Boston and Providence Rail Road

Infobox SG rail
railroad_name=Boston and Providence Rail Road
logo_filename=
logo_size=
marks=
locale=Boston, Massachusetts to Providence, Rhode Island
start_year=1834
end_year=1888
old_gauge=
hq_city=The Boston and Providence Rail Road was a former railroad in New England.

History

The Boston and Providence Rail Road was incorporated June 21, 1831 and chartered the next day to build a railroad between Boston and Providence, Rhode Island.

Construction began in late 1832. The first section, from Boston to Canton, with a branch to Dedham opened in 1834, and the rest opened on July 28 1835 with the completion of the [http://www.cantonviaduct.us Canton Viaduct] . The opening of stations in Jamaica Plain allowed the development of one of the first commuter suburbs in America. [Local Attachments : The Making of an American Urban Neighborhood, 1850 to 1920 (Creating the North American Landscape), by Alexander von Hoffman, The Johns Hopkins University Press (1996), ISBN 0-8018-5393-1]

Until 1899, when South Station opened, the Boston terminal was at Park Square, with a crossing at-grade of the Boston and Worcester Railroad at the current merge at Back Bay station (also opened in 1899, only serving the B&P). The original Providence terminal was at Fox Point, from which it ran east along the Seekonk River shore and over the river into East Providence (then part of Seekonk, Massachusetts) before turning north towards Boston. A ferry across the Providence River connected Fox Point to the South Providence terminal of the New York, Providence and Boston Railroad (opened 1837).

In 1847 the Providence and Worcester Railroad opened its line between downtown Providence and Worcester, Massachusetts. At the same time, the B&P built a connection west from its main line in southern Attleboro to the P&W in Central Falls. The B&P and P&W jointly owned the line south of Central Falls into downtown Providence. (In 1848 the NYP&B connected its line south of downtown Providence to downtown, removing the gap through Providence.)

On April 1, 1888, the Old Colony Railroad leased the B&P for 99 years. The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad leased the Old Colony on March 1, 1893 and assumed the lease. The New Haven used the B&P as part of its main Boston-New York "Shore Line".

When Boston's new South Station union station opened in 1899, a new line was built along the south side of the Boston and Albany Railroad to the new station, located near the B&A's old terminal. The old line to Park Square was abandoned.

The East Side Railroad Tunnel opened in 1908 between East Providence and downtown Providence. This provided a second route into Providence, using the old alignment to East Providence and then running through the tunnel. The tunnel is no longer in use, having been disconnected on the downtown side, with its entrance located underneath the What Cheer Building which is owned by RISD.

Current status

The Penn Central Railroad was created in 1968 through a merger that included the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. The PC bankruptcy in the early 1970s coincided with the creation of Amtrak.

The New Haven's former B&P mainline from Boston-New York City was included with the former Pennsylvania Railroad's New York City-Washington, D.C. mainline as a new high-speed passenger route for Amtrak which is now known as the Northeast Corridor and hosts the "Acela Express", the only high-speed rail service in North America.

In 1973, the MBTA purchased the portion of the B&P main line in Massachusetts, including the Stoughton Branch, forming what is now the Providence/Stoughton Line. The portion in Rhode Island was sold to Amtrak in 1976.

Branches

;DedhamThe first branch was the Dedham Branch to Dedham from Readville, opened in 1834 with the first section of the railroad. The Norfolk County Railroad opened in 1849, continuing from Dedham to the southwest. In 1850 a second branch to Dedham opened from Forest Hills, forming a loop through Dedham. Another outlet for the Dedham Branch opened in 1906, with a connection west to the New England Railroad at Needham Junction. The Dedham Branch from Forest Hills to that connection is still in use as the Needham Branch of the MBTA Commuter Rail, but the rest of the Dedham loop has been abandoned.

;StoughtonThe Stoughton Branch Railroad was incorporated April 16, 1844 as a branch of the B&P from Canton Junction to Stoughton. It opened in early 1845, and is still in use for passenger service as a branch of the main line to Attleboro and Providence.

;EastonThe Easton Branch Railroad was incorporated in 1854 and opened in 1855 as a continuation of the Stoughton Branch beyond Stoughton. In 1865 the Old Colony and Newport Railroad bought the line and incorporated the majority of it into its main line.

;TauntonThe Taunton Branch Railroad was incorporated in 1835 to build a branch from the B&P in Mansfield to Taunton, opening in 1836. The branch was operated by the B&P until 1840, when the New Bedford and Taunton Railroad opened, continuing the line past Taunton.

In 1870 the Mansfield and Framingham Railroad opened, continuing the Taunton Branch northwest on the other side of the B&P. A connection between the Taunton Branch northwest of Taunton and the B&P in Attleboro opened in 1871, having been built by the Taunton Branch.

;AttleboroughThe Attleborough Branch Railroad also opened in 1870, running from the B&P in Attleboro northwest to North Attleborough. It was leased to the B&P, and was later connected to a branch of the Old Colony Railroad system in 1890.

;Moshassuck ValleyThe Moshassuck Valley Railroad was chartered in 1874 and opened in 1876 as a branch from the joint B&P/P&W at Woodlawn, Rhode Island north to Saylesville. The company remained independent until 1981, when it was bought by the P&W.

;SeekonkThe Seekonk Branch Railroad was a short spur on the east side of the Seekonk River, running from the B&P south to a dock on the river. It was incorporated in 1836 and opened soon after, with the hope that the company would be able to run its own trains over the B&P as with a highway. As a result of this, the Massachusetts State Legislature passed a law that a railroad company could refuse any traffic on its road, and the company was a failure. The B&P bought it in 1839, and the Providence, Warren and Bristol Railroad built a line beginning from it in 1855.

;Warren, Bristol and Fall RiverThe Providence and Bristol Railroad was incorporated in 1850 and 1851, and reorganized in 1852 as the Providence, Warren and Bristol Railroad. That line opened in 1855 from the old Seekonk Branch in East Providence southeast to Warren and south to Bristol. It was owned by the B&P through a majority of stock, and directly leased the Old Colony Railroad in 1891.

The Warren and Fall River Railroad was incorporated in Rhode Island in 1856, and the Fall River and Warren Railroad in Massachusetts in 1857. In 1860 the two were merged to form the Fall River, Warren and Providence Railroad, opening later in 1860 from Warren east to Somerset, across the Taunton River from Fall River. In 1875 a new Boston and Providence Railroad Bridge opened, connecting to the Old Colony Railroad in Fall River. At that time, the company was leased by the Old Colony; before that it had been controlled by the B&P.

tation listing

South of Providence, the T. F. Green Airport station is planned on the old New York, Providence and Boston Railroad in Warwick.

toughton Branch

External links

* [http://members.cox.net/cv2/bprrhs.htm Boston & Providence Railroad & Historical Society]
* [http://www.cantonviaduct.us Canton Viaduct]
* [http://www.mbta.com/traveling_t/schedules_commuter_linedetail.asp?line=attleboro&pagefrom=commuterrailmain MBTA - The Providence/Stoughton Line]

References

* [http://members.aol.com/eddanamta/busfiles/contents.pdf Changes to Transit Service in the MBTA district] (PDF)
* [http://www.earlpleasants.com/search_1.asp Railroad History Database]
*Mileposts from [http://safetydata.fra.dot.gov/OfficeofSafety/Downloads/Default.asp?page=downloaddbf.asp FRA Highway-Rail Crossing Inventory Files]
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=3TQCAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA28&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=0_1#PRA1-PA71,M1 Report of Mr. Hayward on the Railroad Survey Between Boston and Providence] from pages 71-112 of the [http://books.google.com/books?id=3TQCAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA28&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=0_1#PPA1,M1 Report of the Board of Directors of Internal Improvements of the State of Massachusetts.] By James Fowle Baldwin, James Hayward, Solomon Willard, published 1829, 196 pages.