Silver Hill station

Silver Hill station was an MBTA Commuter Rail Fitchburg Line station in Weston, Massachusetts, United States. The station had a small shelter, parking area, and a gravel boarding area; it was not accessible. It was the least-used station in the entire MBTA system in 2018, with an average of just eleven daily boardings. Silver Hill station opened in 1844 as one of the original stops on the Fitchburg Railroad. The Boston and Maine Railroad unsuccessfully attempted to close the station in 1959. It remained in use until its temporary closure by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) in December 2020 due to low ridership and a lack of accessibility, with indefinite closure effective April 2021.

Silver Hill
A passenger train passing a wooden shelter with a gravel platform
An inbound train passing through Silver Hill in March 2020
General information
LocationMerriam Street at Silver Hill Road
Weston, Massachusetts
Coordinates42.39570°N 71.30191°W / 42.39570; -71.30191
Line(s)Fitchburg Route
Platforms1 side platform
Tracks2
Other information
Fare zone3
History
OpenedJune 17, 1844
ClosedDecember 14, 2020
Passengers
201811 (weekday average boardings)[1]
Former services
Preceding station MBTA Following station
Lincoln
toward Wachusett
 Fitchburg Line Hastings
toward North Station

Station design

Silver Hill station was located at Merriam Street in Weston, about 1,400 feet (430 m) away from North Avenue (Route 117). The station had a single unpaved gravel boarding area on the north side of the tracks.[2] The station was not accessible.[3] A dirt parking lot on the north side of the tracks, largely intended for kiss-and-ride purposes, provided space for six vehicles.[4][5] A small three-sided wooden shelter was located next to the platform, adjacent to a set of stairs from the parking lot.[6]

History

Early history
A wooden bridge with one stone abutment over a railway line
The 1926-built Merriam Street bridge

The Fitchburg Railroad opened along the Stony Brook valley through Weston on June 17, 1844, with stops at Weston (later Kendal Green) and Silver Hill.[7]: 87 [8]: 6  The origin of the name "Silver Hill" is uncertain; it may refer to local rumors of Captain Kidd hiding his treasure on a nearby hill, or a stand of silver birches.[9]: 11  Unlike Weston, Silver Hill did not immediately attract new development around the station.[9]: 8  The Fitchburg Railroad was acquired by the Boston and Maine Railroad (B&M) in 1900.[7]: 88 

In 1905, the Weston Land Association began the development of a garden suburb, Silver Hill, in the area directly south of the station.[9]: 10  The station building was destroyed on March 17, 1893, by a fire caused by sparks from a passing locomotive.[10] Its replacement was a small wooden station building, located on the north side of the tracks east of Merriam Street, with steps leading to the platform from the street.[11] That structure was gone by 1977.[12][6] A wooden bridge was constructed in 1926 to carry Merriam Street over the tracks.[9]: 22 

In December 1958, Silver Hill was one of eleven stations – four commuter rail stations in Waltham and Weston, and seven stops west of Fitchburg – on the Fitchburg Route proposed for closure.[13] Stony Brook in Weston and the seven western stations were closed on June 14, 1959; limited service continued to Silver Hill, Riverview, and Beaver Brook.[14][15]

MBTA era
A small wooden shelter and a stone wall next to a railway line
The 1979-built shelter in 2015. The retaining wall formerly surrounded the station building.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) was formed in 1964 to subsidize suburban commuter rail service. On January 18, 1965, the MBTA began subsidizing some B&M service, including as far as West Concord on the Fitchburg Route.[14] The MBTA bought most B&M commuter rail assets, including the Fitchburg Route, on December 27, 1976.[14]

A three-sided shelter, which resembled similar shelters commonly found at flag stops decades before, was built in 1979 to replace the former station building.[6] The station was briefly closed on February 1, 1981, due to budget cuts, but reopened soon after.[16][6] The Merriam Street bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004 as a contributing property to the Silver Hill Historic District.[9]: 22 

A February 2005 study for the Fitchburg Line Improvement Project recommended consolidation of the three Weston stations (Silver Hill, Hastings, and Kendal Green) into a single expanded Kendal Green station to reduce travel times, as did a September 2005 preliminary implementation plan.[4][17] However, by 2007, the preferred alternative did not include station consolidation.[18]

Closure

With 11 weekday daily boardings by a 2018 count, Silver Hill was the lowest-ridership station in the MBTA Commuter Rail system.[1] By that time, the station was served by only two peak-hour inbound trips and three peak-hour outbound trips out of nineteen weekday round trips operated on the Fitchburg Line; weekend service did not stop at the station.[19] Reduced schedules based on existing Saturday schedules were in effect from March 16 to June 23, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These schedules did not include Silver Hill and five other limited-service stations not normally served on Saturdays.[14]

In November 2020, as part of service cuts during the pandemic, the MBTA proposed to permanently close Silver Hill, Hastings, and four other low-ridership stations. Silver Hill was nominated for closure because of its low ridership and lack of accessibility; Kendal Green station is just 1.5 miles (2.4 km) to the southeast.[2][20] On December 14, reduced schedules went into effect due to limited employee availability.[21] Again based on the existing Saturday service, these temporary schedules did not include service to Silver Hill and four other stations.[14][22] That day, the MBTA Board voted to enact a more limited set of cuts, including indefinitely closing Hastings, Silver Hill, and three of the other four stations.[23][24] The closure of the five stations became indefinite effective April 5, 2021.[25]

References
  1. Central Transportation Planning Staff (2019). "2018 Commuter Rail Counts". Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.
  2. Held, Patrick R. (2010). "Massachusetts Bay Colony Railroad Track Charts" (PDF). Johns Hopkins Association for Computing Machinery. p. 16. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 8, 2013.
  3. "Ridership and Service Statistics" (PDF) (14th ed.). Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. 2014.
  4. McMahon Associates (February 2005). "Fitchburg Commuter Rail Line Service Expansion Study" (PDF). Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. pp. 7, 18. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 18, 2006.
  5. Godwin, Ariel (April 27, 2011). "Inventory of Park-and-Ride Lots at MBTA Facilities". Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization.
  6. Roy, John H. Jr. (2007). A Field Guide to Southern New England Railroad Depots and Freight Houses. Branch Line Press. p. 228. ISBN 9780942147087.
  7. Humphrey, Thomas J.; Clark, Norton D. (1985). Boston's Commuter Rail: The First 150 Years. Boston Street Railway Association. ISBN 9780685412947.
  8. Fox, Pamela (January 2001). "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Kendal Green Historic District". National Park Service – via Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System.
  9. Fox, Pamela (June 2004). National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Silver Hill Historic District. File Unit: National Register of Historic Places and National Historic Landmarks Program Records: Massachusetts, 1964 - 2012. National Park Service.
  10. "Silver Hill Depot Destroyed". Boston Globe. March 18, 1893. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. Cosgro, Matthew D. "Boston & Maine Silver Hill, Massachusetts". Nashua City Station.
  12. Henry, Alan P. (August 10, 1977). "There's no depot like an old depot". Boston Globe. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. "B. & M. Seeks to Drop 78 Trains, 27 Stops". Boston Globe. December 5, 1958. pp. 1, 7 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. Belcher, Jonathan. "Changes to Transit Service in the MBTA district" (PDF). Boston Street Railway Association.
  15. "Train Cuts Due June 12". Brattleboro Reformer. May 14, 1959. p. 8 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. "T changes start today". Boston Globe. February 1, 1981. p. 24 – via Newspapers.com.open access
  17. "MBTA Commuter Rail Fitchburg Branch Improvements". Fitchburg Commuter Rail Line Improvement Implementation Plan. Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. September 2005. Archived from the original on January 29, 2014.
  18. "Fitchburg Rail Line Improvement Project Alternatives Analysis" (PDF). Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. September 2007.
  19. "Fitchburg Line effective November 20, 2017" (PDF). Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. November 20, 2017. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 9, 2021.
  20. Paget-Seekins, Laurel; Benesh, Kat (November 9, 2020). "Forging Ahead: Scenario and Service Planning" (PDF). Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. p. 21.
  21. "Commuter Rail to Temporarily Operate Reduced Service Schedule Starting December 14" (Press release). Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. December 10, 2021.
  22. "2020/2021 Reduced Service Schedule: Fitchburg Line" (PDF). Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. December 14, 2020. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 9, 2021.
  23. Enwemeka, Zeninjor (December 14, 2020). "MBTA Control Board Votes To Scale Back Bus, Train And Ferry Service". WBUR. Retrieved February 5, 2021.
  24. Paget-Seekins, Laurel; Benesh, Kat (December 14, 2020). "Forging Ahead: Service Proposal" (PDF). Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. p. 17.
  25. "Spring 2021 Service Changes". Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. February 2021. Archived from the original on February 23, 2021. Retrieved February 24, 2021.
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