Ayer Station

That's not much. When they cut service back to Acton in 1975, Ayer had 14 daily commuters.

If pedrestrians have been crossing the property for years, then it is a public right of way and the property owner has lost the right to close it off.

I was thinking adverse possession might apply here, but Wikipedia suggests otherwise (...merely walking...on land does not establish actual possession). Hard to say.

You have to go to court to establish a claim for adverse possession.

Massachusetts Advese Possession is also 20 years in Mass., and if they have had permission from the property owner to use a right of way at any point in that 20 years, it resets the clock to the end of that permission. So I don't see them being able to even attempt a claim in that vein.

I know of a church that had a walkway that served as a cutthrough from a dead end to the next street. They had to close it off for ~24 hours & posted & documented every 10 or 20 years (it is fuzzy), otherwise it would become a public way. I bet that applies in this case. Private landowners often close off public right of ways and get away with it.

Update on the Ayer station access controversy: http://www.lowellsun.com/news/ci_257134 ... jBarTicker" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Apparently the property owner has rejected all of the MBTA's options to provide pedestrian access, as the property deed mandates such access but does not specify where that access must be.

I found this particularly interesting -

MART also claims Berry is supposed to provide a railroad passenger building with a waiting room, ticket office, baggage room and bathrooms in accordance with the deed.

That's certainly a far cry from the present facilities at Ayer.

MART doesn't even provide all those options at North Leominster... They do at Fitchburg to a limited extent. Obviously the wording is very old. A little off topic, I was told there used to be a Chinese Restaurant in the Reading Station. The T required them to have the rest rooms open in the AM rush hour, so they closed or moved because of the lease agreement.

Outside of BOS, BON and BBY, I don't believe any MBTA station provides staffed ticketing. In many areas, local merchants serve as authorized agents on behalf of MBTA for ticket/pass sales.

R36 Combine Coach wrote:Outside of BOS, BON and BBY, I don't believe any MBTA station provides staffed ticketing. In many areas, local merchants serve as authorized agents on behalf of MBTA for ticket/pass sales.

Anderson/Woburn has both MBTA fare machines and a ticket window (though the window may or may not sell MBTA tickets), Providence has a ticket window (though it may or may not just sell Amtrak tickets) and possibly machines, and I would think Worcester might (the Wiki article on WUS mentions a staffed ticket window) as well.

deathtopumpkins wrote:

R36 Combine Coach wrote:Outside of BOS, BON and BBY, I don't believe any MBTA station provides staffed ticketing. In many areas, local merchants serve as authorized agents on behalf of MBTA for ticket/pass sales.

Anderson/Woburn has both MBTA fare machines and a ticket window (though the window may or may not sell MBTA tickets), Providence has a ticket window (though it may or may not just sell Amtrak tickets) and possibly machines, and I would think Worcester might (the Wiki article on WUS mentions a staffed ticket window) as well.

Worcester has an automated ticket machine on the upper rail level inside the station. The Amtrak window on the lower level as far as I know only sells Amtrak tickets. The Automated machine has a nice little sign saying onboard ticket sales are cash only.

Route 128, Providence, and Worcester all have Amtrak agents but Amtrak doesn't sell MBTA tickets at those locations.

R36 Combine Coach wrote:Outside of BOS, BON and BBY, I don't believe any MBTA station provides staffed ticketing. In many areas, local merchants serve as authorized agents on behalf of MBTA for ticket/pass sales.

Providence currently does this in lieu of selling them at the Amtrak window. West Concord used to do this; no more.

BerndinMA wrote:

deathtopumpkins wrote:

R36 Combine Coach wrote:Outside of BOS, BON and BBY, I don't believe any MBTA station provides staffed ticketing. In many areas, local merchants serve as authorized agents on behalf of MBTA for ticket/pass sales.

Anderson/Woburn has both MBTA fare machines and a ticket window (though the window may or may not sell MBTA tickets), Providence has a ticket window (though it may or may not just sell Amtrak tickets) and possibly machines, and I would think Worcester might (the Wiki article on WUS mentions a staffed ticket window) as well.

Worcester has an automated ticket machine on the upper rail level inside the station. The Amtrak window on the lower level as far as I know only sells Amtrak tickets. The Automated machine has a nice little sign saying onboard ticket sales are cash only.

Late last year, Worcester's machines were removed. I don't think they ever put them back.

diburning wrote:

BerndinMA wrote:

deathtopumpkins wrote:

R36 Combine Coach wrote:Outside of BOS, BON and BBY, I don't believe any MBTA station provides staffed ticketing. In many areas, local merchants serve as authorized agents on behalf of MBTA for ticket/pass sales.

Anderson/Woburn has both MBTA fare machines and a ticket window (though the window may or may not sell MBTA tickets), Providence has a ticket window (though it may or may not just sell Amtrak tickets) and possibly machines, and I would think Worcester might (the Wiki article on WUS mentions a staffed ticket window) as well.

Worcester has an automated ticket machine on the upper rail level inside the station. The Amtrak window on the lower level as far as I know only sells Amtrak tickets. The Automated machine has a nice little sign saying onboard ticket sales are cash only.

Late last year, Worcester's machines were removed. I don't think they ever put them back.

I put my hand on the machine about a week ago. It is behind the elevator bank on the second level facing the 2nd level restrooms. I was looking for it as I planed to ride the T into Boston later in the week but that trip got canceled.