Boston and Worcester Railroad The Boston and Worcester Railroad, which had opened from Boston to
Newton in April 1834, opened to
South Framingham in August 1834. The village's first major station, a 2-story wooden Dutch Colonial structure, was constructed in 1848. After being replaced, it was moved slightly west and converted to a freight house – a function it served until it was demolished in the 1960s. The Old Colony's access to South Framingham was the
Mansfield & Framingham, which opened in 1870 and was also acquired in 1879. , a small number of
Framingham/Worcester Line trains are short-turned at Framingham.
H. H. Richardson depot Beginning in 1881, the Boston & Albany began a massive improvement program that included the building of over 30 new stations along its main line as well as the
Highland branch, which it bought in 1883. Famed architect
H. H. Richardson was hired to design nine of these stations, including South Framingham which was commissioned in October 1883. The $62,718 station, built in 1884–85 by the Norcross Brothers company, was the largest and costliest of the nine. Traffic on the B&A and its various branch lines, though, decreased after World War I. In 1919, Agricultural branch trains were cut to Framingham, requiring a transfer to continue Boston or Mansfield. The line was cut back to Marlborough in 1931, and passenger service ended in 1937. By the 1970s, the station had fallen into disrepair; part of the roof collapsed in 1978. New platforms, with
mini-high platforms on their west ends for level boarding, were built just west of the former station. A footbridge with two elevators was built to allow passengers to reach the outbound platform without crossing the tracks, which carry slow-moving CSX freight service as well as MBTA and Amtrak trains. The new platforms opened in early 2001, but the elevators were not yet open by that July. Framingham currently sees 21 weekday MBTA round trips to Boston, with 8 to 9 round trips on weekends. An additional parking lot was opened inside the wye on the north side of the station in August 2017.
Other Framingham stations Besides the main depot at the South Framingham junction, six other stations have been located in Framingham. The
Agricultural Branch included three of these stations. One, variously known as
Montwait,
Mt. Wayte, and
Lakeview, was located just north of Mt. Wayte Avenue at the north end of Farm Pond. The station served the Montwait neighborhood as well as the Montwait Camp Ground, a worship camp used by
Methodist,
Chautaqua, and later
Pentecostal groups from the 1870s to the 1910s. Montwait station was closed in 1928. The
Framingham Centre station – at times known simply as
Framingham – located at Maynard Street adjacent to
Route 9. It was opened in 1849 when the branch to Framingham Center was completed. A new station was built in 1855 when the branch was realigned and extended. It also served the Framingham & Lowell after that line opened in 1871. The station was rebuilt in 1883.
Fayville station was located just over the
Southborough border in the Fayville village and also served the western reaches of Framingham. The station was placed at Central Street between Route 9 and
Route 30 at or after the 1855 opening of the line. Passenger service on the branch ended in 1937; none of the buildings remain. The station closed with the end of passenger service in the 1930s and was later destroyed. The former Nobscot post office and library building, which also served as a railroad ticket sales office, has been restored near its original site. The Saxonville branch – the only line in Framingham not connected to South Framingham – opened from
Natick to
Saxonville in July 1846. The terminus station at
Saxonville was a "typical B&A granite station" located off Concord Street north of School Street (Route 126). The lightly-used line never saw more than three daily round trips; in 1936, passenger service was discontinued. A "bus" – in reality, a car driven by the Saxonville station agent – ran to Natick station until 1943. == Station layout ==