Millis Branch

MILLIS BRANCH
The former station building at Dover, as seen in 2014
Overview
Type	Commuter rail
System	Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
Status	Abandoned
Locale	Southeastern Massachusetts
Termini	Boston South Station Millis
Stations	14[1]
Operation
Opened	1861 (Charles River Branch Railroad)
Closed	21 April 1967[2]
Owner	New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad
Operator(s)	New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad
Character	Surface-level
Technical
Line length	22.1 miles[1]
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Route map Legend South Station Back Bay Framingham/Worcester Line Providence/Stoughton Line, Franklin Line, and Dedham Branch Roslindale Village Bellevue Highland West Roxbury Bird's Hill Needham Junction Needham Line Charles River Dover Farm Street Medfield Framingham Secondary Clicquot Millis Medway West Medway Former route to Woonsocket and Pascoag, RI

The Millis Branch was a branch of what is now the MBTA Commuter Rail system. Branching off the still-operating Needham Line at Needham Junction, it ran through the towns of Dover, Medfield, Millis, and Medway. Due to lack of subsidies and poor ridership, the line was cut back to Millis station in April 1966, and all service ended on April 21, 1967.

History

The Charles River Branch Railroad was extended from Needham Center to Woonsocket, Rhode Island in stages between 1861 and 1863 under the New York & Boston Railroad, with service operating to Boston via the Highland Branch.^[3] Initial plans to extend the line to New York City as an air-line railroad never came to pass, but a small portion of this route was built as the Woonsocket and Pascoag Railroad, opening from Woonsocket to Pascoag, Rhode Island in 1891;^[4] the latter line became functionally an extension of the Charles River Branch, with through trains from Pascoag to and from Boston, although not on schedules suitable for commuting.^[3][4] Ownership of the line passed through the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad, New York and New England Railroad, and, finally, to the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (commonly referred to as just the "New Haven Railroad"), which consolidated essentially the entire southern and southeastern Massachusetts rail network under its umbrella. After the Needham Cutoff opened on November 4, 1906, service from Woonsocket and intermediate stops ran over the cutoff rather than via the Highland Branch.^[3]

With the Midland Line (now the Franklin Line) as the primary Woonsocket route for the New Haven Railroad, the Charles River Branch served as a minor branch line. After 1926, all service to Woonsocket was provided by shuttle trains from Woonsocket to Bellingham Junction; service north of Bellingham Junction was provided by trains from Boston to Franklin via Needham and Bellingham Junction, as well as trains travelling via the Charles River Branch outbound and the Midland Line inbound or vice versa.^[3] Service beyond Bellingham Junction was discontinued entirely in 1930, and the portion of the line between Woonsocket and the state line was completely abandoned in 1934.^[3][4] All service beyond Needham Junction was discontinued on 13 July 1938.^[3] Service to Bellingham Junction was briefly restored in March 1940 with a single daily round trip between Boston and Franklin via the Charles River Branch, but this was cut back to Caryville station in North Bellingham in May 1940; at the same time, however, additional service was added between Boston and West Medway.^[3] In September 1941, all remaining Caryville service was cut back to West Medway, which would remain the terminus of the branch for the next twenty-five-and-a-half years.^[3][5] After 1955, service on the branch was reduced to one single-car round trip to West Medway, which was combined with a longer Needham Heights train at Needham Junction.^[2][3]

By the time the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) was founded in August 1964 to subsidize suburban commuter rail service, the West Medway Branch was moribund. Subsidies to the New Haven Railroad for the Needham, West Medway, Dedham, and Franklin lines began on April 24, 1966; out-of-district Medway declined to provide additional funding, and the line was cut back to Millis as the Millis Branch.^[2] The sole remaining round trips to Millis and Dedham were cut on April 21, 1967, due to extremely poor ridership.^[2][3]

The former stations at Dover (now a cafe) and Millis (now town offices) are still extant; the other six stations west of Needham Junction have been demolished.

Station and junction listing

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Millis Branch.

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
Subway lines (List of stations)	Heavy rail      Blue      Orange      Red Light rail      Green "B" Branch "C" Branch "D" Branch "E" Branch      Ashmont–Mattapan Former lines      Arborway Line      Atlantic Avenue Elevated      Causeway Street Elevated      Charlestown Elevated      Green Line "A" Branch      Washington Street Elevated
Commuter Rail lines (List of stations)	North Station lines Fitchburg Haverhill (Wildcat Branch) Lowell Newburyport/Rockport South Station lines Fairmount Framingham/Worcester Franklin Greenbush Needham Old Colony (Kingston/Plymouth Middleborough/Lakeville      CapeFLYER) Providence/Stoughton Former lines Central Mass Branch Dedham Branch Lexington Branch Millis Branch Woburn Branch
Bus routes (List of routes)	Silver Line Crosstown routes Key routes Trackless trolleys Routes East Boston, Chelsea, Revere Melrose, Reading, Stoneham, Wakefield South Boston
Other services	Boat The Ride
Component parts of system lines	Boylston Street Subway      Haymarket North Extension      Lechmere Viaduct      Tremont Street Subway
Capital projects	Under construction      Blue Hill Avenue station      Boston Landing station           Forest Hills modifications      Green Line Extension      Haverhill Line upgrades           Silver Line Gateway / Chelsea station      South Coast Rail In planning / proposed      Buzzards Bay extension      Foxboro service      Hynes Convention Center renovation      Kingston R.I. extension      Nashua extension      Route 16 extension      Wollaston renovation Formerly proposed      Arborway Line restoration      Indigo Line (Fairmount Grand Junction Track 61)      Lexington extension      Lynn extension      North–South Rail Link      Plaistow extension      Reading extension           Red Line—Blue Line Connector Urban Ring Project
History	Predecessor companies Boston Elevated Railway Streetcar lines Boston and Maine Railroad Conrail New York Central Railroad New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Penn Central Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway Middlesex and Boston Street Railway Newton and Boston Street Railway Accidents and incidents      1990 Back Bay      2008 Waban/Woodland
Other	Accessibility Arts on the Line Bicycling CharlieCard Grand Junction Railroad "Charlie on the M.T.A." Nomenclature Police                Winter Street Concourse Yards and maintenance facilities