Stoneham Stop on the Lowell Line

I've lived in stoneham my whole life. And the stoneham branch has been abandoned my whole life (although I read thats not entirely true, the jello factory got freight into the 80s allegedly). Now the branch runs through some pretty small side streets. And the old station at the end of the line was built long before there were any cars, so there is no parking at all. So basically, there is no chance the line will ever be brought back. BUT WAIT. A trucking company closed down at the bottom of Maple St near Montvale Ave and it got me thinking. This would be a perfect spot for a train station. And probably the only spot. Plenty of parking. Super close to 93. Less than 1 mile of track would need to be revived, from the switch at the lowel line, across to montvale, but not crossing montvale. There would only be 4 street crossings, two small side streets in woburn, washington street in woburn, and maple street in stoneham. Washington street being the only significant crossing. The old truck company is not at track level, its below, so the platform would have to be up on the hill with stairs going up to the platform from the parking area. This would probably add less than 10 minutes to the schedule of the train. And I bet that most of the track between the line & 93 is still usable. The switch (which i think i read has been removed already) is set up to face the wrong way, but if you look at the google map of the area, they could take a right turn, make kind of a small S turn and hook up to the main line facing the correct way.
Google Map of the Stoneham Branch
Granted I'm a train freak and so I am very biased, but I think this would be a good idea! If winchester has the ridership to support two train station one minute apart, I'm sure stoneham can fill some train cars. Maybe the jello place might even be interested in rail freight again. Although I think someone bought and built a building on their spur, so they'd have to build a platform of some kind out by their front gate. Unlikely but it would be cool. Why did that place give up rail freight anyway? That facility doesn't seem to have shrunk any over the years. The place still makes this whole end of town smell like certain flavors on certain days. Some days its bubblegum, some days its orange, somedays its strawberry. So what the deal, good idea, and am I nuts?

l008com wrote:::Bump::
Someone must have an opinion on this?

After tens of millions of dollars was spent on the Anderson Regional Transportation Center, just a few minutes up the road -- and 75% of the parking spots go unused every day -- it ain't gonna happen.

Further, not only would this require the capital improvement (environmental impact not withstanding), it would also require additional trainsets and crews.

If anything, the next two improvements slated for the north side are the extension from Lowell to Nashua, and track improvements to the Fitchburg line to lower travel times.

My aunt lives in Stoneham, and it's a five minute drive to the Wakefield Station.

If anything, they should double the track from Reading to Lawrence.

Why would it require more trainsets? Why not just make it another stop on the existing line. Maybe they could join the two winchester stations into one and shave a few minutes there to make up for it. The problem with Anderson is that its not near anyone. It it way out in the boondocks of woburn. The wakefield train station isn't as close as it seems, unless you are right along the stoneham wakefield border. I guess part of the problem is stoneham's idea of traffic management is more stop signs and more red lights. So getting through this town takes much longer than it should. Everyone I know that goes to boston just drives in. But from stoneham, if they were going to take a train, they'd drove to oak grove and take the orange line. If trains start going to manchester through anderson, and eventually even to manchester via lawrence, through woburn. Then it would probably become a fairly popular station. Stoneham wants to build a pointless rail trail along the stoneham branch. I'm a bigger mountain biker than I am a railfan by far, but a rail trail that goes nowhere but a loop into stoneham, that crosses street after street is not going to be very popular. But interestingly, the stretch of right of way, from maple street to back to the main line, MTBA is apparently hesitant to give that land up.

The problem with this scheme is that it would require reverse moves to get on or off the branch. This means either a) requiring the engineer to walk the length of the train, b) having a conductor call off the signals (which severely restricts speed, and on inbound trains he'd have to get to the engine cab), or c) have an engineer in the trailing cab.

There are nowhere near enough potential riders from Stoneham to justify the incredible operational pain in the neck this stop would entail.

No offense, but how long does it take to walk the length of a train? The train is already stopped anyway, is that really that much of a big deal?

Too long, if you're stopped on the mainline.

Further, this stop might add only 10 minutes to the schedule (I suspect it would be longer than that), but that 10 minutes is probably more than enough to goof up the schedule in both directions. Remember that southound trains entering and exiting the branch will foul the northbound track as well.

And a 10-minute delay is too long for a commuter train for a single station stop. Every rider from north of Stoneham would quite rightfully howl, and there's more of them than there would be Stomeham riders.

l008com wrote:The problem with Anderson is that its not near anyone. It it way out in the boondocks of woburn.

But it's very convenient to Route 128 and I-93, which was the whole point. The majority of suburban rail commuters have to drive from their homes to a station, so you build stations with lots of parking near major highways (other notable local example: Route 128 station in Westwood, which was first of that type in the country when it opened in the 1950s).

Winchester and Wedgemere are indeed only half a mile apart, but the former is in the downtown business district and the latter has a big and well-used parking lot that can't be relocated.

We'd all like more trains in our hometowns, but as Mr. CEO has pointed out, the cost/benefit ratio for restoring service to Stoneham just doesn't make sense right now.

TomNelligan wrote:

l008com wrote:The problem with Anderson is that its not near anyone. It it way out in the boondocks of woburn.

But it's very convenient to Route 128 and I-93, which was the whole point. The majority of suburban rail commuters have to drive from their homes to a station, so you build stations with lots of parking near major highways (other notable local example: Route 128 station in Westwood, which was first of that type in the country when it opened in the 1950s).

Winchester and Wedgemere are indeed only half a mile apart, but the former is in the downtown business district and the latter has a big and well-used parking lot that can't be relocated.

We'd all like more trains in our hometowns, but as Mr. CEO has pointed out, the cost/benefit ratio for restoring service to Stoneham just doesn't make sense right now.

Wedgemere has a very small parking lot. There is over twice as much parking at the Winchester Center stop.

If you're going to add a stop anywhere on this line, bring back Mishawum, or add Montvale Avenue, so that Woburn actually has useful service.

Ron Newman wrote:If you're going to add a stop anywhere on this line, bring back Mishawum, or add Montvale Avenue, so that Woburn actually has useful service.

Is the Mishawum station and parking lot still there?

I believe Mishawum Station is open, but the parking lot is closed.