North Scituate 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

Scituate, Massachusetts Scituate () is a seacoast town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States, on the South Shore, midway between Boston and Plymouth. The population was 19,063 at the 2020 census. History The Wampanoag and their neighbors inhabited the ar ...

. It serves the

Greenbush Line The Greenbush Line is a branch of the MBTA Commuter Rail system which serves the South Shore region of Massachusetts. The line runs from downtown Boston, Massachusetts through the cities and towns of Quincy, Braintree, Weymouth, Hingham, ...

. The station, located at 777 Country Way in North Scituate village, is the primary station for Scituate, while nearby Greenbush station primarily serves as a park-and-ride for adjacent communities. Like the other stations on the Greenbush Line, North Scituate consists of a single full-length high-level platform which provides accessible boarding to the line's single track.

History

The modern

was originally built as the

South Shore Railroad The South Shore Railroad was a railroad in Massachusetts. It was incorporated in 1846 to provide rail service between Quincy, Massachusetts, Quincy and Duxbury, Massachusetts through the towns of Hingham, Massachusetts, Hingham, Cohasset, Massach ...

, which opened to Cohasset in 1849. The Old Colony-backed Duxbury and Cohasset Railroad, chartered in 1867, which opened from Cohasset to Duxbury in 1871, including a stop at North Scituate. Three other stations were, at various times, located in Scituate: Egypt station at Captain Pierce Road, Scituate (also called Scituate Harbor) at First Parish Road, and at Driftway. After financial troubles in the 1870s, the Duxbury and Cohasset was joined with the South Shore under the fold of 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, ...

in 1877. A new freight house was built in 1879, and the existing passenger station was expanded. The Old Colony was leased to 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 principally in the New England region of the United States from 1872 to 1968. Founded by the merger of ...

in 1893. Ridership on the Greenbush Line diminished in the 1930s due to increased competition from automobiles. The line enjoyed a brief uptick in traffic in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

with the construction of the Hingham Naval Ammunition Depot and the Hingham Naval Ammunition Depot Annex. The number of daily trips was increased from 4 to 8 after World War II under Frederick C. Dumaine, Jr., and modern diesel trains including

Budd RDC The Budd Rail Diesel Car (RDC), also known as the Budd car or Buddliner, is a self-propelled diesel multiple unit (DMU) railcar. Between 1949 and 1962, 398 RDCs were built by the Budd Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The car ...

s were introduced in the 1950s. However, the New Haven Railroad continued to lose money on the service, and after Dumaine was ousted the railroad announced all trains would cease running in 1958. Only an emergency subsidy by the state kept trains running until June 30, 1959 when the Southeast Expressway opened and all passenger train service ended. The former Spanish-style station, built in 1908-09, is located on Gannett Road near the modern station. It was converted for commercial use by 1962. Calls for the former Old Colony lines to be reactivated began in the 1980s; 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), ...

and

Middleborough/Lakeville Line The Fall River/New Bedford Line (formerly the Middleborough/Lakeville Line) is a commuter rail line of the MBTA Commuter Rail system in southeastern Massachusetts, United States. It runs south from Boston to Taunton, where it splits into branches ...

were reopened in 1997. After much controversy surrounding various aspects of the $534 million project, construction of the

was completed in mid-2007. The Greenbush line and North Scituate station were opened for full service on October 31, 2007 after a ceremonial train the previous day.

References

External links

{{commons category-inline
MBTA – North Scituate
Former Old Colony Railroad stations Railway stations in the United States opened in 2007 MBTA Commuter Rail stations in Plymouth County, Massachusetts 2007 establishments in Massachusetts Buildings and structures in Scituate, Massachusetts