Framingham
 Worchester, MA | Lake Shore Limited | Boston - Back Bay, MA  |
Framingham is an important now intermediate stop on the namesake Framingham/Worcester Line. The station is where some rush hour local short-turn trains originate and terminate and where rush hour express trains to and from Worcester arrive or depart for non-stop or limited stop trips to and from Downtown Boston.
The station was the terminus of all Commuter Rail service to and from Boston from October 27, 1975 until 1994, although the number of trains was as low as four daily round-trips in the 1960s and 1970s with the assumption that passengers would drive to Riverside on the former Highland Branch, recently sold to the MBTA and covered to a high speed streetcar, todays Green Line ‘D’ branch. At these times most trains terminated or originated at Framingham with just one train per day extending to Worcester in 1975 and only rush hour service restored in 1994 with additional service added in the past 30 years.
The stop is also the first or last stop (travel exclusively between Boston and Framingham prohibited) on the Lake Shore Limited before the two Boston stations – Back Bay and South Station – on its long journey to and from Chicago. Direct trains to New Haven via Springfield often continuing to New York and Washington, DC operated stopped at Framingham until 1975 and from 1984 to the early 2000s. This routing was named the Inland Route versus the normal Coastal Route that is the Northeast Corridor routing via Rhode Island. The staiton has no Amtrak signage informing passengers that the Lake Shore Limited stops here. The only sign of Amtrak at the station is a special bridgeplate for the narrow Amfleet Doors.
The Framingham Station is a station on the two-track mainline located on the southern portion of the wye formed by the two end tracks of the CSX Fitchburg Secondary. The southern portion of the station used to be right next to the wye formed by the Milford Branch’s arrival onto the mainline. This Milford Branch still sees limited freight service to Sherborn but access is only from the west, the eastern part of the wye is where the modern Inbound platform is.
Along the Inbound side of the tracks, just east of the grade-crossing of Concord Street is the station’s historic 1885 stone Richardson Romanesque depot designed by its famed namesake architect H.H. Richardson. This depot still has a fading yellow line platform no longer in passenger use covered by wooden porches extending from the depot. Inside the depot is currently a Brazilian Steakhouse Restaurant.
The modern platforms were opened in 2001. This included the building of a pedestrian bridge to replace the former connection between the two platforms that consisted of a pedestrian crossing in front of the station house to the Outbound platform. The freight traffic through Framingham made this an important project. The core this project was the building of a pedestrian bridge that is fully canopied and accessed by a staircase at each end along with a concrete clad elevator (yes, this station, due to space constraints actually got elevators not the long ramp complexes that 4 new infill stations west of here received).
The freight traffic along the line resulted in the building of two low-level platforms that end with mini-high platforms at their western ends with what I believe were originally retractable platform edges. The two modern platforms are offset from each other with the Outbound platform still beginning across from the historic depot. The Inbound platform begins just west of the end of the canopy of the historic depot. The platforms each have two canopy structures, one completely covers the mini-high platform while the other is at the extreme eastern end of the Outbound platform (across from the historic depot) while the Inbound platforms is just east of the pedestrian bridge.
The station has 294 parking spaces located in multiple small lots. Two small lots are along each of the platforms. The Outbound platform’s lot located in the middle of the wye only accessible via a grade-crossing over the eastern section of the wye off the Fitchburg Secondary and leading to another small parking lot that is accessed from Concord Street, or through the alley from the intersection of Howard and Franklin Streets.
The Inbound platform’s small lot is hemmed in by parallel Waverly Street, with additional parking across Waverly Street in the middle of the former wye formed by Milford Branch.
Photos 1-23: June 19, 2024
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Last Updated: October 11, 2024
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Ashland