More than 150 years ago, Massachusetts businessmen built a railroad from Boston to Plymouth. Until 1959 the two South Shore branches of the Old Colony Line delivered commuters to and from Boston in every kind of weather. But then, the passenger service stopped and automobiles took over. For nearly half a century the rails rusted carrying an occasional freight train and once or twice a “rail fan” special. (Click
here for a complete history of the Greenbush Branch of the Old
Colony Line.)
Grand Opening of Boston to Plymouth Line, 1997. Photo by Larry Nelson, WATD.
But as the South Shore grew in population and importance, the roads to Boston became parking lots and residents wondered whatever became of their commuter trains. During the 1990’s the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) began rebuilding the railroad from Boston to Plymouth and Kingston. That branch reopened in September, 1997
But the other branch of the railroad from Braintree to the Greenbush Section of Scituate remained largely a trail covered in brush and mired in lawsuits from homeowners near the right-of-way. Six years later in 2003, fully funded with more than a half a billion dollars in state and federal funds, and with a folder full of favorable court decisions, workers began rebuilding the railroad to Greenbush.
The Greenbush Line opened successfully on October 31st, 2007.
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