Fitchburg Cutoff Path - History

History

The path follows a minor portion of the right-of-way of an abandoned rail line known as the Fitchburg Cutoff or B&M Freight Cutoff (reflecting its acquisition by the Boston and Maine Railroad). The freight cutoff linked the Fitchburg Railroad main line (now the MBTA Fitchburg Line) with the Boston and Lowell Railroad main line (now the MBTA Lowell Line). It ran from the Fitchburg Line near Brighton Street, Belmont, crossed the Lexington and Arlington Railroad at what is now the northwestern corner of Alewife Station, passed through Davis Square (West Somerville), and connected with the Lowell Line at Somerville Junction (with a station at the present-day park near Centre and Woodbine Streets).

The main portion (between Alewife and Somerville Junction) had been constructed by the Boston and Lowell Railroad to connect its main line to the Lexington and Arlington Railroad; the remainder west of Alewife forms what is now known as the Fitchburg Cutoff Path. Except for deviation in the first quarter mile east of Alewife, the right-of-way between Alewife and Davis Square became the underground Red Line (MBTA) extension in the 1980s. Portions of the surface between Alewife and the Lowell Line (including over the Red Line) have been turned into the Cambridge Linear Park and the Somerville Community Path, and the remainder is slated to become an extension of the Community Path.