History
The line was built as an entrance to Boston for the Norfolk County Railroad and its successors, which originally had to rely on a connection via the Boston and Providence Railroad from Dedham. The new line, built in 1855, split from the old one at Islington and ran northeast, crossing the Boston and Providence Railroad at Readville (the south junction with its Dedham Branch). It continued on through Hyde Park and Dorchester before crossing the Old Colony Railroad into South Boston and then making a sweeping curve along a trestle west to downtown Boston and a terminal at Dewey Square.
After several failed reorganizations, the line became part of the New York and New England Railroad in 1873 and the New England Railroad in 1895. The New England was leased to the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in 1898 and became their Midland Division. The line was operationally split at Readville, the crossing of the Boston and Providence (also leased by the NYNH&H), with many trains using the Midland from the southwest switching to the B&P, and some on the B&P from the south switching to the Midland.
In 1899, the new South Station union station opened, and a new set of tracks was built for the Midland on the west side of the Old Colony Railroad mainline, also part of the NYNH&H. The old South Boston station (located on West 1st Street between A and B Streets) was abandoned, being north of the junction with the new alignment, and the old terminal was no longer used, with the last bit of the old line (over Fort Point Channel) removed, and the rest used for freight only. South Boston was however served by the station that had been built for the Old Colony, now between the Old Colony and Midland tracks.
Passenger service last ran on the Midland in 1944 after a long period of declining ridership. The MBTA bought the line (since merged into Penn Central) in 1976 (the part south of Readville was bought in 1973 as part of the Franklin Line) and modernized it for use as a bypass while the old B&P was closed for sinking as part of the Southwest Corridor project. This happened on November 3, 1979, when all trains on the Franklin and Providence/Stoughton Lines were rerouted via the Midland. Three of the old stations - Fairmount, Morton Street and Uphams Corner - were reopened, and a special shuttle was run between South Station and Back Bay to get Franklin and Attleboro/Providence passengers to Back Bay.
On October 5, 1987, the new Southwest Corridor opened. The MBTA had planned to suspend all service on the Midland, but the community protested and a shuttle was kept between South Station and Fairmount (including intermediate stops). The shuttle was extended to Readville on November 30, 1987, re-establishing service between the south and the Fairmount Line. Since then, several Franklin and Providence/Stoughton Line trips have been rerouted via the Fairmount Line to reduce load on the three-track Southwest Corridor and supplement the shuttle service.
The corridor currently serves mostly low-income and working-class communities.
Read more about this topic: Fairmount Line
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