MBTA buys railroad track from Milford to Franklin for $13M
Photo | Courtesy of MassDOT
An MBTA commuter rail train
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has purchased railroad track in Milford, Hopedale, and Bellingham beyond where its Franklin/Foxboro Line ends at the Forge Park/495 station.
While the newly purchased track covers the area where a Boston planning agency previously studied the feasibility of putting stations in Milford and Bellingham, the $13-million purchase appears to have been made so the transit authority would no longer have to lease the track between Franklin Station and Forge Park Station, saving money over the long term.
On Friday, MBTA acquired the Milford Secondary Line and a portion of the Franklin Industrial Track, which runs from Franklin through Bellingham to Central Street in Milford, from national railroad CSX, according to the Worcester District Registry of Deeds.
The cost is equivalent to approximately seven years of lease payments, according to a 2020 document from the MBTA provided to WBJ on Tuesday by State Rep. Brian Murray (D-Milford).
“It has nothing to do with any plans to extend T service into Milford,” Murray said in an email Wednesday.
The purchase is in line with MBTA’s FY23-27 Capital Investment Plan, which was finalized in 2022 and called for the agency to buy the track to ensure the continued operation of the Franklin Line commuter rail to the Forge Park in Franklin.
The Forge Park station on the Franklin Line was built on a rail line the MBTA did not own. At the time of the station construction, the property owner – railroad company ConRail – allowed the MBTA to build the station with the understanding the MBTA would complete a purchase of the rail line. If the MBTA stopped negotiating in good faith, the MBTA’s lease payment would become the fair market value, according to an emailed statement from the MBTA.
ConRail was sold to Norfolk Southern Corp. and CSX in 1998. The terms of that sale broke up ConRail with the greater percentage of the ConRail asset going to CSX.
CSX stopped negotiating the sale for the Forge Park station land for several years, but then restarted the discussions after establishing a fair market value for a lease at approximately $1.7 million annually.
The MBTA and CSX completed the transaction to avoid paying any rent/lease payments.
Further, the MBTA needs to establish a layover area to replace the vastly undersized Franklin layover, according to MBTA. The newly purchased rail line provides access to potential sites along its length.
The Grafton and Upton Railroad will continue to use the line for freight, according to CSX Director of Media Relations Sheriee Bowman.
A March 1 filing with the U.S. Surface Transportation Board indicates the MBTA intended to purchase an 8.4-mile segment of railroad track between milepost 0.0 at Franklin and milepost 8.4 at Milford, generally known as the Milford Secondary Line; and a 0.46-mile segment of the Franklin Industrial Track, contiguous with the Milford Secondary.
In 1997, the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization conducted a feasibility study for a Milford/Hopedale extension of the Franklin line and found that at that time potential ridership was not sufficient to justify an investment in the extension. The organization proposed revisiting the report in 2011.
In 2011, the report found an extension including stations in Bellingham and Milford would only be moderately successful in attracting ridership, citing a lack of a high-density development in Milford.
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