Attleboro
Attleboro has received continuous train service in its general area since 1835. It was the southern terminus of all Commuter Rail service along the Northeast Corridor from Boston from February 20, 1981 until February 5, 1988, a period where the State of Rhode Island declined to fund any commuter rail service to continue to Providence. The station continued to be the terminus of all off-peak trains until the South Attleboro station opened on July 30, 1990 with all trains that formerly terminated at Attleboro now extended to South Attleboro. The name of the Providence Line was known as the Attleboro Line during these years. The station also received minimal Amtrak service along the Taunton Branch from the Cape Codder that stopped at the station before it curved off the branch on Summer Fridays to Cape Cod, Sundays back from Cape Cod during the Summers of 1986 through 1988. There was also subsidized service on the Cape Cod and Hyannis Railroad from Attleboro to Cape Cod for the 1988 season. Seasonal rail service returned to Cape Cod via the CapeFlyer in 2013 but it runs directly into Boston via the more direct Middleborough/Lakeview Line, not via Attleboro.
The Attleboro Station itself consists of four tracks in the station area on a rare stretch of the New Haven Railroad east of New Haven that successfully quad-tracked as planned by the railroad in the early 20th century. Only three of the four tracks were electrified during Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor electrification expansion project to Boston that opened in 2000, with the need to electrify the Rhode Island-bound stopping platform a project required before electric trains can be operated on the MBTA Providence Line (all MBTA Commuter Rail trains have always been sadly diesel running under wire). The station consists of two low-level side platforms only for the two siding tracks (the middle tracks are used by bypassing Amtrak trains) that are today nearly completely offset from each other.
The original station area is located on a stretch of track that was put on a viaduct removing 13 grade-crossing in 1906. As part of this project two Romanesque-style station houses were built on either side of the tracks between the underpasses of Mill Street and Main Street Street, each with small drop-off areas now containing parking lots around the station houses. The platforms have clear evidence (a fenced off area now grated off of what I think were steps down an underground pedestrian underpass connecting the two platforms.
The Inbound platform’s station house is still in passenger use containing a number of not very historic-looking wooden benches, restrooms, and is only open when Zone Seven Coffee Bar is open from 5:15am to 8:29am Monday through Friday of a June 2024 (yes that precise, closing after that morning train stops at the station). This leads out to the Inbound low-level platform along the local track only, with passengers waiting beneath the historic canopy of the gabled roof platform.
A mini-high platform is located just beyond the southern end of the historic depot for ADA boarding. The platform contains additional staircases down to the south side of Mill Street before it continues north, long and with no passenger amenities. At the platform’s southern end, just beyond the mini-high platform is a staircase down to the north side of Main Street, followed by a fenced off extension of the platform that leads over Main Street and to a staircase followed by a ramp that provides ADA access to this platform, down to Main Street and to the nearly completely offset Outbound platform.
The Outbound platform makes the station feel like a Park & Ride Station, and not a historic station that is integrated into a Town Center. The second historic depot along the original Outbound platform is still there but it now contains private offices with fencing prohibiting any access directly to the businesses or little parking lot along the historic depot at platform level with additional fencing prohibiting access from the tracks in front of this historic depot. There is a fenced off staircase closed staircase on this side of the tracks to the former platform from Mill Street, but Mill Street is now a block north of where the modern Outbound platform is.
The Outbound platform begins at the southern edge of its no longer in passenger service historic depot (across from the mini-high platform along the Inbound platform) and runs south. The Outbound platform starts at its northern end with a staircase up from Main Street. The platform crosses over Main Street, before continuing above on an embankment first above the Attleboro Transit Center followed by the stations 780 space parking lot and ending with a canopied high-level platform (the only shelter for anyone waiting for an Outbound train) at the southern end of the platform.
The platform has a just a few entrances. There is a first a staircase, followed by the base of a ramp (with one long ramp up parallel to the platform) that leads down to the Attleboro Intermodal Transportation Center. The Attleboro T.C. is small modern station building (with brick walls and a green roof) that is a waiting room for bus passengers. The inside contains a few benches, a screen designed to show next bus departures, and a bus pass Genfare Ticket Machine. There is a door into an area marked utility closet, but I don’t believe there were ever public restrooms. The Transit Center leads out to two curving parallel bus islands with green and, white with brick bases supports holding the canopies up.
South of the Transit center the platform has the arrival of its ramp followed up by two more staircases up from the station’s parking lot (with a garage once proposed). The parking lot extends more than 1,000 feet south of the southern end of the northbound platform with the farthest space over a third of a mile from the Inbound platform.
Photos 1-123: June 20, 2024;
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Last Updated: September 14, 2024
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South Attleboro