page_title: MBTA Commuter Rail
section_title: South Station lines
hierarchical_section_title: MBTA Commuter Rail / Planned expansions / South Station lines
caption_attribution_description: English: Foxboro MBTA station, Foxborough Massachusetts - 2013
context_page_description: The MBTA Commuter Rail system serves as the commuter rail arm of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's transportation coverage of Greater Boston in the United States. Trains run over 398 miles of track to 141 different stations, with 58 stations on the north side with the remaining 83 stations on the south. It is operated under contract by Keolis, which took over operations on July 1, 2014, from the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Company.
  As of the third quarter of 2019, average weekday ridership of the system was 119,800, making it the sixth-busiest commuter rail system in the U.S., behind the three New York-area systems, the Chicago-area system, and the Philadelphia-area system. The line's characteristic purple-trimmed coaches operate as far south as North Kingstown, Rhode Island, and as far north as Newburyport and as far west as Fitchburg, both in Massachusetts.
  Trains originate at two major terminals in Boston—South Station and North Station—with both transportation hubs offering connections to Amtrak, local bus, intercity bus via South Station Bus Terminal, and subway lines.
context_section_description: The South Coast Rail project is proposed to extend commuter rail service to the South Coast cities of Taunton, Fall River, and New Bedford. After previous service was discontinued in 1958, the project surfaced in the 1980s. A full planning process was held from 1990 until its suspension in 2002. Planning restarted from the beginning in 2007; the Final Environmental Impact Statement was issued in August 2013. Several separately-funded projects, such as bridge reconstructions, have been undertaken, including major tie replacement (beginning in November 2013), and $2.3 billion was appropriated to the project in an April 2014 state bill. However, full construction has been repeatedly delayed. Plans were changed in 2017 to have limited Phase 1 diesel service via the Middleborough/Lakeville Line in 2022, with full electric service via Stoughton in 2030. The modified plan, which is expected to cost $3.42 billion, proved immediately controversial.
  A Providence Line extension to Wickford Junction, in North Kingstown, Rhode Island opened on April 23, 2012. The Rhode Island Department of Transportation is also studying the feasibility of serving existing Amtrak stations in Kingston and Westerly as well as constructing new stations in Cranston, East Greenwich, and West Davisville. Federal funding has also been provided for preliminary planning of a new station in Pawtucket.
  There is also a proposal to extend the Middleborough/Lakeville Line to Wareham and eventually to Buzzards Bay. The CapeFLYER started service along this section to Hyannis on summer weekends in 2013.
  In September 2013, the state announced plans to run diesel multiple unit (DMU) service between Back Bay and the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center on Track 61 beginning in 2015. In 2014, the MBTA announce it would purchase DMU self-propelled rail cars for the Fairmount Line with eventual expansion to five other lines, including Track 61, to be known as the Indigo Line. The planned DMU procurement was canceled in 2015. A new West Station, is planned to be built on the Framingham-Worcester line in the Beacon Park Yard site, where it may also connect to North Station via the Grand Junction Railroad.
caption: Foxboro station is proposed as the terminus of a Franklin Line branch
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