Previous service Old Colony Railroad The
Fall River Railroad was formed in March 1845 as the merger of three smaller railroads. It opened in phases from June 9, 1845 to December 21, 1846, forming a line between Fall River and South Braintree via Middleborough. At South Braintree, it connected with the
Old Colony Railroad, which had opened between Boston and
Plymouth on November 10, 1845. In 1847, the railroad opened a short extension to
Fall River Wharf and began
Fall River Line rail–steamboat service between Boston and New York. Schedules were consistently suitable for commuting from Middleborough after the mid-1880s. Schedules permitted commuting from Cape Cod beginning in 1894. Service on the Middleborough line was at its peak from about 1898 to 1914. In 1898, daily inbound service to Boston included six trains from Cape Cod, three from Fall River, six from Middleborough, seven from Campello, and one from via the
West Bridgewater Branch. There were also three trains from to Boston that operated south from Montello through Brockton then used branchlines to reach Boston. In the
88 stations case, the New Haven controversially closed 88 stations in Massachusetts on July 17, 1938. Three were on the Middleborough line and three more between Middleborough and the
Cape Cod Canal. In May 1939, the company proposed to abandon all passenger service in the "Boston Group" – the primary group of lines into Boston, including the
Greenbush,
Plymouth, and Middleborough lines and the shared mainline north of Braintree. Additional traffic during World War II temporarily boosted the railroad's fortunes, but the postwar years again saw mounting deficits on the Old Colony Division. Sharp cuts in March 1949 removed most off-peak service; the Middleborough line was left with two inbound trains from Cape Cod and three from Middleborough. Under the 1951–1954 presidency of
Frederic C. Dumaine Jr., the New Haven increased passenger service, using new
Budd Rail Diesel Cars to reduce costs. By April 1954, there were three daily inbound trains from Cape Cod, four from Middleborough, and six from Brockton. However, the wooden trestles of the drawbridge carrying the Old Colony main line over the
Neponset River between Boston and Quincy burned on the night of July 22–23, 1960. The New Haven collected insurance money but refused to rebuild the bridge, instead rerouting freight trains via Middleborough. For passengers, connections were provided between
Shore Line trains and New York–Cape Cod trains at . For the 1961 season, Boston–Cape Cod service ran via Stoughton.
Restoration A 1974 state report evaluated potential service as far as Hyannis and Falmouth on Cape Cod. It estimated construction costs of $13.6 million to $23 million (equivalent to $– million in ), plus $9.2 million ($ million) for purchasing the tracks and $2.5 to $6.8 million ($– million) for equipment. On October 15, 1979, a special train ran from Braintree to Middleborough to publicize the state's plans for restored service. In 1984, a state-directed MBTA study found that restoration of commuter rail service on the former Old Colony lines would be feasible. During the summers of 1984 to 1988, the
Cape Cod and Hyannis Railroad operated passenger service between Braintree station and Cape Cod. Intended partially as a precursor to full commuter rail service, it made five intermediate stops (Holbrook, Brockton, Bridgewater, Middleborough, and Wareham) between Braintree and Buzzards Bay. A Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for restoration of service on the Middleborough, Plymouth, and Greenbush lines was released in May 1990. In 1991, the state agreed to build a set of transit projects as part of an agreement with the
Conservation Law Foundation (CLF), which had threatened a lawsuit over auto emissions from the Central Artery/Tunnel Project (
Big Dig). Among these projects was the "Old Colony Commuter Rail Line Extension", to be complete by the end of 1996. The Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Middleborough and Plymouth lines – often called the "Old Colony Lines" – was released in 1992. Two station sites considered in the DEIS – Westdale in West Bridgewater and Middleborough/
Route 44 in northern Middleborough – were dropped from consideration. Which stations to include on the shared mainline between Braintree and Boston proved controversial. Original plans called only for a stop at Braintree. Later that year, the MBTA agreed to build both stations. In November 1996, the MBTA agreed to add a stop at
JFK/UMass station as well. Limited weekday service with four daily round trips each on the Middleborough/Lakeville Line and
Plymouth/Kingston Line began on September 29, 1997. Full service began on November 30, 1997. The Middleborough/Lakeville Line had twelve round trips on weekdays and seven on weekends. Weekend and some weekday trains began stopping at JFK/UMass on April 30, 2001. In 2010, the MBTA began a project to replace the 150,000 failing ties, which were part of a batch of 600,000 made in the 1990s, with wooden ties. Some replacement work in Bridgewater and Middleborough took place in 2010. Weekend service on the line was replaced from March 26 to December 18, 2011, and March 17 to April 22, 2012. On May 24, 2013, the MBTA began operating
CapeFlyer service between Boston and Hyannis over the Middleborough Main Line and Cape Main Line. Service consisted of one daily round trip on Friday evenings, Saturdays, and Sundays during the summer tourist season. In 2013 and 2014, the Friday evening southbound train operated as an extension of a regular Middleborough/Lakeville Line train, while Saturday and Sunday service operated with a separate trainset. In 2015, Friday CapeFlyer service also began using a separate trainset. Substantially reduced schedules were in effect on the Commuter Rail system from March 16 to June 23, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Temporary reduced schedules were again put into place from December 14, 2020, to April 5, 2021. By October 2022, Middleborough/Lakeville service was at 77% of pre-COVID ridership.
South Coast Rail In the 1980s — during the first expansion of commuter rail service in Massachusetts in decades — the restoration of service to New Bedford and Fall River (
South Coast Rail) was proposed. Three routes were considered, including the Middleborough Main Line and Middleborough Secondary. By 1988, the MBTA was tentatively planning to use a route via . A 1995 feasibility study found that the limited capacity of the single track between Boston and Braintree could only support service to Fall River or New Bedford, but not both. Planning for the Stoughton route continued until it was suspended in 2003. Planning restarted several years later. The 2009 alternatives analysis report, 2011 draft
environmental impact statement, and 2013 final environmental impact statement all chose the Stoughton route. 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 interim service to New Bedford via Middleborough. Some local and regional officials objected to that plan, as it would have reduced service to Middleborough/Lakeville station and potentially interfered with Plymouth/Kingston Line and Greenbush Line service. 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 with service to both Fall River and New Bedford. Phase 2 would follow the Stoughton route (including electrification) and open in 2029. Middleborough and Lakeville officials were critical of the possibility of abandoning Middleborough/Lakeville station — which had attracted
transit-oriented development — or requiring its riders to take a shuttle train. By June 2017, the Phase 1 completion date was moved to 2022. The draft supplemental environmental impact report was issued in January 2018. It analyzed three options for Middleborough: a reverse move to serve the existing station, a new Middleborough station with a rail shuttle between the existing station and Bridgewater, and a new Middleborough station with a bus shuttle from the developments at the existing station site. The third option was chosen for higher operational flexibility, lower travel times, and avoiding the need to add double track between Middleborough and Bridgewater. Overall project completion reached the halfway point in mid-2022. In September 2023, the MBTA indicated that revenue service would not begin until mid-2024. In April 2024, the MBTA acknowledged that a midyear opening was unlikely but did not provide a new schedule. In June 2024, the MBTA announced that the planned opening had been delayed again to May 2025. Service began on March 24, 2025. The line was renamed as the Fall River/New Bedford Line at that time. Weekday service on the main portion of the line increased from 14 round trips to 16; weekend service increased from 10 round trips to 13. The months after the extension saw several service quality issues. The MBTA preemptively replaced some trips with buses on the weekends of April 19–20 and 26–27. One third of trains were late during the first two weeks of extended service, versus one-tenth systemwide. On-time performance improved thereafter but remained below the rest of the system through April and May. The MBTA blamed "startup conditions" and difficulty coordinating trains on the mostly-single-track line for the issues. On July 21, 2025, the schedule was changed to improve reliability. This included removal of off-peak and weekend stops at JFK/UMass, removal of two late-night shuttle trains, and longer running times. By November 2025, daily ridership on the line was about 2,000 higher than a year before.
Cape Cod service proposals , a possible future terminus of service|alt=A Spanish revival style railway station In 2007, the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization released a feasibility study of extending commuter rail service to
Buzzards Bay, a portion of
Bourne on the north side of the
Cape Cod Canal. Intermediate stops were to be at Rock Village in southern Middleborough, County Road on the
Rochester/
Wareham border, and
downtown Wareham. The introduction of the CapeFLYER brought new attention to the possibility of extending the Middleborough/Lakeville Line to Buzzards Bay. Later in 2013, the Wareham Chamber of Commerce and Buzzards Bay town selectmen both indicated support for Buzzards Bay commuter rail based on the success of the CapeFLYER, the Chamber supported the extension of commuter rail service to
Buzzards Bay station.
MassDOT and the Cape Cod Commission both studied the potential service in 2014–15. The studies estimated daily ridership of 800 to 875 if all Middleborough/Lakeville trains were extended to Buzzards Bay without intermediate stops. Bourne voted to join the MBTA district in 2015 and began paying an
assessment in mid-2016, although there was no guarantee that commuter rail service would be provided. MassDOT began planning a possible trial service in October 2015. The service was to have shuttle trains between Bourne and Middleborough/Lakeville operated by
Massachusetts Coastal Railroad. The MBTA Fiscal Management and Control Board rejected the service proposal in April 2016. During the South Coast Rail project, Middleborough station was designed with space for a shuttle platform to be added later. ==Stations==