Mar 1, 2022
Rail trails were the subject at the Feb. 7 historical society Zoom presentation by noted expert Craig Della Penna, with about 30 people participating. Christian Donner, who has been active in Medfield’s rail trail development from the beginning, summed up Medfield’s rail trail project in this article.
In the late nineteenth century, Massachusetts industries were among the leaders in developing transportation systems based on the emergent railroad capabilities. Across the state, hundreds of miles of track were laid to enable shipping of freight, creating a complex and overlapping system with more linear miles of track per area than almost any other state in the union.
One of those lines, the corridor between Medfield and Newton, was originally known as the Charles River Branch Railroad. Service on the line began in 1852, between Boston and Newton Upper Falls. Within ten years (1861), service continued through Needham and Dover to Medfield.
With the decline of railways as a primary means of moving freight, many of these lines fell out of active use and into disrepair. Since 1972, the corridor between Medfield and Newton has been owned by the MBTA, which leased it to the Bay Colony Railroad in 1982.
The last train between Needham and Medfield ran in 2006. The story goes that the engineer would jump off the engine before the trestle bridge in Dover across the Charles River, let the train cross on its own, and then jump back on on the other side, for fear that the bridge could collapse.
In 2008, Bay Colony Railroad ceased operations on the Medfield – Newton stretch and formally abandoned its lease, reverting control back to the MBTA.
With no plans in place for restoring rail service on the line, volunteers from the towns of Newton, Needham, Dover, and Medfield decided to work together on converting the corridor into a multi-use path. The Bay Colony Rail Trail Association (BCRTA) incorporated in 2010 with the goal to establish a contiguous trail connecting Medfield with Needham, and then connecting Needham with Newton on the northern side of the line.
Newton saw the formation of the Friends of the Upper Falls Greenway in 2011 and signed a lease with the MBTA in 2012. In the fall of 2016 , the Newton Upper Falls Greenway opened to the public.
The Needham section was also completed around this time and was formally opened to the public in May of 2016.
Now an initiative of the Medfield Foundation, the Friends of the Medfield Rail Trail are keeping things moving forward in Medfield. 2021 was a year of great strides. The town signed a lease with the MBTA and began construction of the Medfield Rail Trail.
Phase 1 was completed in December, and the rails and ties have been removed.
There is a great video about this work on the Bay Colony Rail Trail website. If things go as planned, the Medfield Rail Trail will be open to the public in the 2nd half of 2022.
For the latest updates and to donate, visit the Bay Colony Rail Trail website.