South Attleboro
The South Attleboro Station is a Commuter Rail station built on the cheap to provide additional parking relief to the Attleboro Station. Parking issues at the Attleboro Station had been exemplified by the State of Rhode Island refusing to fund Commuter Rail Service farther south and even when Commuter Rail service returned to Providence during rush hours on February 1, 1988 the nearby Pawtucket/Central Falls Station wasn’t reopened. Although later a new station in a different location serving the two cities with the same name opened on January 23, 2023. The South Attleboro Station is just 400 feet inside Massachusetts from the Rhode Island State Line with Rhode Island RIPTA buses and Attleboro GATRA buses meeting and exchanging passengers in the station’s parking lot. The location was chosen specifically in Massachusetts to provide additional railroad parking capacity separate from Rhode Island deciding to fund or not fund commuter rail service.
The new South Attleboro Station was built originally with only a pedestrian footbridge with stairs and was ready to open in 1988. The Massachusetts Architectural Access Board (MAAB) wouldn’t let the station open because it wasn’t accessible. Ramps were added to the station’s pedestrian bridge (only to the Inbound platform and down to the parking lot), along with mini-high platforms at the southern ends of the two side platforms for the two-track line. These improvements allowed the station to be opened in July 1990 with all trains that formerly terminated at Attleboro extended to also stop at South Attleboro. The station being built on the cheap became extremely evident in the 2010s when the stairs to the footbridge were first closed off (all passengers had to use ramps), and later the structural deterioration became so bad the station was condemned and closed fully on February 26, 2021. The footbridge was demolished in 2023 with limited Commuter Rail service returning on May 20, 2024, only stopping on the Outbound track.
The station as of September 2024 receives service only on weekdays in the peak direction. This service is provided by three Inbound early morning trains (at 4:23am, 6:11am, and 7:21am) wrong-rail through the station area and stop along the former Outbound only platform. Return service is provided by one midday train (12:15pm) and three Outbound PM rush hour trains (3:14pm, 4:44pm, and 6:36pm). The MBTA is hoping to restore full service to South Attleboro once it gets funding to completely rebuild the station with full-length high-level platform a pedestrian bridge with elevators and a proper bus loop/bus connection area for GATRA and RIPTA buses (The train schedule was so bad I visited the station in June 2024 by bus as an intermediate stop riding from Pawtucket/Central Falls to Attleboro by local bus instead of train).
The station today consists of two low-level side platforms with ramps leading up to canopied mini-high platforms at their southern ends. The Outbound platform is along with in places except for fencing becoming basically the sidewalk of a parallel two-way street that is an access road that surrounds the station’s two parking lots across from the station, along with a nearby strip mall. The southern parking lot is shared with a Verizon store.
A few traffic lights for pedestrians to cross this access road provide access to the Outbound platform. The parking lots are split into two by the embankment of Newport Avenue that rises up onto a road bridge that crosses over the center of the station. Towards the east(railway northern) end of the platform it is the sidewalk, with a new fence (and this sidewalk completely closed when the station was closed and condemed). This becomes becoming more of a proper platform with a few steps down to the regular sidewalk heading west (railway south). The ramp and only entrance up to the mini-high platform is basically its own with the ramp leading down to the sidewalk, not directly to the low-level platform.
The Inbound platform is presently completely closed with no way to access this platform since a fence runs between the two high speed Northeast Corridor Electrified Tracks. Signs that say “This platform closed No Access” line the platform.
This platfom has metal canopy structure towards its northern end, and a ramp up to its mini-high platform at its southern end. A little bit of debris from the now removed condemned bridge structure were still visible on the Inbound platform, with a portion of the outbound platform lacking a tactile warning strip and fresh pavement in this area. The former bridge structure both connected the two platforms with a staircase down to both of them, along with a ramp up from the Inbound platform, before crossing over the roadway along the station and continuing to a ramp and staircase down to the west parking lot.
In preparation for the station’s reopening in 2024, a new color LED next train display destination was installed on the mini-high platform to provide further warning of the station’s extremely limited train schedule. This display looks out of place at the built on the cheap dingy station.
Photos 1-54: June 20, 2024;
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Last Updated: September 14, 2024
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Pawtucket/Central Falls