along Route 3 and through unused land. The spur passes under the Route 3/3A interchange in a lengthy tunnel. A layover yard for Plymouth/Kingston Line service is located just past the station. Peak service began on September 29, 1997, with off-peak and weekend service beginning on November 29. In October 2011, the MBTA began construction of a $2.5 million

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that wind power, converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. , hundreds of thousands of list of most powerful wind turbines, large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over ...

to supply energy to the station and layover facility. The -tall turbine, which was completed in January 2012, only produces about 60% of the energy it was expected to. The MBTA called the station "Kingston/Route 3" in some materials until around 2016. The fork at the end of the line created operational issues – a single train cannot serve both terminal stations efficiently. Three daily trips formerly ran to both Kingston and Plymouth sequentially, which doubled travel time from Kingston to Boston during much of the day. Between Kingston and Plymouth, the train simultaneously acted as an inbound train (from the first station to Boston) and an outbound train (from Boston to the second station). Keolis and the MBTA planned to address the unusual routing during schedule changes in late 2015, but did not do so. Plymouth station was indefinitely closed on April 5, 2021, as part of service cuts, with all trains terminating at Kingston.

References

External links

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MBTA – Kingston
MBTA Commuter Rail stations in Plymouth County, Massachusetts Railway stations in the United States opened in 1997 1997 establishments in Massachusetts Kingston, Massachusetts