Concord station (Massachusetts)

Concord
Concord
	Concord station in March 2016
Location	90 Thoreau Street, Concord, Massachusetts
Coordinates	42°27′24″N 71°21′28″W / 42.45667°N 71.35778°WCoordinates: 42°27′24″N 71°21′28″W / 42.45667°N 71.35778°W
Owned by	Town of Concord
Line(s)	Fitchburg Main Line
Platforms	2 side platforms
Tracks	2
Construction
Parking	86 spaces (free); 2 accessible spaces
Bicycle facilities	10 spaces
Other information
Fare zone	5
Passengers
2018	367 (weekday average boardings)
Services

Concord Depot is a commuter rail station on the MBTA Commuter Rail Fitchburg Line at 90 Thoreau Street in downtown Concord, Massachusetts. As well as providing commuter service to Boston, the station offers tourists access to the various popular historic sites in Concord. It has two side platforms, which are low-level and not handicapped accessible, serving the line's two tracks. Although the station is within walking distance of the most heavily populated area of Concord, a small number of free parking spots are also available.

History[]

The original trackside windows and doors have been boarded up and replaced with painted-on copies. The structure on the roof was formerly a control tower.

Fitchburg Railroad service from Concord to Boston began in June 1844, and has continued since.^[2] When he lived at Walden Pond, Henry David Thoreau complained that the village's schedule was set by the times of arrivals and departures at the station.^[3] Although the Fitchburg Line went through a series of contractions due to funding issues in the 1960s and 1970s, service to Concord was never interrupted.^[4]

The current station building was built in the Queen Anne style in the 1890s, replacing the wooden station from 1844. The new station was damaged by fire in 1895 and substantially rebuilt. When built, it was a squat hip-roofed station similar to other stations on the line. A control tower on the trackside roof was added later.^[5]

By 1962, the station building was converted for use as a gift shop.^[6] The depot was later modified during the 20th century and scarcely resembles the original. The trackside doors and windows have been boarded over, replaced by a mural painted in the early 1980s. Large side wings have been added, and the building converted for retail use. The circa-1907 express office is present just to the west and also in retail use; a freight house east of the station was demolished in 1991.^[5]

References[]

^ Central Transportation Planning Staff (2019). "2018 Commuter Rail Counts". Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.
^ Karr, Ronald Dale (1995). The Rail Lines of Southern New England. Branch Line Press. p. 201. ISBN 0942147022.
^ Stilgoe, John R. (1983). Metropolitan Corridor. Yale University Press. p. 209. ISBN 0300030428.
^ Belcher, Jonathan. "Changes to Transit Service in the MBTA district" (PDF). Boston Street Railway Association.
^ ^a ^b Roy, John H. Jr. (2007). A Field Guide to Southern New England Railroad Depots and Freight Houses. Branch Line Press. pp. 142–143. ISBN 9780942147087.
^ "Few Trains, But Stations Still Busy". Boston Globe. February 16, 1962. p. 24 – via Newspapers.com.