Category: MBTA

For the next station, as a change of pace, we’re back in the Boston area (for now!), and with that, I took the next thing out of South Station. In the case of when I took the pics for this, it was a shuttle with a guaranteed connection to a Middleborough train. So, I rode it as far as I could before reaching unvisited territory. Welcome to Bridgewater!

So, Bridgewater is much like Middleborough in that it’s a singular high-level platform with one track. However, while there is a lot of parking, it actually has a good reason for being plentiful – the station is LITERALLY on the campus of Bridgewater State University! Yes, this is transit-oriented education right here! However, the station itself isn’t anything special, really. You have wastebaskets, signage, benches, and parking. The only noteworthy thing is having the BSU shuttles on days school is in session, picking up near the parking garage nearby. But, aside from that, no bus connections. And, sorry to the person from one of the Discord servers I’m in that lives near here, I have nothing special to say about your local MBTA station. 🙁

The good: It serves BSU! Yeah, that’s about it. It’s a parking sink otherwise.

The bad: Eh, not a lot. Single-track ops hinder throughput a lot.

Nearby points of interest: BSU is the big one!

Transit connections:
Commuter Rail (Middleborough)
BSU campus shuttles

Overall, while there’s not a lot to it, it’s a very useful station and it gets the job done. A for effort, and for accessibility.

Rating: 7/10

Alexander Hamilton was the first US Treasury secretary (that’s right – the same position held by, at the time of writing this, Janet Yellen!) and was a very influential person in American history. While I don’t know the full extent of his historical significance, he did have involvement with the American Revolution and the Continental Congress back when those were things. Unfortunately, after an attempt to run for President, his demise came in a duel with Aaron Burr in 1804. His legacy can be seen in many things between modern-day currency and the famous Lin-Manuel Miranda play Hamilton.

Now, what the HELL does this have to do with anything I write about? Well, I’ll tell you: they named a town – and by extension a Commuter Rail station – after the man! Welcome to Hamilton (/Wenham)!

Hamilton/Wenham, as the name suggests, is on the line between Hamilton and Wenham, Massachusetts. The area isn’t bad and is a much better area compared to North Beverly to the south, all things considered. It’s pretty close to the town center (I did not check it out, as I instead got water at the nearby Cumby’s), the station has plenty of parking, there’s plenty of shelter and even a mini-high that, shockingly, HAS STUFF! WOAH! I’m genuinely relieved this is a good station! Yeah, you have benches and everything! There’s also a small walkway and a grade crossing just north of the station as well. Neat! It’s also located next to a small shopping center with a Dunks and a CVS as well, which is nice.

The good: It’s in the town center, has plenty of parking, and shelters! It’s also got benches and, wouldn’t ya know it, the mini-high isn’t barren! WOAH!!! There’s also stuff nearby!!! And, it’s pedestrian-friendly!

The bad: Not a lot, actually! Would be nice if there was a local bus connection to somewhere.

Nearby points of interest: The town center is close by!

Transit connections:
Commuter Rail (Newburyport)

Overall, I really like this station. I mean, it’s not a personal favorite, but objectively it’s really a good station and the town itself is largely cool. Deducted points for the anti-MBTA Communities Act sentiment, however. Sorry!

Rating: 8/10

This station, like EVERY OTHER STATION IN BEVERLY, absolutely sucks! And, I feel like I’m beating a dead horse on this one, so I’ll probably make this one rather quick. With that out of the way, welcome to North Beverly!

The station, much like Beverly (which, thank GOD is finally seeing a minor rebuild!) and Beverly Farms, has a barren platform and barren mini-highs. No shelter on the outbound side, benches exist on the platforms, there’s a red dot matrix signage, wastebaskets, and crossings to change sides. There’s also a small parking lot and even a connection to the route 451 bus. Neat! In terms of the surrounding area, it’s nothing special, really, as it’s just a normal suburban area with a train platform shoehorned in. It really isn’t anything special. As for the inbound platform shelter, it’s a bus shelter. GODDAMMIT!

The good: It’s in suburbia! It also has a local bus connection and is accessible!

The bad: WHY ARE ALL THESE STATIONS SO DAMN BARREN AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHFIDOPAHFIDOPSHFGIUODYHGUIOFADWHSFIOP THEY’RE LITERALLY COPY-PASTED FROM EACH OTHER AND IN SHIT WAYS

Nearby points of interest: Just a couple of strip malls.

Transit connections:
Commuter Rail (Newburyport)
MBTA bus (451)

Overall, this station sucks, all the other stations in Beverly suck, and thank GOD all I have left in this town are the 451 and the Beverly Local Bus!

Rating: 4/10

Ipswich is a small town in the North Shore. I’ve heard a lot about it in passing but I’ve never thought to check it out until now. Well, I did, and here’s the station entry. All things considered, it’s not bad.

Ipswich was, until 1998, the terminus of the then-Ipswich Line. But, of course, in 1998, the line saw a 2 stop extension through the wetlands to Rowley and Newburyport. As a terminal, I’m sure it was alright. However, I’m not looking it like that, as it’s not a terminal anymore. The station itself is built on a relatively sharp curve with a crossing bisecting Topsfield Road. The station itself is very strongly resembling Hamilton/Wenham, down to the nearby walkable downtown area, and I already liked that station. There’s also a bus connection to the seasonal Ipswich-Essex Explorer ran by the Cape Ann Transit Authority as well. The platforms have signage, the usual red dot matrix signs typical of a Commuter Rail station, benches, and shelters on both the mini-high and the low level platform. Overall, pretty good! Also, the bus connection is SIGNED. YAY!!!

The good: It’s in Ipswich’s town center! The platforms are nice, there’s a bus connection, and the area is also rather walkable! There’s also plenty of parking for those opting to drive. However, to my awareness, it’s by permit only, though. Sorry!

The bad: Not a lot. The train does spill into the crossing here…

Nearby points of interest: Wherever the heck the Ipswich/Essex Explorer will bring you, plus Ipswich’s downtown!

Transit connections:
Commuter Rail (Newburyport)
CATA (Ipswich/Essex Explorer)

Overall, it’s also a pretty good station. It’s centrally located and has a decent amount of stuff around it, as well as a decent-ish (I think?) summer bus connection. Definitely better on the system.

Rating: 8.5/10

So, I was in the Miles in Transit Discord server and I mentioned I was going to be doing the entirety of the Newburyport Line on the day I came up here, to which someone got excited over Rowley. Well, to that person who was eager to see my take on Rowley (or, I guess as I should dub you, Rowley’s Strongest Warrior), this one is for you. Welcome to Rowley!

Rowley opened in 1998 as part of the Ipswich Line’s Newburyport extension as the sole intermediate station, and it shows. It’s a full-length high platform with shelters and benches and wastebaskets (oh my!), plenty of parking that, when I was here, it barely had anyone parked (it was also after the AM rush), and a whole lot of nothing in the walkshed. Yeah. There really is nothing, and you’d have to walk a mile before reaching much of anything. If anything, it’s a testament to just how not very dense the town is overall. Yikes. There isn’t even a Dunks nearby, which is also just sad. Ah well!

The good: It’s a full-length high platform! Yay? There’s also shelter and benches and parking!

The bad: WHY NO OVERNIGHT PARKING?! ALSO, THERE’S LITERALLY NOTHING HERE AAAAAAAAAAAAFHDIOAPHFGDIOAHGIOPASHGAD WAHT THE FUCKING HELL

Nearby points of interest: Nah.

Transit connections:
Commuter Rail (Newburyport)

Overall, while it’s not bad, it’s just……eh…..there’s nothing really helping it and there’s nothing nearby. This is just depression more than anything else. Pass.

Rating: 5.5/10

Opened in 1998, Newburyport is the end of its namesake line, and is a small seaside town. Unlike Rockport, however, the station is drastically different. Well, here we go.

Newburyport uses an island terminal configuration with big mean mother bumpers at the end of the tracks that used to go all the way to Portsmouth, Kittery, and points north before terminating at Portland, Maine. With that said, terminal ops are rather normal here, with the train dwelling before turning around. Platform amenities are normal, with a yellow dot matrix sign, benches, wastebaskets, and A LOT OF PARKING. One lot’s off Parker St., while the other lot is off US-1. Sadly, the area largely isn’t walkable outside a rail trail. However, MeVa does actually run buses here, namely the 19 to the Costello TC in Amesbury and the 20 to Salisbury Beach. There is also a Mexican restaurant in the station depot building as well, which while I haven’t tried it personally, Google reviews do suggest nothing but good things about it. Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten the opportunity to explore Newburyport a bit more, but I have heard it’s a charming little town, so I’ll likely be returning at some point. As another aside, I will say, land use, while bad at face value, does seem to be getting a little better near the station with housing developments going up nearby. Affordable? Well, if it says you have to call for rates, it probably isn’t.

The good: It’s a massive park and ride for not just the surrounding rural areas, but also southern NH and Maine commuters (though I think Mainers coming to here might be more on the “extreme commute” side of things?). There’s also connections to MeVa for travel within the region. Also, the platform is fully accessible! YAY!

The bad: The area isn’t exactly walkable… yeah, sorry! The only trace of MeVa stopping here is also a small bus stop sign that’s pretty easily missable if you don’t know where to look. And, there’s also no bus info.

Nearby points of interest: Downtown Newburyport looks cool!

Transit connections:
Commuter Rail (Newburyport)
MeVa (19, 20)

Overall, pretty good, and it’s a pretty decent terminal. The connection to MeVa is a little annoying to find though if you don’t know what to look for, though, especially given MeVa is typically a flag-down system.

Rating: 7/10

Alrighty, alrighty, the full name of this station and town is “Manchester by the Sea”, however for simplicity’s sake, I’m gonna just call it Manchester. However, with that said, if the coveted Lowell Line extension to New Hampshire happens, I’ll probably use the full name in the title of this entry. With that said, here’s a very foggy and dreary station – Manchester By The Sea. (it was foggy and dreary when I was here)

So, Manchester is much a copy-paste of the various stations in Beverly – mini high setup, barren mini-highs with nothing, red dot matrix signage, outbound platform having much of nothing on it, and a decent amount of parking. However, this time, the outbound platform DOES have shelter – albeit not on the mini-high. And, for some reason, it’s LARGER than the inbound! Meanwhile, the inbound shelter is just a shed. There is also plenty of parking to go around, and the station is in the town center adjacent to a drawbridge. In terms of nearby stuff in the town center, there’s a grocery store, the local community center, and a waterfront park. Neat! But, the station’s still pretty sad overall. Sorry!

The good: It’s in Manchester’s town center! Yay? It also has shelter!

The bad: WHY DOES THE OUTBOUND SIDE GET A LARGER SHELTER? WHY IS THE PLATFORM SO DAMN BARREN FOR A MAJOR-ISH TOURIST DESTINATION?! RAISE THE DAMN PLATFORM! WAHT THE HELL?! The lack of buses here is annoying but that’s hardly an issue.

Nearby points of interest: Manchester is a bustling seaside town during the summer months!

Transit connections:
Commuter Rail (Rockport)

Overall, yeah this station sucks. The only saving grace vs. Montserrat is that it’s in the town center and that the outbound platform has shelter. But it suffers many of the same issues as the Beverly stations. Sorry!

Rating: 3.5/10

In 1995, the island of Montserrat experienced a catastrophic disaster that rendered its capitol city, Plymouth, uninhabitable. On July 18th of that year, the Soufrière Hills volcano went kaboom, spewing volcanic fallout around the island, and the volcano has been active since. This all has rendered about half of the island of Montserrat uninhabitable.

…wait, what? I’m talking about the wrong Montserrat? Ah fuck. Whelp, Chelsea did the wrong type of research. What is the right Montserrat, anyways?

*looks at pictures and notes*

OH, there’s a neighborhood in Beverly called Montserrat with a T station! Okay! Whoopsies, sorry about the snafu. Here’s Montserrat, the T station. Sorry, everyone!

Anyways, Montserrat is sandwiched between two grade crossings, at Essex St. and Spring St. Essex St. is the more busy of the two streets, with me having to risk my life crossing it. Yikes. There’s plenty of parking to go around here as well, and it being a Saturday meant an empty parking lot. The mini-highs are unsheltered, the inbound platform has a rinky-dinky little shelter, while the outbound has jack shit. There’s benches and wastebaskets though! There’s also a couple of red dot matrix signage. In terms of the area, there’s not much around, as it’s almost fully residential. Oh yeah, there IS a bus connection – the Beverly Local Bus. Stay tuned for that one!

Before I left, however, I decided to pick up lunch at Nick’s Pizza. Fries were crunchy and salty, and the pizza was pretty good, all things considered. Overall, I give it a passing grade.

The good: It’s in a residential neighborhood! Relatively easy to walk to, at that. There’s also a local bus connection.

The bad: EVERYTHING ELSE. THE STATION ITSELF SUCKS, THE MINI-HIGHS ARE BARREN, THERE’S BARELY ANY SHELTER, AND NOTHING IN WALKING DISTANCE – WAHT THE ACTUAL HELL!!! AND THE BEVERLY LOCAL BUS IS A MESS OF A ROUTE TOO!!!

Nearby points of interest: Just a small plaza with Nick’s Pizza and a convenience store…

Transit connections:
Commuter Rail (Rockport)
Beverly Local Bus

Overall, no. Just, god no. Please no.

Rating: 3/10

Whelp, welcome to the boonies! Wachusett Station is among the newest stations on the Commuter Rail, having opened in 2016. This is also the highest point on the entire system, clocking in at about 650 to 675 feet above sea level. Damn! Originally, I was planning to do this one as a Christmas special, but I could just never get the timing right. So, I made my way out here on Independence Day to check it out! So, here we go.

The station is at the end of the Fitchburg Line, and is the furthest out one can get on the northside Commuter Rail lines (54 miles!), with only one station being further out than this on the entire Commuter Rail. As for what the station has, it’s just a park and ride. There’s a high-level platform with yellow signage, wastebaskets, benches, and whatnot. There’s also a busway for MART buses, which is nice. Furthermore, there plenty of parking to go around, though I’m not sure how well-utilized it is. Annoyingly, trains have to DEADHEAD TO THE YARD from here after terminating, and have to deadhead back before heading to Boston. This is also very annoying because it’s an easy way to end up running late. Eww. Now, in terms of what’s nearby? There isn’t much. The only things nearby are a gas station with a Dunks, and a….dispensary?! Yeah, there really isn’t a lot here. In terms of scenery though, it looks like a cool place to railfan Norfolk Southern!

The good: It’s a parking sink for the surrounding areas and towns like Westminster, Gardner, Princeton, and Ashburnham! It’s also a full-length high level platform! Neat!

The bad: The trains have to deadhead to the yard! Also, there’s not a lot out here overall…

Nearby points of interest: There’s a dispensary, for you stoners reading this! There’s also a gas station housing a Dunks in walking distance.

Transit connections:
Commuter Rail (Fitchburg)
MART (11, Wachusett Commuter, Wachusett Mountain Shuttle*)
*is seasonal

Overall, it’s an alright station. It’s not bad, it’s pretty nice actually. But, it’s relatively average and barebones as far as park and rides go. Also, terminal ops are annoying here.

Rating: 6.5/10