page_title: South Coast Rail
section_title: Project changes
hierarchical_section_title: South Coast Rail / Project history / Project changes
caption_attribution_description: English: Outbound train entering Middleborough-Lakeville MBTA station, Lakeville Massachusetts
context_page_description: South Coast Rail is a project to build a new southern line of the MBTA Commuter Rail system along several abandoned and freight-only rail lines. The line has been planned to restore passenger rail service between Boston and the towns of Taunton, Berkley, Fall River, Freetown, and New Bedford, on the south coast of Massachusetts. It would restore passenger service to some of the southern lines of the former Old Colony Railroad and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.
  After previous service was discontinued in 1958, the project surfaced in the 1980s. A full planning process was held starting in 1990 but was suspended in 2002 due to increasing costs. Planning restarted in 2007 and in March 2017, the project was split into two phases. Phase 1 provides interim service to Fall River and New Bedford while the northern section of the line is built in Phase 2. Several separately-funded projects were constructed between 2013 and 2019 in preparation for the project. Phase 1 construction began on July 2, 2019 with a projected cost of $1.047 billion and completion at the end of 2023. Total cost of the program is estimated at $3.42 billion with completion in 2030.
context_section_description: In June 2016, the MBTA announced that the project cost had been revised to $3.42 billion, with completion not expected until 2030. The substantial delay and increase in cost caused officials to consider alternate plans, including an earlier, interim service to New Bedford via Middleborough with 7 round trip trains to New Bedford and 6 round trip trains to Fall River on weekdays.  However, that plan would decrease service to Middleborough/​Lakeville. In March 2017, the state announced a revised plan intended to provide service sooner for a total cost of $3.42 billion. The $1.1 billion Phase 1 would follow the Middleborough route and open in 2024; Phase 2 would follow the original route through Stoughton (including electrification) and open in 2029.
  By June 2017, the planned completion dates were changed to Phase 1 in 2022 and Phase 2 in 2030, with stations at Freetown and Battleship Cove in Phase 1 rather than Phase 2 as proposed in March. The revised plan has attracted criticism from several directions, including some of those who had previously advocated for the project as well as previous opponents. Middleborough and Lakeville officials were critical of the possibility of abandoning the current Middleborough/Lakeville station - which has attracted transit-oriented development - or requiring its riders to take a shuttle train, as well as possible traffic issues from a downtown Middleborough station. The New Bedford mayor was critical of the longer travel times of the Middleborough routing, and the Taunton mayor was critical of Phase 1 lacking the downtown Taunton station of the previous plan. Stoughton, Easton, and Raynham officials continued their previous opposition to South Coast Rail.
caption: The existing Middleborough/Lakeville station would be closed or reduced to shuttle service under the revised plan released in 2017.
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